1. The Big View:
I am an artist because at a young age, I discovered the desire to create and it has become one of my basic necessities for survival along with food, water, shelter, etc. As my skills improved, I experimented with creating simple flip book animations even though I had no concept of animation at the time. Eventually I discovered stop motion animation and fell in love with the ability to make my action figures and legos come to life on film. My mom, art teachers, and friends encouraged me to develop and pursue the arts through grade school. My talents in drawing, painting, and sculpture improved to the point in high school where I realized I would not be happy pursuing any other career field. I was also an avid star wars fan in my teen years and learned that computer animation was a major part of the films. Ringling became the standout school in the field of animation. I applied for and was accepted into the computer animation department. I soon realized the computer animation industry was a much different beast than I had anticipated. I had to search for a period for what truly made me happy in creating art. I remembered back to my early interest in stop motion and realized what was missing from my current experience at Ringling. The Fine Art's department was a breath of fresh air for my creativity. I was given to opportunity to create whatever interested me rather than create for someone else's vision of what is acceptable. Creating art stopped feeling like work and became all you can think of day in day out. I knew then, that this was where I needed to be. I have been experimenting over the past two years with animation and pushing the medium in new directions such as with holograms and projections. I'm excited where these new paths will take me.
2. The Immediate View:
My current direction is to create a 2-3 min stop motion that deals with the topic of life after death. This idea begun at grade school when I began to question religion and the beliefs I was taught in church. I have done satirical pieces in the past that dealt with religion. These past works were more about the absurdity of organized religion, where my current idea is to deal with the more serious question of life after death. A major influence on this theme was a ritual I go through every time I fly on an airplane. Before the plane lands or takes off, I ask myself a series of existential questions. "Would I ready to die if the plane crashed?" "Do I still have work left to do?" "Would I be ready to complete this existence?" "Do people I care about still need me around?" I already know the answer to these questions, but it's a nice process that helps reassess my life goals and reaffirms the importance of this life. Someday I may be ready to die, I just have to much to accomplish still and I will not get a second chance. I fear that other's do not put enough importance on how precious and short our lives on earth are. I want viewers of my thesis to understand the beautiful opportunity that is this life and all it has to offer. I want the viewer to experience what it means to be comfortable with the idea of death and accepting one's end without a second beginning. This topic will be explored in a linear/non linear story format. I hope to make a piece that is honest yet not condescending about my views.
