Tell us a little about yourself and your career.
I’ve mainly worked in adult animation, from starting out as a freelance 2D Animator on the Comedy Central sketch show TripTank all the way to my most recent gig as a Production Board Artist on Fox/Hulu’s The Great North. When I got my first professional commission, the only industry program I knew how to use was Photoshop. I would animate one layer at a time using the timeline feature. Now, ten years later, I can use Photoshop AND Storyboard Pro. (And maybe a few others.)
I was born and raised in a rainy green valley in the Pacific Northwest, in a midsized town renowned for its wild blackberry bushes and Nike-funded sportswear. I got a lot of positive feedback from drawing as a kid, and so eventually I dreamed of making my own characters dance around and have adventures on Kids’ WB and Nickelodeon like Squirtle, Garfield, and the Extreme Dinosaurs did. From that point on I just started working on my li’l guys and their adventures, trying to figure out how to get them on screens that a lot of people watched. It seemed like most people did that by getting accepted to CalArts, driving to Santa Clarita, graduating, moving to Burbank, boarding on The Marvelous Midadventures of Flapjack or Invader Zim, and immediately getting flagged down by someone with 25 million dollars begging them to make the next Avatar: The Last Airbender or Gravity Falls with it. So I tried that.
What challenges have you faced in navigating a career in animation?
Somehow, my original plan ran into a few hitches. I ended up with a communications degree from a state school and moved to California with my partner, who was still attending college in San Bernardino. After a few years of trying to make connections in the industry through freelancing, I got a job as an intern on BoJack Horseman. From there, I was lucky enough to meet some incredibly kind and gracious people who liked what I had to contribute and gave me more opportunities from there. I would say that this is an incredibly difficult industry to break into and stay employed in, regardless of skill level or connections. A lot has to go right, and a lot can go wrong. Actually making it into the cartoon business and learning all of its intricacies has put my goal of getting something original off the ground on the extreme backburner, but I’m still optimistic that it’ll happen in the future. Probably tomorrow!
Who are your inspirations in the field of animation?
I hinted at a few above, but it’s an interesting question. A lot of my favorite cartoons as a kid were produced less to push the genre forward and more to advertise video games, toys, and live-action movies. They’re no less influential to my creative psyche, which gives me complicated feelings as to what popular art exists to do and what it can accomplish in a society like ours.
Recently, the artists I have the most admiration for are the people who devote most of their time and energy towards producing stories with ingrained messages that scream out against the system, despite the nature of capital to absorb its critiques and all that. I like artists who create such spectacularly profitable media franchises that no one can really do anything to suppress their subversive themes, even if said creators have pictures of Che Guevara in their studio and portray the United States military industrial complex as the main antagonists in their movies.
Eiichiro Oda and James Cameron, by the way. I’m talking about Eiichiro Oda and James Cameron! Respectively! Avatar counts as animation!
What do you hope to accomplish as an artist in the animation industry?
I guess I want to contribute something. On a social level, I want to help make creative people’s lives easier and to be an ice crystal in the avalanche of true art that will eventually demolish the five-story mountainside ski chalet that is exploitative, hierarchical capitalism. The metaphor isn’t perfect.
On a personal level, I want to connect with people through the images, stories, and music that I create. I get satisfaction from drawing, writing, and songwriting that I can’t really replicate anywhere else in my life, and eventually it would be extremely gratifying to see the works that give me so much joy give joy to other people, as well. I hope I’m on the right track.
What does being in the Union mean to you?
Serious answer: Collective labor is the single most important political force in the world. Without the sacrifices of those who came before us, some who fought very literal wars and gave their lives so future generations could live the life I’m living now, we would be functionally enslaved by the American ruling class. Labor organization and action is the only real way to affect change in a nation ruled by aristocrats who will never cede power willingly. Our predecessors realized that compromise was a two-way street that should only be considered once their aggressors’ always-present threats (eviction, incarceration, insurance denial, wage theft, etc.) were reflected back at them via threats to their cachet, their comfort, or their capital. A union is more than a means to hold the potential oppression of its members at bay, it’s a way to improve the lives of everyone on this planet who suffers for no reason other than their origin or status.
Unions are needed right now more than any other time in their history. From Amazon warehouse employees to Starbucks baristas to railroad workers, everyone is making half of what they should be making, while one guy has like 417 billion dollars. Almost a trillion dollars of our taxes go towards the sophistication of propaganda, violence, and ever-increasing threats to the world around us. I’ve never felt freer and more in control of my life since joining The Animation Guild. True freedom is the absence of coercion and the resources to chart one’s own course, which the Guild has been instrumental in giving us. I will never, ever take it for granted.
I also think the free shirts are pretty great.
Learn more about Sean at his website.
Follow him on Instagram and Bluesky.
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