Amber Lee Jones

Work Only Residency

Website: linktr.ee/daggerstarfighter

Instagram: @daggerstarfighter

Artist Bio: 

Amber Lee Jones aka “DaggerStar” is an afro-latina freelance illustrator and 2D animator located in upstate New York. They graduated from Pratt Institute in 2016 with their BFA in 2D Animation and has worked for Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Dark Horse. They’ve also taught online art classes for the Japanese Culture Center of Chicago and animated on the Peabody Awarded “Cops and Robbers’ ‘ on Netflix.

Their work features queer BIPOC characters in their own action narratives and takes inspiration from years of consuming anime and western superhero comics and getting bored of the main characters. One of her biggest artistic inspirations is Basquiat for his success as an afro-latino creator making abstract work in the 80s and being free with his process.

Outside of freelance and their day job, the artist is always working on personal projects ranging from comics like “Spirit Pizza” and maybe too many animated projects. They post regularly to their Instagram @daggerstarfighter .

Artist Statement: 

My body of work has always been focused on depicting action and gesture through black and brown characters. In its purest form, it’s inspired by how much information you can take from a silhouette, pulling from comic books and childhood cartoons. I make work with the intent of having fun with odd angles and colors and inviting the viewer to do the same. I depict flow in both a state of mind and state of motion. In flipping character tropes from widely consumed media, mixing them together and showing them to the viewer through my lens, I posit how far culturally characters can grow in both identity and representation, and how accessible shape language is. To mix-up a Baldwin quote: I’m making the viewer conscious of the things they don’t normally see.