Back in the day, if a student or child was asked what they wanted to do when they grew up and they answered ‘artist’, most times that would be answered with a raised eyebrow and a ‘that’s a nice hobby dear but what do you want to do for a job?”. It was often thought that taking the path of a career in art would leave those students as ‘starving artists’, but that isn’t so much the case anymore.
Chestermere resident and local artist, Jennifer Llewellyn began her dream of a career in the art world just like that – a child that loved art, was crazy talented and it was a place she used to channel her energy and creativity. Llewellyn grew up surrounded by art in Winnipeg and was supported by a creative family who encouraged her to pursue her dreams. Today she is the Founder of LightBox Entertainment, which started as a freelance business and quickly grew into an incorporated contract team for animation, illustration and games and can also be found now putting gorgeous art pieces on people as one of the newest artists at Chestermere’s Obsidian Rose Tattoo shop.
Llewellyn belongs to North America’s largest pin up drawing group which creates beautiful drawings with the empowering women theme behind them. With her partnership with the Chuck Jones gallery in California, they had asked the group to submit some drawings from which they would be choosing one of the artists to do a custom limited edition Warner Brothers Print – so the winning artist would get to choose a Warner Brothers character and put their twist on it and would be going on t-shirts, mugs, advertising – could be used for just about anything. A very exciting opportunity for any artist. There were twelve artist that submitted their work, but the one that stood out and was selected as the winner was Jennifer Llewellyn. Since that win in 2014, Llewellyn has been contacted by more interested parties from all over wanting her work. Which she hopes will show students where their passion for art can take them.
“Over the years I’ve had the chance to wear many hats, as animator, character designer, animation director, and creative director. Without having these positions to build my network, I never would have been able to open my own virtual animation studio. I now get to work from the comfort of home with artists and clients all over the world. My advice for students is to keep your passion for learning, know you are in this for life, and don’t stay in your basement never showing your artwork to anyone. Show it, take the feedback, try something new, and push yourself out of your comfort zone”, says Llewellyn.
The wonderfully talented Llewellyn hopes to bring art to kids in Chestermere and is in the early brainstorming stages of possibly putting together art or drawing classes for children in the community where they could have that freedom of following their passion and love of art.
