Why my posts have been few and far between….

I'm up sh*t creek without a paddle.

Well maybe it's not that bad, but the clock is ticking and we are getting close to the final deadline, our screening is this Sunday at 6pm at the Globe.

I have been devoting every day of my life, since November, to the Aboriginal Youth Animation Project. Its been an arduous journey of learning and challenges, but we are in the last few meters of the sprint and the finish line is in sight. For the past few weeks, I've been staying up late every night working on piecing together our screening and documentary reel. I also teach my regular load of classes on a few evenings and week-ends. I highly doubt all work and no play has made me dull, but I am looking forward to a mini break after screening the films.

Here is the Fast Forward Article about the program that came out today:

http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/screen/film-features/first-nations-animation-11966/

Bugs Bunny at the Symphony

The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra presented a selection of Warner Bros. cartoons and orchestra pieces this week-end.  I volunteered with friends on behalf of the Quickraw Animation Society to show what we do at the center. Though the Dragon program was being finicky, by show time it was working. I did some live stop motion animation under the camera. We had flip books and animation toys and got a lot of interest from kids and parents.  Here are some pics taken on my iphone at the sold out event.

 Team super fun =;)

ANIMATED DELIGHT PREVIEW @ SKEW

The show looked sensational at the SKEW Gallery.  This is such a great gallery, with the expansions and three shows currently on exhibition plus the preview of ' Animated Delight'.....Skew is a great place to see a lot of good art in just one stop!!!

I took some quick photos of the my stuff in the TREX collection on my iphone for those who couldn't make the show and want a sneak peak at how some of the framed work looks.

These two pieces are beautifully framed works from my previous solo exhibition, Sacred Images.

Here are the two pieces made from various  drawings from my Animation 'Twosday' which is also on display.

Here are selected works from myself,  Leslie Bell and Stefanie Wong on display at the Skew Gallery.

Skew Gallery Director Bart Habermiller displays the craftsmanship of the TREX shipping units. Leslie and Chris Bell's are picture in front.


I was happy to see the other artists and to chat with them. The gallery was extremely inviting and had coffee and good snacks, always a welcome surprise. Skew is the host with the most! ASA Trex program Curator Les Pinter was in good form, though I was a little disappointed that there was no representative from the Quickdraw Animation Society who acted as a partner for this exhibition.

The good news: You still have a chance to see the whole collection before it travels Southern Alberta for the next two years. It is up until Twosday for those who can make the jaunt down to the Skew Gallery =;)

8-BIT ANIMATION LOCKDOWN

In order to get away from the studio to clear my mind a bit, I went 8-bit.

I spent the May long week-end locked down at Quickdraw Animation Society 5th annual Animation Lockdown -a 48 hour animation challenge.
This year the challenge was to make an 8 BIT animation!

Here is a preview, below are a few screenshots from my animated film:

I made a 2 min. film in about 20 hours, including music, editing and titles/credits.  My film is titled AVERT YOUR EYES and it includes animation of wrathful deities set to 8-bit dubstep. I was the first 'team' to be completed his film, but I was on a 'team' all by my lonesome.

I was still a bit under the weather with this nasty persistent dry cough, I could only do at most 12 hrs. straight. Once I was done, sick or not, I was in a a celebratory mood........ I left the competition a day early thus completely avoiding the stressful rush to the finish line, thats pacing!

See these images move.

I totally have a new found romance with the idea of pixel art. It is almost counter intuitive, with advancing technology to be subjecting yourself to this creative constraint. It's almost a nostalgia for the past days of crappy Atari and Nintendo graphics and sounds. I have a well filled with new ideas based on this inspiration of 8-bit.

The thing that was great about this animation lockdown week-end challenge, Focused time on only one task, we were fed an watered an had exceptional technical support from Michael Welchman, but that's not all.  For me to work solely as an artist is a rare opportunity. I'm usually either teaching or solving other's technical problems, it was cool to be 'the artist'.

The real bonus for me was that I stayed out of trouble and away from party distractions this long week-end. The big payoff is the overwhelming feeling of satisfaction and achievement. I really enjoyed making something under pressure in an environment filled with like minded, creative people.  It saved me money and time and possibly my health.........kind of......I didn't sleep much though, but wait there's more.......... now I have another animated film under my belt!

~No worse the wear!~

Come down and check out our 8-bit inspired animations:

Wednesday May 25th at 9pm at the PLAZA theatre, followed by a screening of The Last Starfighter!

FACEBOOK INVITE AND MORE INFO CLICK HERE|

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Early Animation Characters

Here is the scan of my early animation character sketches inked.  I cant wait to see how they appear in print for the Quickdraw Animation Society.