7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #244: Featuring JooHee Yoon
November 6th, 2011 by jules
It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means it’s time to shine the spotlight on a student illustrator or recently-graduated one, and I’ve got the latter today. JooHee Yoon joins me today, and she’s just finished school and is setting out to find her place in the world of illustration. Will you help me welcome her?
Here she is to tell us a bit about herself (and here’s an October interview about her printing techniques for those wanting to learn more), and I’ll follow it up with a handful of images. I thank her for visiting.
JooHee: I recently graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and I am a freelance illustrator working in mostly editorial — illustrating for magazines and newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, and PLANSPONSOR Magazine. But I’ve also been part of the FrogFolio Calendar project with Dellas Graphics and a book project put together by Julia Rothman, pairing illustrators with scientists to explain the mysteries of the universe, being published next fall by Chronicle Books.
I’d love to branch out further, especially in publishing, as I enjoy reading almost as much as drawing. I love working with the written word and trying to figure out the best way to accompany the text, adding my voice to the story.
I work using various printmaking techniques including linocut, screen printing and toray photolithography (not the latter so much these days, since it requires a press, which I don’t have anymore).
I enjoy the process of making an image, crafting something by hand.
All images © 2011 by JooHee Yoon and reproduced here with her permission.
Note for any new readers: 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you.
1) JooHee’s art. I am taken with it. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to read a story swirling around that bummed-out invisible elephant.
2) The Fresh Air interview with Tom Waits. Also, “Face to the Highway” is, hands down, the best track on his new CD. Phenomenal song. And the whole CD is oh-so good.
3) The New York Times’ 2011 Best Illustrated Children’s Books. I look forward to this every year.
4) The book pictured below and how it showed up at my doorstep the day after reading the NYT list. I love that, ’cause it was one of two on that list I hadn’t read yet. I think I squeaked in happiness.
(I have blogged this year about the first seven on the list, and I only say that, ’cause it makes me super happy to know that the art from these wonderful books was showcased in my own little nerdy cyber-corner of the world. And that’s ’cause art makes me happy.)
(See how zippy-quick the publisher was in getting an award sticker put on the cover? Attagirls and boys.)
5) “Sweet lies.” My six-year-old told me she said one to another kid in class in order to cheer him up and make him feel better after someone else had said something cruel. (You know, one of those tell-your-best-friend-her-sweater-is-beautiful-even-if-the-sweater-looks-like-something-her-cat-threw-up moments.)
Now, all kids are capable of being cruel—mine included, I’m sure—but the notion of a “sweet lie” made me laugh. For the record, I believe it was: “Someone in my class made fun of so-and-so. So, I told him I liked his drawing, even though I really didn’t.” I guess this is arguably kind, but it fell right in line with conversations we’ve had recently about kindness and courtesy and different kinds of lying, and so I was intrigued by it all.
6) What Gregory Maguire said at this interview:
“I continually try to remember what I liked about reading when I was a kid. It was the books that made me feel smart, that used decent vocabulary, books that were not patronizing in tone and that understood that kids can have an ironic sense of humor as well. They held a wider secret in the world than most parents, teachers and librarians were willing to admit in a court of law.”
7) Driving to Memphis for work today, which means an uninterrupted six-hour span of time (there and back) in the car to hear music as loudly as I want.
BONUS: I’m excited about special-guesting this event in March for the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.
Note for Interested Writers: Speaking of the Highlights Foundation, they will also present the Whole Novel Workshop in 2012. It’s being led by the talented Helen Hemphill (a local-to-me author and incredibly nice person) and has an impressive lineup of writers, editors, and agents. They plan to teach aspiring writers and assist them with their manuscript revisions. The Highlights Foundation has also opened a new conference center on the farm in Pennsylvania where the workshops take place. The deadline to sign up for the Whole Novel Workshop is December 21.
One More Note: Do you know it’s Picture Book Month? I can get behind this.
What are YOUR kicks this week?
great illustrations as always, Jules! I hope you enjoyed your drive and music today. And I love the term sweet lies.
1. An excellent holiday where we went driving and camping for a week in Western Queensland. Highlights were visiting a group of people digging up and processing dinosaur fossils, huge amounts of wildlife including cute emu babies, and camping on the banks of one of the major outback rivers and watching hundreds of water birds fly around and dive for fish (well a creek, but it’s as big as a river).
2. We also visited my dad on the way home (relaxing) and a newly pregnant friend (scan photos very cute)
3. Not only have the jacarandas been beautiful, but the flame trees are out too
4. Lovely warm days – I love summer
5. Walked down to our local farmer’s market this morning, and as usual bought lots of food I hadn’t planned too. Good thing it’s only once a month or we’d be broke.
6. In our state we are swopping one public holiday from the overloaded front half of the year to the empty half of the year, and in the switch over year of 2012 get both days! Hurrah!
7. Baby fruit growing on the citrus trees and the passionfruit vine is obediently curling itself onto the nearby fence…hopefully I’ll be reporting back here on edible fruit in a few months time!
Joo Hee, how very nice to cyber meet you! Best wishes!
Jules, me likey your kick #7! And waaahhh, I wish I could be there for your bonus kick.
Emmaco, yay most especially to your kicks 1 and 5. :o)
My kicks:
1. Blowing bubbles. (Yes, this again, LOL.)
2. Unlimited cake and coffee for brunch. Errr, I think I’ll skip dinner.
3. My EFL students’ video blogs.
4. Super sweet and helpful friends.
5. “Teacher, can we discuss a graphic novel next? Cause we’ve already discussed a novel in verse and a novel in prose. So can we discuss a graphic novel next?”
6. The start of the Christmas season here.
7. Christmas shopping tomorrow!
Bonus kick: Two long weekends in a row.
Happy Picture Book Month, everyone!!
Actually, I think my kick #5 is, like, a skerjillion kicks in one.
Emmaco, sometimes I just want to be you. Also, jacarandas and flame trees = What I Learned From You This Week. So good that you got to see family and that you got insta-days off of work. Most excellent. Your vacation to Queensland sounds wonderful. Oh my.
Tarie, I’ll say it again: Your lucky students. Have fun shopping, and please have some coffee and cake for me.
I may not be back online till much later (maybe even tomorrow, though I’m thinking I’ll be able to tonight after all), as I’m about to road-trip it. So, I’ll see you all then.
JooHee’s work is a wonderful blend of the clever and conceptual. Super excited to see her work here.
Joo Hee’s art makes me smile. I want to know more about the grape figure for Vegetarian Times.
Jules, here’s to a car trip with loud music and the term “sweet lie.”
Emmaco, we are walking deeper in to fall as you walk into summer.
Tarie, Why two long weekends? I ove the student commetn.
My kicks:
1. Halloween with grandgirl 1. Did a little T&T but she loves to give out candy.
2. Grandgrirl 1 telling me she could never be Snow White because yellow doesn’t like her.
3. TV Shows: Once Upon a Time and Grimm (Grimm is shot in Portland.
4. My writing group this past Wed.
5. Fall leaves.
6. Butternut squash soup made by my husband.
7. Fall walks.
Have a good week.
JooHee’s work is wonderful—love it! Thanks Jules.
I really like the faded retro palette of JoHee’s prints. And the art is eery and evocative; I’m thinking the transparent coyote moving Godzilla-like through the buildings, the multi-eyed roof cat and the bummed-out invisible elephant are all dreamy marauders in the same series or book, yes? Happy to see these and ‘meet’ JooHee Yoon. Thanks for sharing Jules.
Glad to be back to Kicks this week (hello gang!) The last three Sundays, I’ve found myself in an airplane, at a baby shower and busy hanging 13 Halloween ghosts in palm trees –which is a day long project. (Hmmm. Sounds like “my dog ate my homework”. Ha!) Seriously, I feel guilty when I miss this particular kidlit get-together.
Jules – a “sweet lie” is a wonderful concept, especially when fighting “a bitter truth”. Good for your 6-year-old. And I love that #6 quote; yea Maguire.
RE: BONUS info: I’ve done the Whole Novel Workshop and fondly recall the farm (with exec. director Kent Brown driving by on a tractor on the way to plow a neighbor’s field), writing in my cozy cabin with wild turkeys strutting by just outside, sharing wine, laughs and critiques on the screened porch with great faculty and fellow writers; it’s an intense and helpful program.
Great kicks and prose this week as always:
emmaco – Aussie dinosaurs, flame trees and farmers’ markets.
Tarie – Impassioned pleas for graphic novels and coffee/cake.
jone – Yellow doesn’t like me either!! And I love to hand out Halloween candy. Your #1 grandgirl is a kid after my own heart.
My kicks this week:
1. Halloween! Especially the story my friend and gardener told me about his 4-year-old grand-daughter demanding a “Mexican Princess” costume. Her puzzled parents followed her specific instructions: a Princess nightgown, loads of mardi gras beads, Day-of-the-Dead make-up and a bouquet of orange flowers. (!) Sounds like a Mexican Princess to me.
2. A published writer/illustrator social event at Once Upon a Time in Montrose, the nation’s oldest children’s bookstore.
3. Hearing Lois Lowry speak; I hadn’t known that she took the striking portraits on “The Giver” and “Number the Stars” covers.
4. Harvest pumpkin pie at Coco’s, mild and yummy (and all the different recipes on the net trying to capture its perfection.)
5-7. Getting back to 7-Imp. Catching up on posts. Saying “hi.”
Have a great week everyone! Enjoy your drive, Jules.
Hello, JoeHee Yoon! Some of those critters in your illustrations are up to no good, I can tell. 🙂
Jules: It was sweet of your munchkin to cheer up her classmate. Have a safe trip and a wonderful event!
emmaco: Many oohs and aahs over the fossils. And the emus. And the rivers. Sounds like it’s lovely where you are.
Tarie: Soap and water bubbles? Bubble-mix-in-a-container bubbles? Either way, neato. Rock the graphic novels. Hola to the students.
Jone: I like how emmaco’s kicks are filled with summertime images, and yours, fall. I saw the pilots for both Once Upon a Time and Grimm but missed the episodes which have aired since.
Denise: Thumbs-up for the princess! I didn’t know that Lois Lowry took those cover photos, either. Thanks for the info. I love Number the Stars.
My kicks for the past week:
1) Dressing up as Ramona Flowers for Halloween (specifically, Ramona as pictured on the cover of Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe)
2) ADR session for a movie we shot in May that’s in post now
3) Table read for a musical
4) Booking and filming a funny webseries pilot
5) Footage
6) Consideration
7) Knowing
I love the giant boar painting!
Well, my english is dreadful. But this blog is awesome! Compliments,
Enrico
What beautiful art! I too love the layering effect from the hand-printing… so lovely and I can imagine JoHee’s work would translate beautifully to a picture book.
I’m loving all the kicks! And I can second emmaco’s welcoming of summer – Melbourne has finally turned on the charm and we hit 30C on Saturday after a long wet winter (so that’s kick number 1)…. Also loving the food related ones and I think that’s where I will continue with number 2…
2. take away moroccan in the park for dinner, in the heat
3. a fledgling side business in wedding stationery starting to take off!
4. joining “illustrators australia” (you have to submit a portfolio and be approved, which is always a little scary!)
5. after a 10 year hiatus, starting life drawing classes again
6. far more trashy but… watching survivor on Sunday eve with fish and chips! 🙂
7.catching up with lady friends over several wines and good conversation.
Happy Monday all!
Ok… my mind remains on old time which means it is too late for it to be thinking but… I just have to say that ‘sweet lies’ is such a wonderful term! And I am so excited to learn about your special guesting event. I am on the Cybils panel with Katie Davis so I think the fact that you are both going to be there and it is only 2 hours from me must be a sign… I just requested an application!
Ohh, I am really loving the blue elephant too! And want to know the story about the monster in the bowler with briefcase running to catch the train, maybe?
I like the sweet lie as well, and your six year old for telling one. Oh, and I missed the weekend of Halloween – but her costume was great, and so were those boots!
Its late, so these are a little fly-by:
1) Halloween at the new place. Decorated, had candy to give out and dressed Ingrid up as one of the dancing hippos from Fantasia. It was a lot of fun.
2) Read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and simply loved it.
3) Making my way through The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland.
4)Raking leaves in the yard while Ingrid hangs out and “helps.”
5)A long visit with a good friend.
6) Sunshine on a crisp fall day.
7) Having a place to be still.
Have a great week!
“Sweet lies” is great, as is that Gregory Maguire quote and JooHee’s art. And how cool is that Highlights thing? Congrats, you!
I’m finally here. Is anyone still around?
Kelly: Thanks for the introduction.
Jone: One day I wanna meet those granddaughters of yours.
Susan: So glad you like it.
Denise: What great kick-age, and I didn’t know that about Lois’s books either. I really, really like the Mexican Princess story. That’s a kid who knows what she wants.
Little Willow, I LOVE YOUR HALLOWEEN COSTUME SO MUCH.
Julian, I like that one, too. A lot.
Chagall, thanks!
Hi, Jess! Wedding stationery? Lovely. I like a good stationery. Good luck on the life drawing classes and with Illustrators Australia. Woo and hoo!
Stacey, YES! Will we actually get to meet?
Rachel, such rich and lovely kicks, oh my — especially the last ones.
Adrienne: Thanks, you.
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