Julie Hockenberry
https://www.angelfire.com/art3/funziju/
funziju@yahoo.com
Funziju (pronounced Funz-eye-ju) is a mix of two things. First of all, you know how it is when you're a little kid. Your imagination runs rampant and you talk with imaginary friends, and your action figures and dolls REALLY DO save the day or go to a party. Such was the case with me, though some of my imaginary friends happened to live on an island that I made up (called Funzi)and spoke in their own language. If you asked me to speak to you in Funzian way back then, I probably could have done it, but that's all lost and stored in the "not so important" section of my memory now. The second part comes from this: My first name is Julie. Now granted it's a two-syllable name and not too hard to pronounce, but I still had friends in high school that shortened it to "Ju." Since I kinda liked having a nickname of sorts, it stuck. Even after going off to college, I answered to "Ju" more often than my given name with friends. So in the course of doing a lot of student work, I started looking for a production company type of name to use. I had a brief infatuation with film before getting into animation, so that's partly where that desire came from. After lots of trys and misses, I decided to go back to my little island because that was the first "creation" I could really remember having. And since my nickname was "Ju," what better way to end that off? And so, Funziju Productions was born. I'm never going to open up my own production studio with it, but it's my happy little signature on most major projects that I've made myself.
