NEW YORK – What do you do when you are climbing the career ladder in arts and animation, making strides and gaining recognition, only to be informed that you have lymphoma, a cancer that fights against your immune system.
Lee Samuel was scoring prestigious projects in Singapore, working as an illustrator and motion designer for Comicave Studio's partnership with Marvel Entertainment. He was creating motion graphics for prestigious events like the Captain America: Civil War World Premiere and the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 Red Carpet Event.
He also won the Mediacorp Gold Medal and Mediacorp Award for Outstanding Project Work, with his additional animation work achieving other awards and critical recognition at the Singapore Short Film Awards and at the 15th Digicon6 Singapore.
To progress on his journey, he decided to further his career in illustration and animation in the United States, but life had other plans. A few months before he was set to fly, he experienced severe itching on his legs.
He tried to dismiss it but it wouldn’t stop. He went to see a dermatologist and second opinions for the itch, but the medications did not relieve the itch.
One month before he needed to leave, he came back to Penang for a short break. That was also when he coughed up blood. And that caught his attention. In a flurry of fear, he was brought in to do an x-ray, a CT scan, blood tests and several painful biopsies.
It was then that the fear embodied itself as lymphoma, cancer that infects the immune system. It was also during that time the passion for his work was put to the test. As a top achiever in school, he wondered if he wasted his life taking the road less travelled.
He could be an engineer, a lawyer or a doctor if he wanted. At the same time, he struggled with thoughts of being inadequate and felt like he hadn't accomplished enough in his life if treatments didn't work.
In retrospect, he believed that his passion for the arts was one of the major aspects that sustained him and kept him going through the energy-sapping chemotherapy sessions. Just before he was diagnosed, he started to work on ‘Kucing Baharu Fandi’, a children’s which tells the story of a beloved cat who disappeared during a storm and what the family did to find him.
“It was rough because some days, I was just too tired and in too much pain to continue, but I did my best on days that I could continue.
“I thought, if it was my last piece of work, I wanted it to be the best of my ability.
“At the same time, I had a feeling that my time on earth was not up yet,” he said. He persevered throughout the chemotherapy and illustrated the book – both endeavours were completed in March 2018.
Lee was later declared cancer-free and went into remission. Kucing Baharu Fandi also went on to win the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for bilingualism.
When Lee finally arrived in New York, almost a year off from his initial timeline, he found fresh purpose in his work and started from the ground up – yet again. With his talent, he quickly snapped up working opportunities with other leading professionals in the field.
One of them is Myke Chilian, creator and executive producer of the HBO Max series, Tig n’ Seek, produced by Cartoon Network Studios. Lee also collaborated with Nick Cross, a two-time Emmy Award-winning animator whose works include The Waif of Persephone, Yellow Cake, Pig Farmer, and Black Sunrise which he wrote, directed, animated and produced.
Lee’s works led him to be the Featured Artist in Graphite Magazine, published by 3dtotal. His works were later picked up the largest outlets in entertainment, among them, The Hollywood Reporter, GQ Time Out, Artitute, and Entertainment Weekly.
He is setting the tone in the fashion industry, picking up the latest trends off the runway and the streets and designing them for the masses under a leading sportswear manufacturing company with licences with Disney, Nickelodeon, and Warner Bros.
“Surviving cancer has definitely given me a new perspective on life.
“Whenever I feel discouraged, I celebrate the fact that I still have another day to strive to be better.
“The sky is the limit for me now, and I just want to share my art and stories with the world,” he said. – The Vibes, March 17, 2022
