Jessie Plasencia shares the dream of many artists: to work in an elite company like Pixar. Reaching that level is not easy, but not impossible, he knows it, and that is why he made the decision to demonstrate his talent outside of the company’s studios.
This 22-year-old student at San Francisco State University and TikTok user has been approaching the studios located in Emeryville, California for more than a year to draw characters from the franchise such as Nemo, Mike Wazowski, among others, on the sidewalks of the facilities.
Jessie shared her story on the social network and it quickly went viral, amassing more than 320,000 followers and some 8 million likes on her videos.
According to a report published on the website of UnivisionPixar workers observed several of her works, something that the student never imagined would happen.
Pixar knows its work
Through a post on TikTok, the artist told how Pixar found out about her work: “The art director was the one who said, ‘I found it!‘, and the security guard told me: ‘All the employees are talking about you right now’ So I’m going crazy!”.
At the end of June, Jessie submitted her resume to be part of the company’s annual summer internship, but she was not accepted: “I don’t care how long it takes. Let’s hope next year I get in”.
To reward her and valuing her efforts, they gave him a tour of the facilities, in which he was even able to make several drawings.
To his surprise, many Pixar employees knew who he was, knew his name, the drawings he drew, and had seen his videos on TikTok. Also, he was able to meet one of his idols, Pete Docterone of the studio’s most renowned directors.