Spring is often described as a "fairytale day", and just recently, the 2022 International Hans Christian Andersen Awards awarded the Illustrator Award to South Korean illustrator Suzy Lee, who wrote about the beautiful, pure and interesting world, just like this fairytale March.
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Winner from Korea
Not long ago, at the 59th Bologna International Children's Book Fair in Italy, The International Board on Books for Young People announced this year's Winner of the International Hans Christian Andersen Prize: the winner of the 2022 International Hans Christian Andersen Prize For Illustrator Award was Suzy Lee from South Korea.
Suzy Lee
Known as the "Nobel Prize" in children's books, the International Hans Christian Andersen Award was established in 1956 and the Illustration Prize has been added since 1965. Awarded to the world's leading children's book authors and illustrators, it is selected every two years. A person can only win awards once in a lifetime, which becomes his or her lifetime honor.
Cover of The Waves
Susie Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1974. After graduating from Seoul National University with a degree in painting, he obtained a master's degree from the Camberwell School of Art, University of the Arts, London. She is good at using visual images to present thinking that touches the depths of daily life, and makes good use of flexible lines and bright colors to tell the story.
Cover of the new 2021 novel "Summer"
This isn't the first time Susie has been shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, as Susie Lee was nominated in 2016. Her new work, Summer, also won a special nomination for fiction at the 2022 Bologna Best Children's Book Award.
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Dream within dream
Susie's connection with illustration begins with Alice's Adventures.
Like the relay of generations of illustrators, a brilliant illustration work travels through time, inadvertently igniting a flame in the heart of another illustrator in a quiet corner, sowing a seed of creation.
John Tenniel illustrated the first edition of Alice's Adventures
For Susie Lee, the seed comes from John Tenniel, the first generation illustrator of Alice's Adventures. Alice in Adventures is probably one of the most influential fantasy works in the world, and it also impressed Susie Lee.
John Tenniel laid the profile in the book that is widely known today
20 years ago, when she was living in London, by chance, Susie saw the original illustration of Alice's Adventures, the poker guard, the Queen of Peaches, the rabbit wearing a pocket watch, this fairy tale derived from dreams created a strange and magnificent world.
Susie Lee created her own version of Alice
Most of the images in the stories we are familiar with in various film and television creations today originate from the creation of John Tenniel. Fascinated by it, Susie spent a whole year, from story planning to binding design, she participated in every aspect of the process, producing her own "Alice in Adventures".
Susie Lee's Alice is an Asian little girl
In this little book, Alice is an Asian girl with short black hair, staring at the audience and the reader in the background of the stage.
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Little girl, big adventure
Alice seems to have opened a pattern, in the fairy tale world constructed by Susie Lee with a paintbrush, the protagonist is often a little girl, with short hair, wearing a skirt, sometimes playing with the waves, sometimes dancing with the shadows, bravely exploring various pictures of either dreams or reality.
The Waves
Susie Lee did not give an account of the little girl's parents, friends, or even names, and the little girl who appeared in front of the reader was always alone.
The Shadow
The breeze blew up the ends of her hair, flying wildly, bouncing from page to page, the world seemed to have no boundaries in front of her, and it seemed that she was just leaping leisurely in her own rich heart—free imagination and play in this space.
The binding thread was also incorporated into the creation by Susie Lee
In this award speech, the organizers commented on Susie Lee: She believes that picture books are a happy game, she tells the most serious stories in the most exquisite way, transforms herself into people who play with readers, and brings small stories to life through pictures.
Like the bright spring light of March, warm and vibrant.
EDIT—Sean
The image comes from the Internet