Meet Roxy Blazey Summers | Story Artist and College Arts TA

We had the good fortune of connecting with Roxy Blazey Summers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Roxy, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
See, being unaware is kind of a two-way street. I only really understood the depth of misconception again over earlier this year when being involved with instructing students on the particular cusp of turning their interest into their hobby and potential career. This was jarring as I had long buried that young starry-eyed version of me out of embarrassment and I live in my own little social media bubble where I have my curated list of industry heroes and people of interest, friends as constant sources of news in the state of affairs and just personal experience that gives you a sobering insight- it’s a job, with complicated people. Sometimes you’re lucky and you meet someone awesome who teaches you something and you get to the next level.

When I speak to people who are a little less removed, mostly your average cartoon fans who haven’t really begun to network yet and who may or may not have industry dreams beyond a rough pilot in their mind’s eye, I get a little culture shock with the lag of information reaching them. This isn’t a snooty or elitist observation- on the contrary, I get frustrated with a misconception because it benefits no one and there’s no centralized space to get an understanding of the current culture. Many aren’t aware just how bizarre and historically monumental this decade is going to be for entertainment on the whole, from big studio animation to even indie comics- and how it already has been.

The sheer scale of changes that have occurred since like 2018 for my corner has meant that the studio job I grew up seeing as a pipe dream has shifted to something unrecognizable and I think a lot of folks with dreams of getting here are yet to fully awaken to the stark reality of it. There’s a strange duality that’s hard to communicate- it’s somehow simultaneously the most difficult it’s been to reach for something traditionally considered a success story and also the best time to have access to resources that can teach you how to make your own production from scratch. In a time of so little security even for successful ideas from larger production spaces, having autonomy over your concepts and the ability to fund, produce, publish, and share them independently could be revolutionary if we take full ownership of their possibilities.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My big passions are mostly wrapped around expressing those inner universes that can help communicate the shifts I want to see in the world, the lessons I want to impart, and the values I need to highlight before my time runs out. For me, that is often explored through sequential storytelling and cartoons. Comics are pretty great and exist with flexibility in terms of time interpolation compared to my heart’s true beat which is around storyboarding for animation. I love animation with a deep passion and feel indebted to it as a medium in making me a better person but when it comes to the production pipeline my personal needs mean that the process of animating itself is a commitment I like leaving to someone I know who will take great care in bringing it to life while I personally still get the hang of effective visual ideas. Our stories are all unique and full of potential for shareable lessons, I think my strength comes in the commitment I have consistently sustained for growing the skills I have in my ability to create, from picking up the software to expanding my artistic visual library, to improving at creating compelling narratives no matter what my tools or medium are.

Storyboarding and the previs scene let me pick shots, express how I want to handle the narrative through my choices, and block out the early visual ideas while sometimes being flexible enough to be a platform for my input. It was something I did even before developing a skillset people paid for, my early projects often being instigated by me seeing an amateur YouTube animation project I felt had promise and an offer to volunteer with production until I grew enough to have a portfolio that led to small freelancing gigs. I felt driven to get to my level after experiences in other attempts to seek consistent employment in retail, care work, and customer service positions that taught me at a crucial stage what I didn’t want to pursue. Right now I am fortunate enough to also be involved in education which has given me so much exposure to the experiences of the kinds of people I want to set as my audience as someone seeking to make media appealing to young adults and families. It also enables me to support my creative projects and stay adjacent to a space built for growing my skills and making things.

I began to formulate this vision for a possible career in my mid to late teens and back then I thought I was really special because I had always felt so othered and alien and thought my pain must’ve resulted in some value. I was so convinced that there was this inflated importance in that perspective, that my personal journey had been so wild, full of dramatic changes. Now that I’ve been here a while, made friends, and begun to share parts of my journey as sources of fuel for art, I realize that I share a lot of things with others wanting to share stories and create things that others can connect with by unpacking the universal truths within those impactful earlier experiences more than engaging in the depth of what I was unpacking. My pain didn’t make me special, but it meant I could connect with others who had felt othered in that pain. That means you have to be apt at processing potentially intense and traumatic incidents- even great comedy is typically rooted in an awareness of a universal pain or anxiety. I’m not gonna say I’m an expert at all that yet, I’m pretty thin-skinned and sensitive, but people often commend the awareness that exists in me as a result of investing in processing and meeting needs honestly and kindly.

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?
The challenging part here is having to be selective because of the sheer breadth of opportunities for experiences that Los Angeles has to offer is so vast in scope that I could make a blog about it alone. This city has a lot of proximity to studios and other establishments that construct popular media in an incredibly unique way and while any engagement with the craft itself is pretty rare for tourists, I would certainly be keeping an eye out for opportunities to be a part of a test screening audience or live show participation for an experience beyond the standard commercial studio tour. There’s also a LOT of popups, special events and promotional activities happening so I’d keep my eye out for something on eventbrite and other social media places that offer the opportunity to catch something happening for a unique way to experience one of the coolest things about LA.

On a similar vein, a lot of talent from multiple media production spaces congregate here, beyond the actors you often attribute to things like meet and greets, but even those are really special to take someone from out of town to. The Barnes and Noble at the Grove was a place where I would really keep an eye as they have some really cool signings, and I also wanna shout out Gallery Nucleus for being that space for my particular set of interests (cartooning and art). There’s also a lot of really great communities around special interests like retro gaming (a lot of swap meets happen around the city for that which is a great place to meet others), anime merch, and even mobile games like Pokemon Go that are a blast, even if you’re just passing through.

We are a melting pot and the biggest indicator of that to me is the opportunity for exploring different kinds of foods. I would pay close attention to try to avoid disappointment with trendy items that can sometimes over rely on gimmicks, maybe starting off with some staples that my family from another state gravitate towards which is Yoshinoya and Tommy’s, but I’d be remiss without demanding they try some form of street food as well, whether that’s a few tacos or an elote. I actually had an overseas friend who was studying here and one of the most fun things we did was organise study sessions by using the opportunities to explore the strange and wonderful cafes in the city, which I also heavily recommend as a means of exploring without intense commitment to a meal.

There’s a lot of really impressive park areas, too, that are both iconic and worth a visit even if you have a lot of greenery around you at home. Griffith Park has a lot of really special spots and runs events like Shakespeare in the Park (which I got to finally check out this year and my goodness! How spectacular!). Even if you’re working with the type of person who is really into the film and media aspect, there’s a lot of accessible locations from media to just visit.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The single factor that has helped me has been help, mentorship, and kindness from other people. Not them giving me cheat codes to success or making progress inherently easy. To be slotted into a role in someone’s project you typically need to prove to them that you’re going to be excellent or that their investment, energy, and effort are going towards something they align with. The goodwill that comes from that kind of integrity alone is mind-blowing. As you grow and move forward in the world it’s easy to become wounded and look down on others and forget that potential allies watch your attitude and how you treat the people around you.

My biggest support is my wife. She’s boosted every aspect of my business, setup tools, and resources more than I ever could and I will forever live trying to match the energy. I have a very particular skillset that has some really big gaps and weaknesses that her presence often immediately resolves and whenever someone asks me about finding a creative partner, that’s the thing I point to look for. She’s the reason I am out here, she was one of the first people to really believe in me and be my biggest fan and that’s just really rad, I genuinely have no idea where I would be without her. She even pointed me in the way and helped me set up of my current career backbone- the folks running the VAMA department over at Los Angeles Community College, whose mentorship, support, and opportunities have given me a place for transformative growth as both an artist and person.

Website: https://roxyblazey.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/angelino.in.progress

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/roxy-blazey-summers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/roxygen69

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roxygen69/

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@angelinoinprogress

Image Credits
Skylar Autumn Summers