Chasing a Dream
What can one do if he or she is trapped in an unwanted occupation with no way out? Eric J. Stones, a lifelong illustrator, enlists in the military to pursue an occupation as a medical illustrator. He finds his hopes dashed when he is assigned as a Fire Protection Specialist. Can he work his way back into the field of the creative arts? Or must he spend four years…Chasing a Dream?
Steve Jones
Steve Jones is a lifelong resident of New York City. He lived in Woodside, Queens, with his mother and five siblings during his formative years.
Steve began his formal art education at the High School of Art & Design and later received a BA in Liberal Arts and an MA in Art Education at City College of the City University of New York, where he graduated magna cum laude.
While serving in the United States Air Force, he was a comic strip artist for the Okinawa Post Newspaper. In Steve’s own words, he has “had a lifelong passion for the creative arts.”
As a teacher, Steve has taught in many schools throughout New York City, among which were the High School of Graphic Communication Arts, Norman Thomas High School, Bronx High School of Writing and Communication Arts, and the High School of Arts & Technology. During this time, Steve has served as Arts Coordinator of student mural painting projects.
As an author and illustrator, Steve Jones faces teenagers’ basic concerns for achievement with insight and sensitivity. As one of six siblings, he has drawn on his own experiences, as well as his years of teaching in the New York City school system and a lifetime dedication to illustrative art. Steve’s objective is to promote adolescents’ solutions and resolve as they live with challenging obstacles in urban inner city areas. Wake Up acknowledges these challenges and encourages adolescents to stay strong and pursue their own aspirations.
Steve is also the illustrator of Mud The Eloquent Elephant by Alec Nightingale (2014). He is the writer and illustrator of his first book, The Hidden Buffalo (2016), A Light Shines in Woodside (2018), and Wake Up (2018). He lives in New York City with his wife, Frieda Smallwood Jones. Chasing a Dream is his fourth written and illustrated book.
