levels of connections & paper accordians

I was thinking over the whole concept of connections, regarding humans and their daily relation to each other. Every day we are coming across and inadvertently meeting hundreds, possibly thousands of other humans, but in each case our relation to each other varies.
I came up with a little set of models to demonstrate my point.

In the first image, we see our paths in life crossing each other, like as to a grid, but while they pass and overlap, they do not connect. They simply keep running their course and life to wherever they feel it necessary, and this in effect is a model of the people you might see in the grocery store, down the road, the driver in front of you; sharing a tiny portion or time frame of your life, yet not essentially. These are the people you meet every day on the street. It is the path of strangers.

The second would be that of acquaintances. These strips of paper or lines pass each other and intertwine, but only to a certain extent - perhaps only folding over each other once or twice-fold and very little beyond that, maintaining their original route. It is the relationship of the person you might 'know' only for convenience or friendliness' sake, or perhaps an individual you have not had opportunity or initiative to become acquainted with beyond mere surface level.

And the third relationship model would be that of friendship, in which case the lines or paper strips have indeed travelled, intertwined, and are folding over each other again and again ceaselessly to create something truly tangible and beautiful, like a paper accordion.

Hogwild

Now that I've been out of school for (a month?) I'm a little estranged from most of the events of the past semester, (and alot of it kind of blurred into one very, very long day by the end anyways) that I don't think I could do it much justice in summary apart from the fact that it is very, very satisfying to work collaboratively on something such as a short film and be pleased with the end results. I really enjoyed working alongside the members of my group. Growth as an artist, team-player, and individual are generally imminent to the process, and overall I must say it was a very positive, educational, and rewarding experience.

Now to get rid of that recurring eye twitch.

cities

p.s. I hope to have a post on the group film up within the next little while, stay tuned or something similar.

I dreamt the other night about an alpaca sitting on my bed, accompanied by companions of the pigeon and skunk variety. It was pretty awesome.

waiting games

Illustrative exploration pieces I did for [rapidly-approaching] fourth year. (I'm not sure at this point whether I should post some of my pitch and inspiration sketches or keep mum, though I will say that essentially it's a coming-of-age story). These are gouache and pen on watercolour paper. The characters are done in photoshop. I'm kind of thinking I might leave them white (possibly of the egg-shell persuasion?) and a loosely-painted style of washes and such for the backgrounds, blurring background elements for added depth. I was contemplating delving into stop-mo for this, but given the possible number of backgrounds involved versus time constraints and 'the medium IS the message' factor, I don't think that's going to be the best fit. Definitely something I want to try out in the future though.
NFB inspires me.

bringing a culmination of discontentia to the forefront

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Following the tour, I had the privilege of meeting with a professor Schmidt (Gary L. or Gary D.), of the English department, and I liked him. He had a crooked tooth and delicate laugh lines, and an office crammed with three or four walls of books (he's read every one). He had a type-writer, too - a plastic-y kind from the late 70's - and wrote on a certain model-'53 at home, so we chatted about type-writers for a bit and The Search for Ink Ribbons, and then moved on to things like creativity as a hobby vs. career and the difficulty in finding a balance. He surmised that if you have to create because you need to put bread on the table (a pet animation phrase, I've noticed) in order to support yourself, it sucks all the joy out of it, and I think this is my problem.

I have a love for creating. It can be a fascinating and exciting process, from the birthing of ideas and the mental stimulation of problem-solving to the final product. I want to create; it's compulsive, almost, and a very integral component of who I am, but I do not want to create because I have to, because my sustainence depends on it. The results of that would be both diminishing and draining, and the creative droughts since my studying at Sheridan are in all likelihood a testament to this. I have done very little personal work outside of school since entering the program (when I wrote in school I drew alot; now that I draw in school I write alot), and am therefore a little apprehensive as to how things would play out in a future work environment. I want to create and collaborate on things that are meaningful and relevant; something that exerts a deliberate and beneficial impact on its audience. If I take jobs simply to get by and the end results are deemed insignificant or inane, are the time and labour not in vain? If I take a job for monetary reasons but consider the product stupid or lame, where is the motivation? If I am a part of something that only adds to the noise, what is the use beyond a (questionable) self-advancement of learning-experience? After all, what is creation without meaning?

Taking jobs to 'put bread on the table' is terrible logic in itself; even hitmen need to eat. If my life (and life in general) is to have meaning and purpose, so then should my work - what I'm pouring my time into, beyond the mere reasons of scraping by. The professor, who has found a pleasant balance between writing and teaching, recounted the question of asking 'what did you want to be when you were six?' I believe I have always wanted to be an artist, but getting jobs to put bread on the table was never part of the equation in my mind. Call me a fantasizer, but whoring out your creativity for sustainence is not something I imagined doing.

Please understand - I like animation. There are some aspects of it I really enjoy. I absolutely love the process of making something move and act and feel and communicate, and the marvel of first seeing that movement upon completion. I'm just not certain at this point as to whether I could be content in making a career of it.

Demo Reel