Animated Explorations

In this gallery are a number of links to recent efforts in animation. Animation is a fascinating media form and, though many in our culture dismiss it as kid stuff, it’s also capable of delivering meaning in ways that other creative forms can’t access. Animation’s strange connection to the realms of imagination, spirit forms and childhood symbolism give it unique qualities that I’m learning to work with.

The Irony of Shadows

Like the other animations in this list, this effort was inspired by a recently completed painting. This painting, like most of the others is based on an image I created decades ago, during my first explorations of digital art. It was inspired, in part, by a painting by Rene Magritte, whose hint at the irony of sequential narrative prompted me to think about art and cinema. The title comes from the ironic truth that the shadows we carry with us, though they weigh nothing, hold us down and our psychological baggage, that restricts so much of our growth and progress as human beings, is mostly filled with shadows, which weigh nothing.

The Gorgon Drives At Night

This animation started as an interpretation of an oil painting I created based on earlier digital paintings. Its roots are in my childhood experiences watching old movies, going to drive in movies and living through the excesses I witnessed.

Engendered Memory (or My Mother’s History, As Told To Me By Her Ghost)

This animation is part of a new series, which were inspired by paintings I’ve done, paintings that are surrealistic while also having a narrative structure, a storyline guided by the metaphorical dream world of the subconscious, which isn’t subconscious at all. It’s right there and continues to inform our life decisions, whether we’re aware of it or not.

Equivalence

This was inspired by Alfred Steiglitz’s series of photographic images done in the early 20th century. He said he was trying to do images of clouds that could be the equivalent of emotional states. My attempt is to use sequential, non-narrative animation to create an emotional state independent of telling a story, relying on a minimum of figurative references.

Jabberwocky

This video was done as a demo for a class I taught at the time. I got tired of the very formulaic kinetic typography videos I was getting for submissions and decided to use a thematic approach to Lewis Carroll's wonderful exercise in word twisting. 

Psychotropia

This is an early version of a tribute to the surf slide shows I went to in the 70's, where the local surf photographer would load up his carousel projector, play some appropriate, instrumental rock and roll and show images of the local surfers and surf breaks on the wall of someone's living room. Many of the audience would get suitably psychedelicized and would gasp and hoot in amazement as pictures of them would come to life in the dark and fluid atmosphere of a somewhat otherworldly experience. This was part of a surf video festival on the east coast in 2009.