Suzette Turner studied with Mary Reeder, a respected painter and art teacher from All Things Art in Springville, UT. She attended Utah Valley University 2005 – 2008, majoring in Fine Arts. In 2010, Suzette joined The Bridge Academy of Art in Provo, Utah. She has been the featured artist at multiple local businesses in Arcata, California, as well as at the Humboldt Arts Project. When not painting or illustrating, Suzette likes traveling through the West, playing the violin, cooking, and attending art exhibits.
Illustrating a book is unlike anything else in the “art world.” You have the text without illustrations, which is very open to interpretation. And that's the beauty of fiction story writing. When JJ Semple approached me about this book, showed me the text and I saw it unravel in my mind’s eye…that was incredible. The process is intense, the details to be covered seem insurmountable. But the idea, the vision of the book itself, is so pure and so inspiring that it’s like watching a tapestry being woven before your very eyes. And when you’re the only one who has that vision and someone wants you to interpret their work and put it into a visual form, that’s pure creative energy. It’s all up to you, to direct the viewer in this magical unseen world within your mind... I’ve never experienced anything like it.
JJ Semple believes Suzette has an extraordinary eye for "placing the camera" in the optimal position for conveying the essence of a scene. If a children's book is a storyboard, choosing the Point of View for each illustration is akin to correctly placing the camera for shooting a movie scene.