The inimitable Frank Chimero has done it again! Frank decided that this Wednesday and all Wednesdays forward will be known as Webless Wednesdays, where we all unplug for a day and share our stories of limitless productivity on Thursday. I think I’ll join him– won’t you?

While looking for the Really Rosie opening on You Tube (after reading about it on Michael Sporn’s animation blog), I found this wonderfully animated version of Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen. My only complaint is the narration by composer Peter Schiekele, who goes a bit over the top.

Last year during an art history course I was taking I discovered that In the Night Kitchen is a kind of tribute to the amazing illustration and comics of Winsor McKay, most specifically his Little Nemo in Slumberland comics that ran full-page in the Sunday New York Herald from 1905-1911. (McKay was an animator in his own right, pioneering in the medium with his performances on-stage with his animated Gertie the Dinosaur.) As talent borrows and genius steals, Sendak lifted the bed right out of Little Nemo’s bedroom and put it under Mickey at the beginning and end of his story. It’s fun to see the story come to life.

BONUS: Animated Where the Wild Things Are! This seems to be done by the same team who made the In the Night Kitchen animation, but this one works a lot better, imho.

P.S. There is much to update you about, not the least of which is that I am now living in St. Paul, MN, and teaching a class at MCAD while I keep up with various freelance projects and art shows. When the pace slows, I’ll let you know more, dear readers.

Daaaang!! That’s so purdy! And raw and interesting to look at and now I just want to see the whole thing! (Be sure to watch both clips.)

So this is my basic complaint about Ratatouille: it too perfect! Sure the story is the important part, and while I like it well enough in that film, it’s not stellar storytelling (granted, it’s way better than the fart jokes and pop references in things like Shrek.) I think with this one, the Pixar animators got too excited about their toys. The most passionate features on the film’s website talk about how amazing and difficult the food animation was to capture. Totally cool, I agree, but it didn’t carry the film for me.

The end credits, however, were AMAZING! Why-oh-why didn’t they animate a whole film like those credits? It was rough and dark and alive, far more so than the “realistic” animation from the rest of the film. My take? If you are going to animate a film, take advantage of your medium! This is what I loved about The Triplets of Belleville– it embraced animation’s abilities. My favorite sub-character by far is the simpering waiter at the mobster-filled restaurant. He’s like a big noodle.

Anyway, this Pearce Sisters thing looks awesome, and I can’t wait to find it showing somewhere when it’s ready.

I have also dabbled in animation a bit, and I’ve been trying to think of ways to satisfy that part of my psyche without having the time to devote to a full-on animated short. Here are two experiments with my camera, using it to do “live” stop-action. Basically I walked around with the shutter button pressed down and then imported the image sequence to Quicktime. I think there’s some potential for future use here:

Especially with this first one, I think it starts to look a bit like a Super-8 film with the jerky light metering and the jumpy camera.

Doesn’t the house (aka “HQ”) look haunted? It’s much cozier inside, but the outside can look a bit creepy. I did a drawing of it that should be in the site before long. And on the tree at the end– those plums are REALLY GOOD.

I didn’t see any glasses for the characters, so you’ll have to get used to looking at me without my specs. I love the Simpsons, but I’m skeptical about the movie. We shall see.

Just as I stumbled onto Tintin this evening, my introduction to him was similarly accidental. One of the people who happened to live in my dorm my first year in college was from rural Indiana, and he often wandered toward a bit of a fantasy world that was inspired by the things he read and the movies he watched. He had even given himself a new name when he got to college, perhaps inspired by Hergé who was born Georges Remi. He was the first person I had met who was really into comics and manga and Miyazaki, and his passion for those things was fundamentally influential to me and the career path I am now pursuing.

Anyway, much like I am stunned when a bookstore employee hasn’t heard of the Caldecott Medal, this guy couldn’t believe that I– an art major interested in children’s books– didn’t know about Tintin. Of course, the reason I was an art major and interested in children’s books had a lot to do with his passion for both subjects, but instead of recognizing his influence, I dismissed him as a bit of a zealot.

It wasn’t until several years after we had graduated that I first read any Tintin books, and then it was because I was waiting in a bookstore to meet up with someone. At the time I was still heavliy into children’s books, but not yet looking at comics very seriously. As I was waiting, I was done looking at the new children’s books, so I wandered the store and ended up by the graphic novel section. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but the encounter with my college friend had implanted the name “Tintin” in my head, and there on the shelf was a whole row of these stories. When I pulled one down and flipped through it, I was immediately astounded by the detailed artwork.

Hergé is known for his skilled combining of detailed, hyper-realistic backgrounds with these wonderfully caricatured characters. But my criteria when looking at children’s books (and now comics) is that is okay to be seduced by the art, but I won’t buy it if the story isn’t compelling. To shorten this lengthening story, I walked out of that store with three volumes of Tintin stories.

It’s funny to me when I think about the sequences of events that lead me from one point in my life to another. Even more interesting to me are the triggers that get me to think about those paths. As much as I have grumbled this past year (not here, I guess) about my graduate school experience, I am getting a lot of mileage out of the introspection it has imposed. Don’t be surprised to see more coming out of both the experiences I am recalling, and also the meta-experiences of how I came to recall these events. It’s all fodder for the paintbrushes.

I almost forgot to tell you! Tomorrow evening from 5:30-7pm is the opening of Oculomotor, the UNC Chapel Hill first-year MFA show. Nine of my closest art friends and I will be showing work from our first semester here at UNC. We are using the John and June Allcott Gallery and the Undergraduate Gallery on the first floor of Hanes Art Center.

I will be showing the animation I created at Duke last semester, an animation I created at home (digitally) over the winter break, and it will all be wrapped up in an installation of plush crows. (Pictures to come soon)

If you are local, please come by! The show will be up until Groundhog Day (February 2).

Directions to campus can be found here.

P.S. I got to design the postcards for the show!