Today we’d like to introduce you to Joann (Jojo) Sierra.
Hi Joann (Jojo), we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My name is Joann, but I also go by Jojo. I grew up in El Paso, a fairly large city in Texas right next to the Mexican border. As a kid, I was obsessed with animated features and television shows that I would watch over and over. I would analyze them to try and figure out how they were made, and act them out in my room with toys and stuffed animals. Just the process of how animated films were made truly amazed me from such a young age. I started creating and drawing at any moment that I could. I continued to draw and be that “artsy kid” throughout my childhood. During middle school, I began to gain an interest in anime. At the time I was influenced by many online anime artists who inspired to start posting my art online and made an online presence for myself. I practiced all the time to try and replicate my favorite online artists. High school was when I truly began to take art seriously and started focusing on improving. I then started to take on digital art and got my first tablet.
As I grew older, I still had that same love for animation but didn’t know where to start, or how I was going to do it. All I knew was that I would get there and nothing or nobody could get in the way of my dream. At the time of graduating high school, I decided to study art at my local university, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). While studying at UTEP, I worked long hours to save up for animation school and built up my portfolio to start my animation journey and chase my dreams. After saving up for my first semester, I got accepted to an animation program at Woodbury University, a school in Burbank California. I learned industry-standard techniques and advanced my artistic abilities while attending school. My dream was to be a character designer, and I was able to really apply my skills and passion while in school, creating so many pieces at the time that allowed me to grow as an artist.
After graduating in 2022, I landed a mentorship with Women in Animation and an internship at BatteryPOP, a kids network. After my internship, I continued to work on my professional portfolio and worked a few jobs while waiting for my career to take off. One of these jobs included local non-profit Creative Action as a teaching artist. After a long and treacherous journey in finding myself in the animation industry, and just finding myself in general, I landed my dream job. Today, I am an illustrator for Curricula at Huntress, a cyber security company. My day-to-day includes creating characters, props, settings, and developing stories and storyboards for security awareness training episodes. At first, working for a cyber security company didn’t seem like the traditional job for an artist, but I think it’s even better. I get to create fun and meaningful stories with an amazing team, what more can an artist want? Even today, it still feels like a dream come true to be doing what I love for a living.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Im not going to lie, it was a lot of hard work and perseverance just to get there. Throughout my life, I was a very shy girl. Not willing to put myself out there or make connections due to being shy and not very confident in myself. Even coming from a Mexican family, it was not very common to leave your hometown behind to move to LA and pursue your passion. I was told not to chase my dreams and to take the safer route and just pursue a different career altogether. After all, art is a very competitive field, and they weren’t wrong. But to be honest, I felt that I needed to do it for myself and at least try. I think you are doing a disservice to yourself if you don’t even bother trying. I knew that I would regret it for a long time if I never put myself out there and at least tried to follow my dreams.
Even after getting accepted into animation school and completing my first semester, I realized that I still had to go to school, make good grades, create a short film, build a professional portfolio, network, and work to pay for school. It seemed almost impossible, but I could not give up. Like I said, nothing or nobody could get in my way. I worked 3 jobs throughout college just to be able to attend. With no car or way to get around, I took up skateboarding and would penny board to a job 10 minutes away from school. It seemed lonely at times, being so far away from my home and family in Texas. I knew I had to keep going to make them proud and be a good role model for my younger siblings, who I knew looked up to me. To see their big sister make it as an artist was all I looked forward to while working and going to school.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
While attending school for animation, I was really able to hone in on my style. I focused heavily on character design, specifically for TV which focuses more on simple yet effective designs. Many people know me for my cartoony, shape-heavy, bright, and colorful style. I always say that Cartoon Network was a huge inspiration to me and my style. I grew up really just watching movies and TV a lot as a kid. I was the type who would rather watch cartoons than go play outside or play with friends. Lots of shows from my childhood and even my adulthood had such a big impact on the way I design characters to this day.
Some of my proudest moments have got to be landing my dream job, and creating a short animated film. My short animated film “Conspiritcy” is significant to me, as it was one of the first times I was able to tell my own story and showcase my abilities. The entire short film was written, designed, and animated all by me, so I feel incredibly proud of the end product. Conspiritcy is about three siblings who tell a tale of a scary spirit, but find out it’s not as scary as they think. This short is inspired heavily by my family and the kind of shenanigans that we get into. My family and I are very close and for the most part, we all share similar interests. Part of my family is really into the paranormal and we would often watch ghost-hunting shows and visit local haunted locations, trying to catch some evidence of ghosts, or just learn the history of these locations. I made my 2 younger brothers and I the main characters of the short and even cast them as voice actors, making it so much more important and significant to me. My short film can be viewed on YouTube under my YouTube channel, Spookyjoj.
I think what sets me apart from others is my story and how I, despite the odds, get to do what I love and make a living of it, not every artist gets to say that. Yes, my style is very fun and unique, and obviously a lot of people like it, but I feel like everyone has their own story to tell. For me, I knew from such a young age I wanted to be an artist, all I wanted to do was draw all day. By the time I was a teenager, I knew animation was a path I wanted to take. And by the age of 15, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. From then on I dedicated a lot of my life to try to get there. I feel that it’s even important to showcase that not everyone in the animation industry pipeline has to end up at some fancy studio like Disney or Nickelodeon. There are so many opportunities and paths for all kinds of artists, no matter what you do or where you come from. In the end, I realized that all I really wanted to do in life was to create art and inspire others. Even while answering these questions, I hope I can inspire somebody to do what they love. I want to demonstrate that you can achieve your dreams and goals, despite the obstacles, or at least try. You never know where your life can take you if you don’t at least try.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://joannsierra.wixsite.com/spookyjoj
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spookyjoj/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannjojosierra/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Spookyjoj
