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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET SUSE MACDONALD
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| Suse MacDonald |
My first art job after college was working at Caru Studios in New York doing very precise pen and ink drawings for science books. I stayed at Caru for Five years. It was a wonderful time. The studio employed thirty artists, photographers, draftsmen, and even typesetters (This was before computers, and type was set by hand.) I learned all about the commercial side of art and discovered what a fascinating world it was. When I was 35 I decided to go to art school. During that time my work became bolder and more graphic and started to look like it belonged in a children's picture book. Then I got two ideas for books. One was from a newspaper article about two spiders that NASA sent into space to see if they could spin webs in a weightless environment. They did and I wrote and illustrated a fictionalized account of their experiences for Dial Books for Young Readers. The idea for ALPHABATICS came out of an assignment I had in a typography class. We were asked to turn an A into something using a series of boxes. I turned A into an owl. Then I realized I could turn A into something that began with A. At that point I knew I had an idea for a book. ALPHABATICS was my first book and it won a Caldecott honor in 1987.
Whose work inspires you? When you first ventured into children's books, was there somebody who guided you? Did you have a model to follow?
I had a teacher In art school named Bill Oakes. He was terrific and encouraged me to experiment and try things. My work changed a lot. After I did ALPHABATICS he and I did three books together; PUZZLERS, NUMBLERS AND ONCE UPON ANOTHER.
Was it hard in the beginning?
Yes. Over a three year period I had 46 appointments with editors and art directors in New York City before I sold anything. On the 47th visit I showed ALPHABATICS samples for the first time and sold the book to the first editor I showed it to, Norma Jean Sawicky at Bradbury Press which was part of MacMillan. After that book was published and I won the Caldecott Honor editors were always happy to see me.
I know you use a variety of artistic mediums. Is there a particular one you favor more than the other? Why?
I like working with paper. I usually do my books in collage. I like the feel of it. I can cut out the pieces for a whole illustration and arrange them before I have to commit by dry mounting them down.
How do you know if your book is successful?
You know by the number of copies you sell. Publishers also invite you to conferences and arrange book tours and promote your work more if the book is selling.
What do you do when you get artist's/writer's block?
I keep working, I keep a regular schedule, I look at magazines and books and sometimes I just wait for something to come to me. Recently I found myself thinking about the rhyme; 1 potato, two potato, three potato four. I hadn't thought about it since I was a kid. I figured there was a reason it popped into my head. So I played around with it and came up with a counting book about fish. My agent sent it to Little Simon the novelty imprint of Simon and Schuster. They have published it. It is called FISH SWISH SPLASH DASH! COUNTING ROUND AND ROUND. My second book for them, ALPHABET ANIMALS is coming out April 2008.
Is there a particular goal you hope to accomplish through your work? How do you plan to accomplish it?
Well, I think children are very inventive and I try to create books that encourage that inventiveness. I want my readers to go beyond the usual stopping points and make their own artistic discoveries.
Most of my books have something to do with transformation. In other words, I take something you are used to viewing in one way and show it to you in another. In "Sea Shapes" I turn shapes into fish. ALPHABATICS is also about transforming letters into other things.
What is the most rewarding thing about being a children's book author?
I get to work as an artist. Each project is different. I make my own schedule. I create.
What qualities do you find are most important in order to be a successful children's book author?
You need tenacity, some business and marketing skills, a strong illustration technique, good ideas, and a willingness to try new things.
Where do you draw your inspiration from? (I think your ALPHABATICS book is genius!)
I draw from my imagination, dreams, news paper articles, ideas that pop into my head and most often from something I have seen. For HERE A CHICK, WHERE A CHICK? I got the idea for the book from a photograph of a cow. The hair on the top of the cow's head looked like the head of a chicken. I got the idea to do a book about looking for a chicken. For example, I did a picture of a stall with a chicken that looked like it was sitting on the stall door. When the reader opens the door, it's a cow standing behind it with a hat on it's head. That hat is what looked like a chicken when the stall door was closed. I don't know exactly how I end up where I end up but I do know it was the photo of the cow that got me going.