Stop-Motion Commotion

A few months ago we went to a camping art and music festival on a friend's recommendation. The Oxblood Masquerade was a festival of the arts in the middle of the woods. There were stages, music, costumes, crafts, and the one that caught my eye the most- art in a field. Here was a big field with artists sitting at their easels and other "canvases" just doing their thing right there in nature. You could just walk up and watch it all happen.

Our trip to the field brought us to the most extraordinary set up, where we incidentally ended up spending the rest of the evening. It was an interactive station set up to allow anyone to walk up and make their own stop-motion movie. Per and I were on cloud nine. There was scented play-doh and chalk. We got started on our spontaneous story (see it here) and spent the rest of the evening waiting around to see everyone's movies played on a projector in the field (see them all here). We made some good friends at that installation and Per got a great project out of it.

Last night we joined those friends for a continuation of that installation: The Edge of Imagination Station (I love rhymes and alliteration!). Set up in a small gallery space in east Austin, this time there was a white wall, colored balls, paper, stickers, props, and chalk. The idea this time was to steer away from claymation by providing other mediums to work with. People were getting creative! Per used chalk and paper for his underwater animation, and I was able to take one of my favorite art forms, paper cutting, to bring the changing seasons to life. We couldn't wait to see the final results. The animations weren't shown last night, but I will be sure to post a link as soon as I get one.