Sue Shields
Illustrator
I am an illustrator living and working in Cardiff.
For much of my working life I was lucky enough to have a half full-time appointment, initially at the art college in Newport, and subsequently at the art college in Cardiff.
At the Cardiff college, I split my time between the Graphic Communication course and the Contemporary Textile course. This meant I had half my week teaching and half my week ‘doing’ what I was teaching.
When my daughters were young I made them dolls and stuffed toy animals, an activity that grew into supplying versions of them to Liberty, Heals and Fortnum and Mason.
I was commissioned by the literature department of the Welsh Arts Council to create images for a range of poster poems. Six of the original posters have been recently re issued, and are available from www.graffeg.com
My range of illustration work has been wide, and included posters, record covers, book jackets, advertising, educational and children’s book illustration.
I have particularly enjoyed editorial work which offers the chance to interpret a newspaper or magazine article. They have ranged from The Radio Times, Punch, The London Illustrated News, Good Housekeeping Magazine and Around the Globe, the in house magazine of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I always feel excited at the arrival of an email giving the text to be interpreted.
As a member of the textile group MaP – makers and practitioners, I enjoy working towards the exhibitions we have held both here and abroad. It was because of an exhibition we were holding in Lisburn and Belfast that I devised a tea towel that could be made up into an Irish step dancing doll. That led to making another tea towel from which you can make a Welsh doll – that is if you don’t want to use the tea towel to do the drying up!
I devised a range of souvenirs for CADW, Welsh Historic Monuments, which included tea towels, mugs and plates. I am currently working with Graffeg and using linocuts to create a range that includes mugs and tea towels for St Fagans National Museum of History.