Susan R. Jolliffe

Susan Rennick Jolliffe of Ottawa, Ontario alighted into the world of children's books after many years as a visual artist. She is 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 (Orca 2005), 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 humor 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 (General Store Publishing) with teacher Jane Ellens, to share her projects.

Her own book, Lady Ginny's Tea Parties (Orca 2007), was inspired by her standard poodle and even wilder Canadian animals. Susan is available for school visits.