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Arthur Zarr 3

Cathey Graham Nickell is a Houston-based author and speaker who brings the field trip to you! Art cars and yarn bombing—and outsider art in general—are a type of folk art that doesn’t hang on a wall. This is the basis of Cathey’s two children’s books: Arthur Zarr’s Amazing Art Car and Yazzy’s Amazing Yarn, both of which encourage outside-the-box imagination. Cathey introduces her award-winning books with a dynamic presentation for kids. Cathey talks to kids about how to find that spark of inspiration to uncover amazing story ideas. A favorite moment is when she shows the actual books she wrote as a child—homemade with folded paper and stapled binding. Her message is: “Just keep writing! Just keep writing! Just keep writing!” Cathey’s goal is to inspire kids to read, write, draw, and create as much as possible. Themes of friendship and community, recycling and re-purposing, imagination and art, are woven together in the tapestry of these original stories that Cathey presents to you. Following the presentation, the children go outside to see a REAL art car. Locating an art car in Houston is quite easy, since the city is the world’s art car capital.

Cathey Nickell draws from her experience as a former newspaper reporter to bring an inspirational presentation full of personal stories and writing tips. Cathey earned a B.A. from Baylor University and an M.A. from LSU-Shreveport. She is the author of Arthur Zarr’s Amazing Art Car and Yazzy’s Amazing Yarn, winners of numerous book awards.