Meet Jordan Stenvers | Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jordan Stenvers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jordan, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Honestly, I really just enjoy creating. I have been drawing since I was very young, but I didn’t really start considering pursuing art as a career until my first semester of community college. I was able to take more focused art classes and I could actually see improvement within my work. I also received a lot of encouragement from my friends and teachers, which was a really big motivator for me. But once I transferred to University, seeing art as a career for myself became difficult. The atmosphere in my few semesters of University was very competitive. I lost a lot of motivation to make good work and started questioning my choices, if this was the environment I was going into by pursuing a creative career, was it really right for me? It wasn’t till my last year of University that I got back that sense of community. It became easier to approach classmates and teachers, and I got a lot of really good feedback on my work, which motivated me to work harder and improve. I could feel that simple enjoyment of just being able to create again and even on projects I may have struggled with, I made sure to keep in mind what I learned from the experience. And now, after graduating, I feel confident about the direction I decided to go in. I just simply want to create. Anything from illustrations, to merchandise, to comics and beyond, I just want to create things and have fun doing it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My work centers around my love for natural landscapes, magical subjects, and storytelling. I enjoy creating warm and inviting environments, as well as scenes that evoke a feeling of mystery and eeriness. I like to try new things with my art and I try to step out of my comfort zone as often as I can. I am a big fan of movies and comics and I often look to my favorite stories for inspiration when I need it most. In my personal work, I love to draw my characters and share their stories through my illustrations. I find it difficult to pinpoint what sets my art apart from others, questions like these make me wish I could see my work through other peoples eyes. I’m still right at the beginning of my career, I only just recently graduated college, so I don’t exactly feel like a “professional” yet, but maybe i’ll get there in time. I still have a lot to learn but I have so many ideas, goals, and plans that I want to do and I am excited to just work on my own for a little while and see where things take me.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
When living in LA, some of my favorite things to do was go on hikes along the coastline, go to the Getty Museum/Getty Villa, and visit the monthly Long Beach Antique Market. There are also a few places I didn’t get a chance to visit before I moved back to Northern California that I think would be really fun to go to for the first time with a friend, like Highland Park Bowl and the Huntington Botanical Gardens.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It’s the people who inspire me to keep moving forward that deserve recognition. My friends, family, others artists, and even those who have just simply left a nice comment on an art piece of mine. Those who have given me any sort of encouragement towards my art and the things I love are the ones who have helped me out the most in my progression towards my goals.

Website: https://stargazingbee.weebly.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stargazingbee_/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/stargazingbee