Shelley Daniels Lekven started sculpting at the age of six, when she and her siblings began building a town out of modeling clay on the dining room table. “Claytown” thrived and grew to become the centerpiece of their childhoods. Lekven studied psychology at UCLA where, just before graduating, she wrote a poem that follows the vivid imagination of a little frog named Lily Pond, as she daydreams about her future. Lily considers travels to distant lands, saving lives, fame, acclaim and possible careers, all from the safety of her cozy bedroom. Lekven decided the poem would be fun to illustrate in clay for a children’s book, and worked on the illustrations for Lily Pond while pursuing a career as a freelance 3D artist in San Diego, New York and Los Angeles. This led to Lekven’s work as a character sculptor on The Nightmare Before Christmas and Toy Story, and as the sculpting supervisor on James and the Giant Peach.