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Raised in Paris, Maya studies at the Collège des Arts Appliqués and takes courses in art history at the Louvre. The premature death of her parents forces her to abandon her studies. She begins to work as an illustrator at the Marey Institute and later at the Concours Medical journal.

 

In 1966, she moves to the United States and initially pursues a career as an illustrator for different publishers and magazines, including Little Brown & Company in Boston and Women’s Day Magazine in New York.

 

In the 80’s, Maya starts oil painting and exhibits her work in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Chicago in the United States, as well as in prestigious galleries in France, Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Poland and Japan. She participates in numerous group shows and is regularly invited to Art en Capital at the Grand Palais in Paris. Maya’s paintings are acquired by museums, such as the Musée d’Art Naif, Québec, Canada, and by corporate and private collections around the world. Since 2002, she lives with her husband in the Aosta Valley in Italy. She recently illustrated a book of Italian legends, entitled “Piemonte Fantasioso”. Her painting also are presented in an art book intitled “Le chat dans l’Art contemporain”, published by Abbate-Piolet, France.

 

In 1984, in anticipation of the Centennial of vaccination against rabies, and with the advice of the Director of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and support by the Merieux Foundation in Lyon, France, Maya undertakes research on pastels executed by Louis Pasteur during his adolescence, most of which were previously unknown. She embarks on a journey throughout France interviewing notaries, heirs, and owners, and studies documents at the Pasteur Institute and National Library of France, in order to locate drawings, sketches and pastels by Pasteur. Maya presents the results of her research in a series of conferences in the United States, Japan and France, including the Pasteur Institute and the Val de Grace Military Hospital in Paris, as well as contributing a chapter to a book published in honor of the Centennial.