By Katey Khaos

Enjoy finding the humor in a situation?  Then check out Suzanne Fredette’s work.

Suzanne’s art is what she describes as “humorous illustration:”  “[It’s] finding the humor in everyday situations, circumstances, and interesting people I come into contact with every day,” she says.

Her interest in this type of illustration began nearly ten years ago in Framingham when she first learned of a program called Flash in a web design class. The program ~ now familiar to many of us ~ enables the user to draw a person, object, etc., and bring it to life ~ and when Suzanne realized that she could do this with her characters, she was instantly hooked. After a few short animation pieces, she decided it was time to attach a name to her work, something that would stick out ~ and Suzanimation was born!

All of her pieces initially begin with sketches ~ lots of scribbles in whatever artistic implement Suzanne can get her hands on. Ball point pen is a favorite, but only if it’s black ink. Once she’s satisfied with a solid rough draft, she scans her work into her computer to then trace the piece in either Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to create the final copy. If the piece is animated, it makes its way over to Adobe Flash to be brought to life. “I enjoy working digitally because I can save a zillion different versions with multiple layers, swap out characters or details, add collage effects or photos…the creative possibilities are endless.”

Suzanne’s creativity doesn’t end with illustration. Recently, Suzanne has found herself dabbling in sculpting ~ but (no surprise), her sculptures aren’t made of typical materials. Her weapon of choice? Produce. That’s right, fruits and vegetables. “I work part-time at Whole Foods and in order to keep my creative mind from stagnating, I create characters and such using culled produce, odds and ends, that I take photos of and post on my blog [www.suzanimation.com/blog]…just for fun!”

What does Suzanne want people to take away from her work? “Mostly, I want people to laugh! I’d like viewers to see the details and the underneath-the-surface stuff that I see. Observing and paying attention to more than just the obvious, looking beyond a quick glance, reveals much that isn’t always necessarily funny but often, to me anyway, it IS,” she explains.

Currently, Suzanne is working on an independent short which she hopes to complete before she “begins gathering material at the senior center,” she jokes.

Keep up with Suzanne’s progress on her short film and be sure to check out her other pieces by visiting www.suzanimation.com and www.facebook.com/pages/Suzanimation/122577144475119.