We recently connected with Jordyn M. Barrett and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jordyn M., thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects that I’ve worked on was a show called “Adventures of the Abnormal.” I’ve always had a great appreciation and love for animated shows or movies, and in my appreciation I made the decision to create something of my own. So about three years ago I put together a small team of artists, voice actors, and writers to make an animated series about a nature vs tech story called the “Adventures of the Abnormal.” Even though this project never got finished, it will always be close to my heart. There was something so amazing to me about setting out and just working towards a goal I had made, and watching my dream create real substance. Being a young teenager and still seeing such amazing results of all the work we had done created a sense of pride in my teams effort. And leading them showed me that as long as I really worked towards it there wasn’t a single thing I couldn’t do, and I could never let my age be an excuse to achieve my dreams. Consequently, I got to work with creative people that had the same passion and pride that I did composing the show. There was so much I had learned from that one project than any art class could ever show me. I learned about working with creative minds that all had different lives and perspectives to bring to the show. I learned about working with limited resources, how motivation affected work, and all the different creative aspects that went into producing something of such a scale. How, while it was important, it wasn’t just good art or good voice acting that made the show. But even complex concepts such as how the characters personalities in the story were affected by their backgrounds and culture, or how to incorporate conflict to create a general motive for the protagonist in the story. What nature would be present in a society overrun with technology, and what would people wear to hide themselves ? What would buildings and forests or lakes look like, what would these people eat, how would animals and plants thrive? Would they? Although this project wasn’t finished, I’m extremely proud of my teams hard work and efforts and I’m grateful for everything I learned working with them.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Jordyn-Marie S. Barrett. I’m a Filipino American artist, and I’m 16 years old. I create digital and physical pieces of art of people or characters or concepts that my clients request me to draw. One of my most requested jobs is framed family portraits. I make custom family portraits, print them out, frame them, and wrap them all personally before they’re delivered to the client. Some of my favorite requests are to make art for characters. It’s always fun to make animated gifs of them or put them in backgrounds or action pieces.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn, was that I was incapable of learning. One of the most difficult periods in my art journey, and I’m sure a lot of artists journeys, is art block. Feeling unmotivated to draw or learn led me to draw only when I was motivated or had some grand idea for a piece. So when I tried to draw outside of that motivation period, it felt really hopeless because it was harder to learn. This in turn led to longer and longer periods where nothing was accomplished and I felt more like I just couldn’t learn. But now I’m much more concentrated and intentional with my lessons, taking a little time out of every day to practice and hone my skill.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Probably one of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist is being able to look back at old work and see how far I’ve come. Art skill, along with any other skill is something that develops with intentional time towards that practice. Being able to see the growth in the practice is definitely very motivating!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @letsgojo_b

Image Credits
MAEBELLE BARRETT