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Susie Lee Jin Interview for Robert's Snow
I’m interviewing my friend and fellow CBIG member Susie Lee Jin about her snowflake for Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure as part of a blog tour for Robert’s Snow. I asked some fun winter and art questions and got some really great answers. Thanks Susie!



What inspired your snowflake image?
I love eating ice cream in the winter, hence my snowflake title (I Love Ice Cream In The Winter)! I wanted to make an image of two individuals sharing that experience. Go brain freeze!



Do you like snow cones?
They’re okay. I like ice cream better.

How did you get involved with Robert’s Snow?
I first donated a snowflake a couple of years ago after reading about it on author/illustrator Meghan McCarthy’s website. I emailed Grace Lin to see if I could participate. I also have family and friends who battled and are battling cancer, so Robert’s Snow really hits home. Creating a snowflake to raise money for cancer research was and is a great idea.

What was your favorite thing about winter as a child?
Making snowmen and finding big icicles with my sister Virginia.

If you could go ice skating or sledding, which would you choose?
Sledding. I’ve never ridden a proper sled, and I don’t think riding a coat down an ice-over hill counts. I’d also really like to try like snow tubing.

Have you ever made a snowman?
Yes, but when I was growing up in the south, snow usually fell thin in the winter. We’d have to carefully collect whatever blanketed my parent’s cars to get enough clean snow to build anything. As a result, our snowmen were pretty small (but just as nice).



What is your favorite season?
Spring, because I love watching all the green buds bloom, and autumn just as much, because I like feeling the wind and seeing the leaves change color.

What is your favorite color? (this is a legitimate art question)
blue

What is your favorite medium to work in?
Acrylic, but I like to mix it up.

What childhood art supply brings back happy memories?
North Carolina clay/dirt and the garden hose – I made lots of mud pies!

Do you have a favorite childhood picture that you remember making?
I made a mud face on a pine tree that I remember vividly. Because of gravity, the nose kept falling off, but finally I got it to stick so the tree could look back at me with a full face.

Did you always want to be an artist when you grew up?
No, because I thought being an artist wasn’t practical. I had planned to go to law school and make art as a hobby. When I enrolled in engineering school first, my mother was surprised that I hadn’t applied to any visual art schools (she knew me well). Eventually, art’s call was too loud to ignore, and I changed gears. Now I’ve dedicated my life to art and making it my profession. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Do you have another Art Project or Book that you loved
working on and would like to brag about?
I recently traveled to Thailand with my husband and his family, and we visited the Maesa elephant camp in Chiang Mai. We rode one elephant through the woods, watched a few dozen elephants splashing and bathing in the river, and were amazed by elephants that had been taught to paint lovely trees! Before leaving, I even got a big elephant hug. When I returned home, I was inspired to draw and paint elephants. One image is now on a birthday invitation and matching thank you note, and these products will hit the shelves in March 2008 at Target.



Do you use models / source pictures or do you draw from your memory/imagination?
Ideas for many of my images stem from childhood memories, but I definitely appreciate and use photo reference. I have a binder of inspirational images, and I am constantly adding to it and flipping through the pages.

If you could be anything other than an artist, what would you be?
I don’t know, maybe a baker??? I have a major sweet tooth, so obviously I have an ulterior motive for wanting to be near baked goods. I also would love to decorate the tops of the muffins, cakes, cookies, etc. with fruit and chocolate and such, so I guess that’s still art, albeit culinary. I’m an artist at heart, no matter what I do!

What gets you through an illustration you’re having trouble with?
When I’m stumped, my best friend is my kneaded eraser. It enables me to rework sketches without ripping all my paper to shreds. Eating chocolate while brainstorming helps, too.

What was your favorite toy, stuffed animal or doll when you were growing up?
I had a brown bear named Ted E. with a white muzzle and paws. I talked to him a lot, and he also was a great neck pillow. Unfortunately, one summer my family moved while I was on a Girl Scout camping trip. Ted E. was lost in the brown box shuffle. I often wonder where he went or if he experienced some kind of post-Susie adventure. Maybe I’ll write a story about him so I finally know.
(Poor Ted E. - sounds like a great story Susie!)

Did you like to tell jokes or stories as a child?
Any jokes I told were ripped off from my small library of joke books, but I was more into reading jokes than telling them. The same goes for stories. I’ve always loved a good story. I read a LOT as a kid, and I still do.

If you could be a kid again for just one day, what would you do?
If I turned into a kid again, I’d probably wish to revert back into the adult me. I really like where I am now in life; but if I could relive a day as a kid, it’d be one of the many summer days with my family at Atlantic Beach where we fished for Spanish mackerel off the end of a pier, so fun and peaceful.

Susie Lee Jin marked up the walls with her crayons as a little girl and has been making art ever since. As a professional doodler, Susie has partnered with companies such as Bebop Books, Scholastic, DGInvent!ve, Lion Brand Yarn, and Godiva Chocolatier to make fun children’s books and products. When she is not running her illustration/design company Susie Studio, Susie loves to write, knit, and bake brownies. She also is an active member of the Children’s Book Illustrators Group, Graphic Artists Guild, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. Susie grew up in Rocky Mount , NC and currently lives in New Jersey with her husband Paul and their big fish Oscar. She still has a slight southern accent.

See more of Susie’s art at Susie Studio and Susie Lee Jin

About Robert's Snow:
Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure is an annual event where children’s illustrators decorate snowflakes and put them up for auction with the proceeds benefiting sarcoma research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Robert’s Snow started as a picture book by Grace Lin, about a mouse that couldn’t go out in the snow, that was inspired by her husband Robert Mercer’s battle with Ewing's sarcoma. In 2004, Grace Lin founded Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure. The annual event has raised more than $200,000 for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute so far. Not all of the illustrators are featured on the blog tour, so please visit the auction site to look at all the snowflakes and to bid on one for your own art collection: http://www.jimmyfund.org/eve/event/roberts-snow/default.html

Or you can visit them in person at two special gallery showings between October and December: Child at Heart Gallery October 3 – 22, and Danforth Museum of Art November 4 – December 2

For a complete blog tour schedule for Robert’s Snow, please visit Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

Why aren’t all of the snowflakes featured on the blog tour? Elaine Magliaro summed it up well on her blog Wild Rose Reader:
"Note to Blog Readers about Blogging for a Cure: When Jules of 7-Imp put out her call in September for bloggers to interview/feature artists who had created snowflakes for Robert’s Snow 2007 at their blogs, a number of artists had not yet sent in their snowflakes to Dana-Farber. As time was of the essence to get Blogging for a Cure underway, we worked with the list of artists whose snowflakes were already in possession of Dana-Farber. Therefore, not all the participating artists will be featured. This in no way diminishes our appreciation for their contributions to this worthy cause. We hope everyone will understand that once the list of artists was emailed to bloggers and it was determined which bloggers would feature which artists at their blogs, a schedule was organized and sent out so we could get to work on Blogging for a Cure ASAP. Our aim is to raise people’s awareness about Robert’s Snow and to promote the three auctions. We hope our efforts will help to make Robert’s Snow 2007 a resounding success."

All images in this post © Susie Lee Jin