Susan Rennick Jolliffe

Readings

1. I introduce The Twelve Days of Summer by describing where the author lives (by a lake) and that this book is about the creatures and plants who also live there. It is a cumulative text based on “ The 12 Days of Christmas” song where the drawings get more detailed and denser until you see the whole landscape and the eggs hatch. I talk to the children about the creatures as I draw one from each page and then we learn the actions and sing together. At the end we have a question and answer.

2. I draw a few characters from Lady Ginny’s Tea Parties using a chart stand while talking about my dog and the “menus” for the real Canadian animals from her journal. I then use the overhead to read the story in a very animated fashion and show the very detailed illustrations. Then we will have a question and answer.

Special Equipment:

Chart stand with paper and an overhead projector.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.

Workshops

Using Sculpture Vultures: How to make Fabulous Sculptures from Used Paper:
While I am happy to teach any of the projects from the book, the most popular, portable and least messy one is making “folded figures” or 3-dimensional paper creatures just using copy weight paper, scissors and pencils. This is an excellent skill and critical thinking fun exercise that I have taught for many years to people of any age (including teachers) who can use a pair of scissors.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.

Biography

Susan Rennick Jolliffe of Ottawa, Ontario She alighted into the world of children’s book s after many years as a visual artist known for her humorous and beautiful transformations of what most people consider junk. Her first illustrated book is The Twelve Days of Summer by Jan Andrews, which combines her love of whimsical drawing and nature.

Susan knew she wanted to be an artist from a very young age, constantly drawing characters and making “stuff”. She practically lived backstage throughout high school painting theatre sets. However after attending the Nova Scotia College of Fine Art and Design in Halifax, her first job was not as an artist but working in Canadian archaeology as a ceramic analyst. Susan credits few those years of digging through other people’s garbage (while reading tons of science fiction) with fine-tuning her sense of humour and history. Volunteering in her children’s’ schools (1980’s) developed into a busy life conducting workshops in schools and museums (MASC) with a strong environmental theme cleverly disguised as fun. Her giant “Moose” community participation sculpture was voted one of the ten most popular public art pieces in Ottawa. In 2000 she created Sculpture Vultures: How to Make Fabulous Sculptures Out of Used Paper with teacher Jane Ellens, to share her projects.

Orca Book Publishers has just published her own book Lady Ginny’s Year of Tea Parties, inspired by her standard poodle and what even wilder Canadian animals eat.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:
I also conduct longer workshops (2-hour plus) for making masks and marionettes from Sculpture Vultures: How to make Fabulous Sculptures from Used Paper for teachers professional development days. (Fee: $300.00)

I have free accommodation in Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Halifax.