Merry Sandy Christmas!

For all of you out there who stumble upon this blog, I hope you find the deep, deep depths of joy and love in your New Year. Merry Christmas from me and the sandy fish!

This animation was made with recycled and reclaimed footage from the past year of sandy animation. 

Women of Vision - Christmas Animation

I love sharing advent animation, but it's particularly exciting to share some of my own work! I've just finished an animated Christmas card for Women of Vision. You may remember some of my past cards for them. They are always up for something artsy and it's a project I look forward to every year.

Please pass this on to anyone in need of a little Christmas cheer!


Women of Vision  is an organization of women helping women. They advocate for oppressed women and children around the world. I'm always excited to support them through my animation. Find out more at www.womenofvision.org

Advent Animation 2012

It's that time of year again! In eager anticipation and preparation for Christmas, I have revived my #adventanimation tag on twitter  Each day I"m sharing a new holiday animation - some are quirky, some are sweet, some are funny, some are visually stunning. Here's a taste of a few of them. If you like these, just follow me over to twitter!

My favorite, thus far is Marzipan Reindeer from emerging artist Holly and the Wolf. The weird and wild animation is by Tony Johnson.


I also love these pohutukawa loops made by David Montgomery. The pohutukawa trees are native to New Zealand. They bloom with red flowers at Christmas, in the midst of the southern summer. These abstractions of the blooms are just stunning.



Anyone who's had a bit too much Glüwein while strolling the Weihnachtsmarkt will relate to this little piece from MOKOST


And, one of my favorite ones from last year - the singing hedgehogs - a youtube extravaganza. Watch out! This one will timesuck the rest of your day away!

More awesome advent animation in the days to come. Head over to twitter to get the latest!

Mr. Blue Sky

Want a fun, psychedelic break in your workday? Take a look at this music video for Mr. Blue Sky, the groovy song by Jeff Lynne and ELO.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Light_Orchestra. This was a collaboration between USC animation students and alumni, directed by Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger. You may remember them from the famous 1985 A-HA music video Take On Me. Mike and Candace were great directors for this complex project, bringing together dozens of artistic styles from the animators working on different parts of the film. So much fun. Enjoy!

Drawing some airplanes for Poppi this morning...

P-38 Lightning

P-47 Thunderbolt

What a summer it's been! I've been working hard on the new film and traveling a lot! There are some interesting new blog posts over on atangledtalefilm.com about producing the sound and music. I've just returned from L.A. where Gabriel Guy, re-recording mixer extraordinaire sweetened the beautiful layers of the sound effects (by Cole Pierce) and music (by Mark Orton). Now the film sounds as amazing as it looks. From here it's on to festival submissions and hopefully more travel for me!

 

The Klondike Letters Project

As mentioned in a previous post, I'll be spending some time in Alaska this summer. As Artist-in-Residence, I will be collecting postcards from hikers on the trail and turning them into short animated films. Each postcard will have a message written by a hiker to his or her future self and will be mailed to the writer one year later. When we translate our experiences through a physical, creative act we solidify our memories of the journey, not only on paper, but in the neurological connections in our brains as well. The emotions and resolutions we experience so strongly in a wilderness setting, fade once we return to our daily routines. The postcard, when it is recieved a year later, thus becomes a 2 dimensional portal into a 3-dimensional memory.

Visit klondikeletters.com to keep track of the adventure!

Big Sky Community Chorus

Next week, for one night only, the Big Sky Community Chorus will premiere a special multi-media performance featuring sand animation by local animator, Corrie Francis Parks (that's me!).

Don't miss this very special community event at the Big Sky Chapel on April 9, 2012 at 7:30pm. The chorus has been working hard for months on some fantastic pieces and you won't want to miss the chance to see them in action.

Yukon, Ho!

The Scales and Golden Stairs - 1898

This summer I will be an Artist-in-Residence on the Chilkoot Trail in the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park! Following the footsteps of goldrush prospectors, I'll be hiking from Dyea, AK over the Golden Stairs (aka Chilkoot Pass) to Bennet, BC. During the 2 week residency, I'll be collecting stories, images and impressions for an animated short. This trail has seen millions of footsteps from centuries of traders, miners and modern "pilgrims" wanting to relieve the historical journey. I plan to involve not only the people who will be walking the trail this upcoming summer, but those who have done it in the past, and in so doing, add layers of history to the story of the film. If you have hiked the Chilkoot at any point in your life, I would LOVE to talk to you. Please send me a note!!

A Sandy Sailing Day

Just for fun...

A Tangled Tale Website

We've officially launched a brand-spanking new website for "A Tangled Tale"! Designer Chelsea Kent helped me make the site reflect the texture and themes of the film in the design. She's awesome. Hire her for your next project. And in the meantime head to www.atangledtalefilm.com for production updates, behind the scenes and images. I'll be doing more posting there than here while I continue work on the film, so be sure to keep tabs on the blog as well. And, of course there's always 

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