Lindy Fisher
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fisher, Lindy (1955 –) is a fine artist and graphic designer. Fisher has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Auckland University. Fisher has worked for 25 years as an artist, and has been a successful illustrator of picture books for the past three years.
Fisher says she aims, through her art, to encourage her child readers to allow their imaginations to run wild with the story.
Fisher’s published illustrated books are: Paint What You See, by Dot Meharry (2004), Nobody’s Dog, by Jennifer Beck (2005), and A Present from the Past, by Jennifer Beck (2006).
Nobody’s Dog won Fisher and Jennifer Beck the Children’s Choice award at the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2006. A reviewer in Talespinner commented that it was: ‘… stunningly illustrated by a consummate artist, who knows the scope of the multimedia techniques she uses and can play with format and point of view to elaborate the story,’ Talespinner New Zealand, September 2005. The work was also listed as a 2006 Storylines Notable Picture Book.
A Present from the Past, written by Jennifer Beck, was nominated as a finalist in the Picture Book Category at the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2007 and won an Honour Award in this category.
SH
Stefania's Dancing Slippers (Scholastic, 2007) is Fisher's new collaboration with Jennifer Beck, a story of the Polish orphans who sailed to Wellington in Spring 1944. It won a silver medal for Best Picture Book of all Ages at the 2008 Moonbeams Children’s Book Awards in the USA.
Remember That November / Maumahara Ki Tērā Noema, written by Jennifer Beck, illustrated by Lindy Fisher, and translated by Kawata Teepa was published by Huia in 2012. Remember That November / Maumahara Ki Tērā Nōema was a finalist in the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards in the Picture Book category.
WRITERS IN SCHOOLS INFORMATION
Fisher is able to visit schools outside her region and is available to talk to students of all ages, but best suited to the 7-9 year age range. She is happy to discuss using imagination, creating artwork for books, how to create a picture book, and the specifics of her own books. She is also available for illustrating workshops, by prior arrangement. Her preferred number of students in a session is 25, with a maximum of 50 students.
KAPAI: Kids' Authors Pictures and Information
Where do you live?
At home with my husband Stuart, 23-year-old daughter Jane and 16-year-old son Michael in Howick. We are building a new house by the sea where I will have a studio where I can peep out through the Pohutakawa trees to the water and listen to the rippling waves as I work.
What books do you read?
For relaxation – Historical Dramas
For Work – Biographies of artists and authors and their books
Who is your favourite writer?
The one I’m working with at the time.
How do you think up your ideas?
The words of the story spark off visual pictures in my mind, then my imagination mixes them with visual images from my memory that I’ve collected over many years.
What is the best thing about being an illustrator?
The wonderful feedback from readers enjoying what I’ve shared with them through my picture making.
Questions from Primary School students
What sort of pets do you have?
A husband, a daughter, a son, a budgie and sometimes a rabbit and a fish and lots of skinny daddy long legs in the corners!!
What is your favourite colour?
Blue with a touch of pink or green or yellow or all at once!
What is your favourite food?
Drippy oranges
What is your favourite movie?
Fly Away Home and Whale Rider
What is your favourite game?
Scrabble and Sudoku
What is the most fun thing about being an illustrator?
Pleasing myself about when I work or not, and telling people my full-time job is ‘colouring in’.
How do you make books?
I don’t. I make artwork to be used in picture books.
Where do you go for your holidays?
To Coromandel beaches where we camp in our canvas caravan and to anywhere that has snow to ski.
What was the naughtiest thing you ever did at school?
Filled the donuts for the café with plaster of paris, which set really hard, and replaced the jam on top.
Questions from Secondary School students
How did you get started?
Put together a portfolio of my artwork and went round to local publishers and did a ‘show and tell’. They contacted me after that.
Who inspired you when you were getting started?
Shaun Tan, Ann Spudvilas, Ron Brooks, Ann Pignataro, Caroline Magerl, Jane Ray, Renoir, Matisse
What advice would you give an aspiring young illustrator?
Make images with all kinds of materials. Draw really carefully then forget to be neat and have fun with the colours.
Is it difficult to make a living illustrating in New Zealand?
I don’t know because I don’t try. I just enjoy what I’m doing.
What were you like as a teenager?
Perfectly delightful of course!!
Is there anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
Machines, including computers, make me get upset because they don’t understand how I think, which is with colours and emotions!!
I’m an ordinary Mum who cleans up messes, runs a kid’s taxi service, cooks yummy meals out of nothing, sews trendy clothes out of scraps, washes, and knows everything about everything that’s important.
LINKS
- 2009 Stuff article about Fisher's stamp designs
- Five questions with Lindy Fisher
- 'Two ways to remember that November', Greenbay Writers
