Jennifer Sleeper - I Would Encourage Anyone Who Dreams of Being an Artist to Work Hard and Pursue That Dream (Senior Animator & Cartoonist)

I worked at Disney Animation for 10 years on movies like “Frozen” and “Zootopia”, and today I am at Sony Animation, where I have had the privilege of working on “Spiderman Into The Spider-Verse”, “Vivo” and “Mitchells vs the Machines”. I love working in Finance and I love Animation, so I am happy with my career, though my dream, deep down will always be to create.

1. What attracted you to art when you were a child? Tell us how your journey started.

I first discovered animation through my father. When we were kids, my dad introduced my twin sister, Debbie and me, to the shows “Looney Tunes”, “Tom and Jerry” and “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. The three of us would sit on the couch together, watching the shorts and laughing hysterically.

Occasionally, my Dad would giggle so hard he would turn red in the face, which made my sister and me laugh even more. As a child, I remember that those experiences taught me to appreciate the power of a well-drawn and well-timed cartoon. Animation is particularly special in that one can use exaggeration to really land both emotional and humorous beats, which can make for better storytelling.

2. Your Instagram page “Me, the Family pet?” follows a quite interesting plot. What inspired you to start it?

When I was 9 years old my English teacher asked me to run an errand for her by taking a note to the Headmaster’s office. When I returned, my teacher asked me to answer a question which she had already explained to the class while I was away.

When I didn’t know the answer, she gave me detention (which was frustrating because I was a good student) and my punishment was that I had to do an extra assignment over the weekend.

The assignment was to “write a short story about a human who is abducted by aliens”. When I complained to my Mom about how unjust the situation was, she said “Turn lemons into lemonade. Use it as an opportunity to tell a great story. That will show your teacher.” So, I created Sally and her alien family and her adventures as a pet.

I based Sally’s experiences around my dog, Pepper whom we had adopted a couple of years before, and I filled up two notebooks of story and illustrations, which I turned in the following Monday. That was how the original idea for “Me, The Family Pet?” came to be.

3. Art is still perceived as a hobby and an alternative career in today’s society. What is your take on this?

I think this notion may have been more of a consideration when I was a kid; it certainly was always in the back of my mind as I chose my career.

I’ve always loved art and writing and I dreamed of being an artist when I grew up, but I also knew that I needed to support myself, and I was afraid that I would never be a good enough artists to make money.

For that reason, when I got to college, I chose to major in Political Economics, and then I went into Finance. I continued to do art on the side- in fact, I was the cartoonist for my college newspaper for three years. After college, I eventually followed my dreams into animation, albeit on the Finance side.

In terms of art being a hobby but not a career, I think with the advent of streaming and a subsequent rise in demand for animated content, there are and will be a lot more opportunities for kids who wish to build their careers in animation.

I would encourage anyone who dreams of being an artist to work hard and pursue that dream. Likewise, there are many other jobs in animation other than traditional animator roles, including Production, Development, Finance, Legal, and HR, which are great career paths for cartoon lovers.

4. Were there any such social misconceptions you had to combat?

One of the misconceptions I have combated in my career is that because I work in Finance, I am not taken as seriously as an artist, or -on the flip side- because I am an artist, I am not taken as seriously as a Finance person.

I think I may have finally started to turn those notions around, particularly with support from my co-workers and the wonderful leadership at Sony, but it is always a challenge to avoid being pigeonholed as either a creative or a numbers person. People like to categorize, and it’s hard for some folks to accept that a person, especially a woman can enjoy using both the right and left sides of their brain simultaneously.

5. Your comics show a depiction of a pet’s life. Do you draw from your experiences with pets and animals to create comics?

Yes, absolutely. I wound up blowing the dust off “Me, The Family Pet?” in 2020 (25 years after I wrote the original books) when my fiancé, Jeff moved in with me and brought along with his cat, “Buddah” (not Buddha). Buddah became my “mews” so to speak, because he is a very sweet, vocal, and loving cat, and he has a lot of personality.

As Buddah would behave in certain ways, I would start to speculate about what was going through his mind, which begged the question “What goes through the mind of a dog or cat when these strange beings, with whom they cannot communicate, take them into their homes, care for their every need, help them when they are sick and love them unconditionally. What is that experience like for the pet?”

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to illustrate that experience using the human condition as the storytelling vessel. Then I remembered the book I had written when I was 9 and I decided to make that story into a comic strip and see if people liked it.

(Buddah, the cat that was the inspiration behind my comics)

6. As an artist, what is your take on the significance of art as a tool to raise one’s voice in today’s society?

The ability to publish content online has created more opportunities for voices to be heard. I think it’s wonderful that now anyone can create content and put it out there. I hope that if anyone out there has a concept that they want to explore or something they want to say, that you will create that content and get it out there for others to see.

It’s so important for us as humans to consider all sorts of angles, cultures, and different ways of conceptualizing something, and that can only happen when we are exposed to a wide range of diverse content and opinions. For “Me, The Family Pet?”, the story is just beginning on Instagram, and I plan to bring in human characters from around the world in order to tell the human experience from many different cultures.

7. Who is your favorite illustrator and why?

My favorite animator and cartoonist will always be Chuck Jones. I love his style and his expressions are inspiring. Chuck Jones has a particular talent when it comes to exaggerated facial reactions, and his timing in animated shorts is perfect for landing jokes. I also really enjoy Dr. Seuss’s style, particularly his content for adults.

8. If given a chance, what would you advise your younger self?

I would tell myself to make sure you follow your passions, never give up on a dream, but also it is important to be realistic. Creating content and learning art requires hard work and dedication, and sometimes you may need to take jobs you may be less enthusiastic about so that you can afford to pursue your passions on the side.

If you work hard and continue to get your content out there, you never know what will appeal to people, so never stop trying. Also, always be kind to others. It’s important to be a good person, particularly when your content is about exploring the human condition.

9. What are your other passions and interests?

In addition to art and cartooning, I also enjoy skiing, hiking, and traveling with friends. I have had the privilege of growing up in different countries, so I love learning about new cultures and meeting people from around the world. I also enjoy writing funny poetry.

My twin sister and I published a book a few years back full of poems and illustrations called “The Upside Down House and Other Poems”. If you enjoy a good laugh, you should check it out on Amazon.