Journey Of Life

I did a foundation in art and design last year at Wakefield and it was challenging creatively as in the brochure they claim you can dip into any area of art until you find the one that feels right. This wasn't the case. I went in knowing I wanted to be a photographer but I almost wanted to prove to myself and to my family I was good at it. When you're an artist its hard for someone to take your ambitions seriously so I wanted to do a course that would challenge, determine and strengthen my artistic and photographic skills. I started dabbling into stop motion animation as I've always been interested since A Level. I taught myself as my teacher is a painter not really an animator and tells me to "Google" it. I wanted to experiment with making an animation where someone is floating, suspended in the air. So in my high tech studio (my bedroom) I turned off the lights set the camera to a very slow exposure varying from 15 to 30 seconds got my torch and when the shutter opened frantically beamed a torch over a body to light it. Below are a few images from early experiments that I did using myself.

 I knew I'd started something I wanted to really go far with and so devised different ways to use this lighting technique and the body in this empty black void. I didn't really have a story ready, after each shoot the meaning behind the animation would come through piece by piece. Below is the final animation.

 

 Floating Motion

In the animation I used my sister/best friend Amy who is also an artist. The animation started as an experimentation of different techniques but as I said before it grew into something much bigger. The light orb represents this uncontrollable force that pulls her in different directions which she has no influence on. She is brought to confront herself and the journey she is on and fights it, ripping it away from her until she is left exhausted, defeated but successful. As the last drop falls away from her she smiles knowing she finally has control over her own life. Not letting fate or the inevitable lead her in a direction she doesn't understand. But making her own way in this deep dark unknown barren world. People have said to me she looks like she's dead at the end, and to me its a death to the journey she's been on, a sweet end to her pain and hardship.That's my interpretation and I think it speaks about how I was feeling at the time with my own life. Feeling lost on the course I was on which made me have periods of doubt and creatively stunt me. My father was ill at the time and the effects on the family was pushing us all to the limit.  I used this animation as an escape from the rest of life, losing myself in the dark and emerging at the end with a piece of work I'm not afraid to say is my best to date and favourite. The music is from the fantastic film Donnie Darko composed by Michael Andrews and the score to that film is one of my favourite's. I will talk further about Donnie Darko in a future blog as it is a film that continually inspires me. Until next time...