A few months ago I completed my longest animation project yet (clocking in at just under five minutes). It took me months to research and once I was ready to put the final piece together I sat my animation stand for four full days creating movements with my pencils, erasers, and sheets of printer paper. Those of you who visited the site may have glanced a peek at it before I took it down today.
Like anything else, when you devote long periods of time to one activity you have a difficult time transitioning to other aspects of life. Animations is no different, once you work in a specific medium for an extended period of time you think about the way that medium has influenced your life far more than you ever expected.
A few days after I had completed my latest project I was sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office my mom works for waiting to pick her up as her car was in the shop. Plagued with ADD, I kept myself occupied with my lovely Pilot V5 pen and a few post-it note pads I scrounged up. As usual miniature unconscious goofy looking ink images were created. The first was self portrait (beginning to see a theme here?) of myself just after I had completed my four days of straight animation.
Never underestimate the power of art and its ability to infiltrate your life more than the penetrating power of germs, the feeling of failure received from a monthly bank account statement, or the razor sharp words of a significant other.
Now go listen to the 13 Songs album by Fugazi and let their subliminal messages about life lead you in a new direction.
Stay Artistically Active,
Ryan