By Sophia Whittemore
AsAmNews Staff Writer
If you keep walking along Wizard World Chicago Comic Con 2017, you’ll see a stand covered entirely with cats. Cats wielding swords. Cats wielding lasers. And yes, there’s a cat Avengers team too.
So, naturally, I had to stop by and chat with Star Treks cat parody illustrator Jenny Parks.
Starting out, Jenny grew up biracial (her mother is Chinese American and her father is white) in the Bay Area of California. She had issues growing up trying to decide which side she identified with, though her brother was really dedicated to finding out more about his heritage. “As I grew older, I wanted to know more about both sides of myself, just like my brother. I always considered myself white-passing, and a lot of my closest friends are also hapas just trying to make their way in the world.”
Jenny later went on to undergraduate at California College of the Arts and did a one-year graduate program at UC Santa Cruz in science. “A science degree really helped me with drawing anatomically accurate cats.” She laughs at that, “but I love it.”
It was high school when Jenny decided she wanted to be an artist. Her high school teacher, Mr. Akamichi, called her an “art god”. With this motivation, Jenny applied to do some work on Deviantart, but then branched out past that at Gallifrey Convention in Los Angeles to work on art inspired by her favorite TV show, Doctor Who.
Working at conventions really helped her career take off, and it also eases her insecurities. “Yeah, I have social anxiety,” she says with a shrug, “but doing these events gets my mind off it. It makes it all better.”
She also did work with Katie Cook on the “Animal Variant” Marvel series for illustration cat-based covers.
And, of course, she also gives credit to her favorite cats Mab and Mamoko for offering emotional support. “Just go out there and do what you love,” Jenny offers as a parting word, “people can tell if you love your art.”
SEE MORE OF JENNY PARKS’ ILLUSTRATIONS AT:
http://www.jennyparks.com/about/
https://m.facebook.com/jennyparksillus/
https://mobile.twitter.com/jennyparksillus
https://jennyparks.tumblr.com/
http://instagram.com/jennyparksillus
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