Boris and I studied together in the MFA in Illustration at the Edinburgh College of Art at the University of Edinburgh. I have such fond memories of watching Boris work. This first picture of him is how I think of him, covered in pastels. It seemed an unusual choice of media at the time, but as Boris grew into it, I realized the pure genius of his work. So, I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to help him celebrate the publication of his first picture book, REMEMBER. It's not yet available in the USA, but I still wanted to share. All the way from Taiwan, Boris stopped by to tell us about his work and new book.
PS: Fun factoid: Boris was the model for the father in my book,
CROW NOT CROW!
Take it away, Boris!
REMEMBER
第一本書
by Boris Lee
When I was a little kid, I liked to be alone. I wasn’t interested in playing with other kids. Instead, wandering around the house and exploring the surroundings were the activities I liked to do. Day by day, I developed the habit of constantly observing the world and imagining the possibilities of life. Later, I expanded my imagination by reading books. I gained so much comfort and strength and excitement in stories. Therefore, I decided to become a story creator, since I wanted to inspire other people and share happiness as other authors did to me.
After years of studying, I changed my career goal from a pure writer to a picturebook author & illustrator. In the beginning, I was intrigued by the image-text relationship, then I fell in love with the potential comforting effect of picturebooks. Hence, I made a decision to study Illustration MFA in Scotland.
Before my student days in Edinburgh, I thought being creative was to create works that were mysterious and enigmatic to the viewers, even though sometimes it meant the viewers couldn’t easily understand the works.
However, my idea of creativity has had been changed in Edinburgh. Upon my arrival at Edinburgh College of Art, the city, the master programme and the people I met offered me a unique life experience. Meanwhile, I chose oil pastel to be my main material for executing creativity and imagination. I started to see and think things from new perspectives, as well as to express my ideas in a simpler and more direct way.
Now, in my opinion, being a creative person means being an inspirational person. To be inspirational, I believe it is less important to be a skilful artist to present visually detailed illustrations but to touch people with sincerity. In other words, I want to make people feel life, feel the emotions, feel themselves.
In my picturebook
Remember, I drew landscapes and the process of journeying with thick and heavy brushstrokes to convey the feelings, especially the feelings of loneliness and being left. The colours play another role in conveying the emotions and the meaning of the story. The text is short, as I want the readers to feel the story in illustrations. Although I did put some symbols and used metaphors in the book, not knowing them won’t stop the readers from understanding the book.
It is the feeling that matters. Once I feel something, I start to be curious and to have questions, then I would imagine the answers, which would become stories. All stories and inventions are begun with a tiny feeling. A feeling will become an inspiration, and inspiration will lead to creativity, this is my belief.
From e: There he is, still at it! :)
And in the novel’s very final page, we see CRESS turning the page—as it is—and writing herself, writing about her lost father. The story of Cress’s survival is, in secret, this story: that only in trying to tell her grief can she get to the truth. In telling is the continuity of her father’s life; in telling is the continuity of her own. Under lots of levels of disguise—adventure and humor and the great floods of feeling that threaten to swamp the young—Cress’s story is the bildungsroman of a writer. She doesn’t feel herself aiming in that direction throughout her adventures, but that is where she is headed just the same. And why we have her story to read, when it comes to that.
