Julia Maier is an artist with a purpose.
She writes and paints from the heart, and when she is not working on something, she has time to play with Jake, her golden retriever and best friend.
In her third floor apartment in Jersey City, Maier works diligently on a screenplay about legendary Puerto Rican political figure Pedro Albizu Campos. The screenplay, titled "Albizu: American Tragedy, Pan-American Hero," is an extensive look at the life of a man who was persecuted by the American government for his political views.
Maier admits that she became interested in the story of Campos while researching information on other famous Puerto Ricans.
"Every time I searched for a certain Puerto Rican poet, his name would come up," she said last week. "He was a man who was a Harvard University graduate in chemical engineering and law. He was seen as controversial because he was for the independence of Puerto Rico."
Campos, who died in 1965, was one of the founding members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He spent 25 years in U.S. prisons for trying to overthrow the American government in Puerto Rico, according to Maier. Presently, none of the major motion picture studios in Hollywood have bought Maier’s story, but she is confident it will be only a matter of time before her movie is produced.
"The time is right for his story to be told," she said.
Maier recently began devoting her time to her art. Two years ago she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic, progressive and potentially crippling disease.
"I take a battery of drugs to deal with it," she said. "The time at home allowed me to work on my craft and to play with Jake."
Maier graduated from New York University in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature. She pursued a writing career, but it didn’t work out as she would have wanted it to.
"I was a secretary for years," she said.
Yet, her drawing career was more successful. She had four ink and water drawings displayed at the Dairy Gallery in Central Park. Eventually, she decided to leave New York City and move to Miami, Fla. where her father lived. Then in the late 1980s, Maier moved back to New York City and worked for Lehman Brothers and other investment banks, creating slide presentations and graphic designs.
Maier moved to Jersey City in 1994, where she has lived quietly ever since. She keeps busy with her work, which includes such projects as her self-published book "Maboiti," about the culture of Native Americans in Puerto Rico. The book will be displayed and dramatized by child actors at the Biblioteca Criolla Library on 280 First St. in Jersey City on Oct. 8. She also designs compact discs cover for music albums, and her poem about mambo king Tito Puente, titled "Timbalero," is in a book called "Bum Rush the Page: Def Poetry Jam," published by the Crown Publishing Group in New York City.
"I enjoy what I do now," Maier said, smiling. "I believe I can fill a niche."
For more information on Maier, she can be reached through e-mail at graficascontempo@juno.com.