Line-Up!
Meet Our Mentors
Ashley
https://www.willowartsspace.com/
Ashley has been drawing and reading ever since she could remember and found inspiration from the Disney movie, the Lion King which moved her to gear her life towards becoming an animator and comic artist.
While working on her thesis film in college, she realized that no one was drawing or creating work of people who looked like her. At that moment she decided that almost all the work she created, would be of Black people, for Black people.
Pre-COVID you could find Ashley prepping for and attending comic conventions, hitting the gym and reading a book on the subway to work. Now, she can be found creating more comics, obsessively gardening and happily rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the 3,000th time.
Janice
Janice Liu is a children’s comic creator working near Vancouver, BC, on the unceded ancestral territories of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh people. Her 2019 graphic novel, Chicken Soup & Goji Berries 中药鸡汤, was a 2020 Excellence in Graphic Literature Award finalist, and has been nominated for a Gene Day Award. Janice specializes in creating digital illustrations inspired by Chinese ink and brush paintings.
When she’s not drawing, Janice runs art classes at her studio, Young Artists’ Place. She also teaches workshops and art programs for children across the Vancouver area. She’s excited to be joining the Line-Up program and meeting artists from the other side of the country!
