Month: June 2017

Sea our Storytelling for Kids!

drsuepillans 2 Comments

What an ocean commotion we made at our “Under the Sea” workshop for kids (of all ages) these school holidays! Mermaid Michelle (aka. Michelle Worthington International award-winning children’s author ) and my alter ego Dr Suzie Starfish used the art of marine science storytelling to talk about plastic pollution in our oceans. Marine debris and litter is one of the challenges our oceans and sea creatures are facing as people ‘trash where they splash’! We talked about how long it takes for plastics to break down. Did you know it takes 10 – 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose?!! So what can we do about it? The kids all knew how, by calling out “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (…and Refuse)!” To put our recycling to work we created some amazing looking jellyfish art by re-using plastic bags!

Mermaid Michelle then took the group through the process of creating your own picture book story using jellyfish as the main character. Michelle took us through the steps of writing stories with messages of hope. We even got to hear some of the stories from jellyfish flying through space, jellyfish singing too loud and jellyfish in search of their love hearts! There were some great ideas for some best-selling kids picture books in the room which made us laugh and cry! WOW!

Mermaid Michelle and I had a FIN-tastic day with the group and we can’t wait to dive in and make a splash with children of all ages next school holidays! A special thank you to our helpers from the Share your Story Tribe. You can find out more about our upcoming creative STEM workshops via my Workshops (September school holiday workshop details coming soon!) and at Dr Suzie Starfish on Facebook and @suepillans on Twitter and Instagram.

Best fishes and mermaid kisses from Mermaid Michelle and Dr Suzie Starfish!

><((((º>.¸.·´¯`·.¸><((((º> .·´¯`·.¸><((((º>.¸
.·´¯`·.¸.><((((º>

Picturing the Strategy for the Top End!

drsuepillans Leave a comment

I am so lucky in my job to be able to draw out ideas in great places with passionate people and drawing in the Top End is always a great experience! I was recently part of an experienced team of consultants engaged by the Northern Territory Government to help facilitate (and picture) stakeholder discussions to develop the Territory’s first Coastal and Marine Management Strategy. The Strategy will ensure the health and viability of the Top End’s coast and seas, support their use by Territorians for recreational and cultural purposes, manage growing demand for natural resources and foster sustainable industry. The development of this Strategy is a work-in-progress and it was a great privilege for me to picture these initial and important discussions with stakeholders.

It is always a great feeling in my job to ‘sea’ how people react to and engage with my visuals and at this workshop I received the best feedback – that my visuals helped participants to ‘sea’ the journey they were on in developing this Strategy together. Visual storytelling is a powerful way of communicating and engaging with groups, stakeholders and clients so you can ALL ‘sea’ the big picture! A BIG thank you to Grahame Byron and Sue Sargent for inviting me to be part of this Exceptional Consulting Team! You can ‘sea’ more of my visual storytelling with Government groups, teams and organisations at my Graphic Recording.

You can also dive in and follow my creative journey via my alter ego Dr Suzie Starfish and @suepillans on Twitter and Instagram.

My story of words & pictures!

drsuepillans 2 Comments

I was so excited to be asked to present at the Children’s Author & Illustrator Seminar hosted by the very talented Michelle Worthington of Share your Story. This workshop was for aspiring author/illustrators of kids picture books and what a great day we had. I decided to live sketchnote my creative journey of becoming a published author/illustrator through visual storytelling using my words and pictures. My journey to where I am today has been an interesting one and I love that I am now using the art of marine science to publish my very own kids picture book, a dream come true! My advice to the aspiring author/illustrators at the workshop was to:

  • Always believe in yourself and your story
  • Ride the waves of rejection (…and just keep swimming)
  • Find your Tribe

I was honoured to be amongst some of our amazing writing/illustrating talent including Giuseppe Poli, Sandra Temple and Dimity Powell. So great to hear their stories and learn from these storytellers. The workshop attendees were full of energy and questions for our Q&A panel session which emphasised the need for all aspiring author/illustrators to put their stories into words and pictures on the page! The workshop ended with some of the brave attendees reading our their stories for feedback, which was a great way to end our special day together! A BIG thank you to my friend and mentor Michelle Worthington for providing this amazing opportunity to share my story. Anyone wanting to follow their heART to becoming an author/illustrator of kids picture books I highly recommend joining Michelle’s supportive #shareyourstory Tribe and signing up to her editing and mentoring program!

**AND don’t forget these school holidays to dive into our creative STEM storytelling workshop with Mermaid Michelle & Dr Suzie Starfish Under the Sea!

Everyone has a story, what’s yours? You can follow my creative journey and ocean storytelling as Dr Suzie Starfish on Facebook and @suepillans on Twitter and Instagram.