Monday, January 10, 2011

Day 7: Susan Paradis in Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children's Books

Susan Paradis is the seventh illustrator featured in the Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children's Books exhibit. You can read more about her at her website with this excerpt to whet your interest:

I grew up in Arlington, Mass. and went to Matignon High School in Cambridge. Despite anxious warnings from the Sisters of Saint Joseph involving my immortal soul, Sigmund Freud, a licentious environment and a bleak future, I applied to the Massachusetts College of Art. The protests of the good nuns notwithstanding, by some miracle I was accepted.

Fast forward. Eight years, three children and one divorce later - I returned to Massart to get a teacher’s certification. The city of Haverhill hired me within a week of my course completion and I spent the next thirty years teaching art at Haverhill High School. My approach to teaching was simple. I believed that inside even the most wayward child, lived a five year old who wanted his work on the refrigerator. I wanted to make that happen. It turned out – we needed a really big refrigerator! (Loved those Haverhill kids!) During twenty of those teaching years I also worked as a freelance illustrator. (Three children approaching college in quick succession will force your hand.)

The exhibit featured Paradis's work for Snow Princess, a modern fantasy story by Paradis as author and illustrator. It's not based on a traditional fairy tale but uses some tropes.  Either way, the illustrations are lovely and here they are:











Featured book:

Snow Princess

Other books not featured:

My Mommy My Daddy

The noncover images are property of the exhibition website.

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