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About Me:
My name is Susana, and I usually go by Suzie, but either is fine. I'm a New Jersey native with a Peruvian background. I am an illustrator and graphic designer. I also have my Associate's in Business Administration. I have two older siblings, and I am the youngest. My oldest sister is the one who inspired me to draw, because she herself is an artist.
As typical of a younger sibling, lots of my interests came from my sister-- from anime to rock music, to video games. She loved to create fanart and original fantasy-like characters, which made me want to do the same. And although my sister does not pursue art as a career today, she has forever ingrained in me the beauty of artistic expression: being able to create whatever I see in my brain and get the reaction I want or don't expect out of people is a satisfying feeling like no other. Without her, I would not be the artist I am now.
My illustration work is the product of my love for Japanese animation, silly Western comic strips, and my fascination for the worldbuilding and mechanics found in action video games. My art is character-focused and fantasy influenced (like elves, dragons, and warriors), and I mainly use dry media like graphite and digital software such as Procreate or Photoshop.
My work in graphic design is fairly recent, I gained an interest in typography while in university. I am inspired by punk-like compositions such as work by Paula Scher, and I have a tendency to make my designs be full of some kind of decoration and/or iconography.
Social issues that have an impact on my work is immigration, racial inequality, and mental illness awareness. I like my art to be representative of people of all races and backgrounds, as that is the world that I grew up in. And as someone who deals with mental health issues, I also find it important that my work be a good message to those who share a similar struggle, physically or mentally. I have worked with non-profits in the past that have helped me gain insight on ways art can spread the message of inclusion and foster a sense of belonging within diverse communities.
medieval-fantasy, ornamental, anime-influenced, whimsical, and dynamic
Influences:
An early and notable artistic influence I can remember that still affects me to this day is the work by Natasha Allegri, who I naively recognized then as simply an Adventure Time (and Garfield) fanatic who posted her art on Tumblr. When I found out she was a storyboard artist on the show, I was shocked to find out that she was the creator of my favorite pair of characters from the series: Fionna and Cake. Eventually, she would go on to create her own show (now on Netflix) titled Bee and Puppycat. Being a long-time admirer of her work, she continues to inspire the more humorous side of my art when it comes to doodling and character designing. I think her art allowed me to embrace that side of my personality, giving me the confidence to diversify my work from anime to realism and still feel authentic to who I am.
Another artist I look up to is the incredible animator James Baxter who has worked on my favorite movies of all-time: Prince of Egypt and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Most recently, illustrator Kim Jung Gi has inspired me to push the perspective and detail of my art as well as manga artist Yusuke Murata (One Punch Man).
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Quotes from "On Photography" by Susan Sontag:
"Photographs are perhaps the most mysterious of all the objects that make up, and thicken, the environment we recognize as modern. Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.”
“While a painting or a prose description can never be other than a narrowly selective interpretation, a photograph can be treated as a narrowly selective transparency.”
These quotes stuck out to me the most because of how fascinating Sontag’s observations that photographs and the act of taking them are both mysterious and seemingly objective, yet can be so open to interpretation. The two quotes offer a contrasting explanation about what photography is. Such as in the first one about how a photograph is an object we can hold and see, yet what we see is just an experience-- forever intangible. In the second quote, Sontag says that painting and writing is made with selective interpretation, and photography can be captured selectively too, but is a more clear representation.
When I think about these ideas within my own art, I enjoy the elusiveness that can come with making a piece. Some of my work can be very straightforward in what they represent, but throwing in something abstract to symbolize something is what keeps art interesting and fun. Having control over what I represent in my art as a reaction to the world around me is an empowering feeling, and I like to use art as a means of communicating my thoughts and feelings more effectively to viewers. Whether that message is clear or thought-inducing, I like my art to vary between the two.
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