Karen Lee Interview for Robert's Snow
Today I’m interviewing the talented artist Karen Lee about her snowflake for Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure as part of a blog tour for Robert’s Snow. I asked some silly questions about winter and art and got some fun and thoughtful answers. Thanks Karen!
What inspired your snowflake image? I was noodling ideas and thinking about things that don't go with snow or ice and came up with insects. A little research revealed that grasshoppers are a symbol of luck and ladybugs of hope. These seemed like a perfect pair to me, and together can overcome the greatest obstacles - even cancer.
How did you get involved with Robert's Snow? Grace put out a call for illustrators for the 2005 auction and I was delighted that I was invited to participate. There was no hesitation this year when they invited me again.
What was your favorite thing about winter as a child? Snow days.
If you could go ice skating or sledding, which would you choose? Sledding! What a blast!
Have you ever made a snowman? Too many to introduce to everyone.
Do you like snow cones? I do but they make my teeth hurt now. And I always pick blue and then walk around all day with embarrassing blue lips.
Did you ever wish you could have summer all year long? I love summer but the heat here in North Carolina starts to wear me down. I always look forward to the change of seasons and we all shriek when we see the first snowflakes of winter (sometimes those are also the last we see here).
What is your favorite season? Fall! I love the tangy smells, the crisp light, the cool nights. I love the foods, the holidays, the traditions. I also love the renewed sense of purpose that comes with the fall - sort of a perennial back to school thing.
If you could be a kid again for just one day, what would you do? I would pack my lunch, put on boots and spend the day adventuring outdoors.
What was your favorite toy, stuffed animal or doll when you were growing up? Raggedy Ann. I still have the two from my girlhood keeping me company in my studio. My older one has plenty of the patina of good loving on her smudgy face.
Did you like to tell jokes or stories as a child? I am a terrible, terrible joke teller and not so good on the stories either. But I am pretty funny anyway.
What childhood art supply brings back happy memories? Tempera paint sponge painting. My first masterpiece was of autumn trees rendered in orange, yellow and green applied with a sponge. This was the first time I discovered the beauty of the juxtapositioning of color. Kindergarten rocked for me.
Do you have a favorite childhood picture that you remember making? See above! Plus an angel I drew when I was four that had concentric bands of colors surrounding it in an aura of heavenly beauty.
What is your favorite color? (this is a legitimate art question) I have so many favorite colors it's hard to choose one, but I've always been a big fan of the underdog and my favorite colors tend to be underdog colors too. I like it when appreciation for a color sort of sneaks up on me - like at first I think it's kind of pukey but the longer I look at it the more I enjoy its complexity. So I tend to like colors that are a not exactly muddy, but a blend - like a kind of cinnamony-orange, or a bluish green with a hint of warmth, or a bruisy looking reddish, purplish, gray. But if I have to pick ONE I am going to go for a yellowy tan with a hint of green (my studio walls are painted this color and Benjamin Moore decided to give it the totally beige name of "Khaki").
What is your favorite medium to work in? Again with the hard choices! I work in watercolor and I love it when I am not totally frustrated with it for not being more opaque. The other thing I love is black colorerase pencils - they don't smudge but they do erase - heavenly.
Did you always want to be an artist when you grew up? Yes, but I didn't know I was allowed to be an artist. It really didn't occur to me to do it as a profession until I discovered the little admissions packet for the Columbus College of Art and Design when I was a senior in high school and then nothing could stop me from going there.
If you could be anything other than an artist, what would you be? How much time do we have here? I coach Odyssey of the Mind at my son's middle school and my daughter's elementary school. This is a kid-directed competitive creative team. I won't bore you with how wonderful this program is, but I’ll put this here link in ( http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/ ) and tell you that nothing satisfies me more than seeing creativity come alive in a kid's eyes. That's what I would do.
What gets you through an illustration you're having trouble with? The number one thing that gets me through a tough spot is realizing that I've been there before and I will again and I just need to soldier on through it. I also look at my favorite illustrators' work and try to channel them (I actually say "I'm channeling Adam Rex" out loud and I wonder if he gets a creepy feeling right then). I will also just switch projects for a while, or start another painting in the same series. Plus long walks, The Shins cranked up to window vibrating volume, chocolate, and Cheetos.
Do you use models / source pictures or do you draw from your memory / imagination? I don't use reference much and I should. Every time I start a new project I tell myself that this time I will take reference photos. But then I get lazy and just doodle it out of my head.
Do you have a favorite quote? "You cannot use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." –Maya Angelou
Do you have another Art Project or Book that you loved working on and would like to brag about? I am finishing off the third in a series of hilarious picture books for Sylvan Dell Publishing on math concepts titled My Half Day by Doris Fisher and Dani Sneed. These books have been a journey of self discovery for me. They are wild and wacky - I'm so lucky to have this much fun doing art.
Karen Lee lives in Raleigh, NC and is married to illustrator Tim Lee. She and her husband Tim have two kids, one dog and one cat.
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
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.”
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sruble) wrote,
artistic
