We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paulette Emerson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Paulette, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I often wonder, if my younger years had been different, would I have chosen to be an artist. It’s hard to say. In one way, I love what I do. I get to create art and support my family. I get to work with incredible people who view the world in the most fascinating ways. The problem I have is that I’m not really built to be an artist. I often want to move about, which doesn’t lend itself to sitting in front of a canvas or a monitor for hours. I’m a very social person, which can really work against you when art is more often a solo gig. I love to be around people who do things to make the world a better place. And while making content can sometimes inspire, or help promote positive messaging, I find that in today’s world of content creation, we put so little investment into stories with great messages and focus more on just creating for pure consumption.
There once was a time, when we celebrated taking risks and telling compelling stories with animation. I mean, the Academy had to create a new category because it feared its competition with best picture. Yeah, I said it. Animation was up for best original screenplays, best adapted screenplays, best soundtrack. It was an incredible time to be in animation and probably the time most of us saw a world where we belonged and could make a life for ourselves and our families. But as anything that gets in the hands of corporate, with its needs to squeeze every ounce of profit for the top, consolidate, meet the demands of shareholders, and cut back on benefits, oh I mean ‘costs’, we became an IP churning, merchandise marketing factory. Now, we hardly get a mention at the Oscars, except to be mocked at as some sort of artform for only children. What once was a place where artists and directors could reach out to audiences with genuine art and story now was a place where executives could pretend to know anything about making good art let alone a good movie. You don’t see me in a boardroom making financial decisions. I really don’t know why we have so many executives making creative ones.
What’s worse is how insulting it all has become. You’ll have executives giddy at funding projects for hardly any costs associated with paying artists or investing in development let alone in paying for good writers. They are celebrating paying people nothing for all their labor. And how they view us with so little regard, that they are willing to invest millions of dollars on AI just so they could replace those pesky artist wages and their needs for food and shelter. Media, be it in books, movies, news, you name it, drives society. And when you take away the art and the creative driver, then all you have is just mundane boring, uninspiring board room fluff.
I think if we want to create a world where creative people can thrive, we need to ask ourselves, is all this desire for cheap content really worth it? This goes for everything really. From our education, to our movies and music, and news and clothes. Driving down all costs for cheap goods is not always better.
Personally, I’ve come to accept that I’m an artist. Maybe it’s the fear of the unknown, or the fear that I might dislike my next career path, OR that no board room would want to have me in their vicinity, but this is who I am. This is all I’ve known for the past 20 years. And although I may not be living the life once promised with a career in animation, it’s all in what I make of it. My career may be at the whims of some out of touch executive, but I’ve also learned to embrace that my career is just a small piece of who I am. If I could leave anyone with a piece of advice, it would be, you are more than your job. You are more than your career. The world is a beautiful place and time is the most precious gift we have. You may not be able to do exactly what you want 8 hours a day, but when you can, try filling the world with beauty and art.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a 3D character development artist for feature animation, theme parks and marketing.
I wanted to be in animation since I was 14 years old. I applied by sending Walt Disney Animation studios 2 drawings and while I didn’t get the job for obvious reasons, they sent me a packet of drawing examples, schools to go to, places to go to help me become a better artist and an inspiring letter to keep doing what I was doing. I still have that packet and when I look at it, it reminds me of how amazing we are when we are young and of the importance of inspiring future generations. A quick shout out to whom ever had made that packet to me from Walt Disney animation. You changed me for good.
I think what sets me a part from other artist in my field is that I’m versatile, easily persuaded with good food, horrible with pop culture and not a fan of most things trending.
Let me explain. I worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Mutant Mayhem as the 3D character development artist. I worked directly with the Character Designer and Production Designer to create 30 characters for the look of the movie. I was probably the only person on the team that saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles once as a kid…maybe? So I wasn’t really stuck on how they were supposed look or how they were supposed to act. I came in with fresh eyes as they call it and my Director loved that. When I worked at Legacy Effects I worked on a number of amazing live action movies, none of which I have ever seen before or after. For someone who has spent their entire career making movies, commercials, music videos, etc. I spend most of my time learning languages, combing through science papers, listening to movie scores and spending time with people and not really on my screen. My phone is a phone and my computer I use for work and the tv is in the garage. It makes for a very different experience when you work with people who devote so much energy to creating their ideas. More often, they love that I’m seeing it for the first time and that I have so many questions and a genuine desire to understand what they want to bring into the world. You want to make friends, ask them about themselves and what they have created. For me, my job as a character development artist is to help bring to life the visions of my Directors and Production Designers. I want them to see their vision and just scream for joy. This has happened and nothing makes my day more, then when a Director is so delighted with my work that people who aren’t in the meeting can hear him screaming and they decide to join the zoom call just to see what it was all about.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

Unpopular opinion, but if you can’t explain to me want an NFT is like I’m a 10 year old, then I’m skeptical.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Can I say money?
Just kidding, but really, money is a good resource to have. Save, invest wisely and don’t throw it away on things that don’t matter.
I think one of the resources I wish I had known about when I was young was traveling the world as a student. Which takes money, I know. But I have found that most of my non-American friends are encouraged to take classes or internships in different countries. They also don’t have sky high school loans which may play a role in it, but what a great way of seeing the world with different eyes. Especially as an artist in media. You want to know what works for all sorts of people, not just the ones you come in contact with.
I gave a presentation once where students were telling me how nervous they were in finding work in animation. I told them that while yes, they’re concerns are valid that this is a great time to travel and work for studios around the world. It’ll be an experience they will never forget and no better time to try.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/pemerson3d
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pemerson3d/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulette-emerson-7091932/