Be Creative: Finding a Job in the Arts via NYFA

The New York Foundation for the Arts has posted a helpful article, found here written by Maria Villafranca, which is aimed at YOU, the artist looking for employment. NYFA, as it is otherwise known, maintains an active online presence. While it is primarily there to serve the NY artist group, its reach is further than that, as in this instance. They provide "classifieds" and The SOURCE, both of which are full of listings for arts related jobs (mostly in NY,) grants, residencies, and more. You can sign up for their email list and receive a regular update on news that could provide your next big thing! As an example, I searched the word "animation" in The SOURCE and 45 results came up listing grants, fellowships, residencies and even a student scholarship. What are you waiting for?

Miwa Matreyek is another contemporary live performance artist that incorporates animation (projection) and multi-media, and has likely influenced Shana Moulton's movement into a specific style of live performance with her "Whispering Pines 10" mini-opera (see previous blog entry).

Myth and Infrastructure 4 minute excerpts from Miwa Matreyek on Vimeo.

Miwa does collaborative work as well as solo work, and seems to be dedicated to animation as the dominant environment in her mixed-media performances. She also has the surrealist approach in that she is blending fantasy and dream-like states into our viewer's real time world. Her use of her live body as a silhouette within the animation provides a narrative graphic function, engaging with the graphic animation, but her body doesn't necessarily stop there. Her physical, tangible form will enter into the work as well, and in some instances the work incorporates objects and forms. Matreyek goes between breaking/reforming the inferred "4th wall" between the viewer and the viewed.

Whispering Pines 10 Performance at New Museum

Whispering Pines 10 - Trailer from Shana Moulton on Vimeo.

Shana Moulton and Nick Hallett's epic multimedia one-act opera Whispering Pines 10 will run at the New Museum on Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9, 2011. Shana Moulton's Whispering Pines series focuses on the surreal existence of Cynthia, an agraphobic New Age-y hypochondriac, looking for magical ways to cure her imagined illnesses.

She incorporates lots of animation in these works, which is why I'm posting about it here. While this series began as a multimedia performance based entirely in video, it has now extended itself to live performance with multi-media animation, effects and musical score.

You can get tickets early through the New Museum site. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Henry Selick's New Studio, Cinderbiter!

Hey - did you know that Henry Selick has signed a new deal with Disney and has settled into San Fran with his studio Cinderbiter Productions, Inc.. They are committed to providing stop-motion "scary films for young 'uns"! Now THAT'S a great promise! Possibly all the way into PG-13? It's what Henry does best.

They're starting to hire their early development people, so hang on tight for the eventual hiring of all kinds of other talent when production begins!

Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train and Looney Tunes

This is a RE-BLOG of a post on Brian Carpenter's site. Brian is the brilliant composer/arranger/musician that has crafted the musical score for Lorelei Pepi's film (in production) "Happy & Gay."

Facebook event listing

Friday December 17, 2010
Ghost Train Orchestra
Barbes
376 9th Avenue
Brooklyn NY
10:00pm (2 sets)

Friday January 21, 2011
Ghost Train Orchestra
Barbes
376 9th Avenue
Brooklyn NY
10:00pm (2 sets)

Post by Brian Carpenter on November 19, 2010 9:34 AM

I've recently been preparing arrangements for a short set of early American cartoon music the Ghost Train Orchestra will perform on Friday December 17th and Friday January 21st at Barbes in Brooklyn. Raymond Scott and Carl Stalling are two of the composers most often associated with cartoon music, although there were many others -- Scott Bradley and Sammy Timberg, to name two other notables. Irwin Chusid, the man perhaps most responsible for bringing Raymond Scott to the public eye over the last two decades, sent me some of the original charts for sextet. Scott did not compose his music for cartoons but his music was often quoted by Carl Stalling in his scores to Looney Tunes cartoons of the '40s and '50s. I've been fascinated with Carl Stalling's work ever since the days of watching Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings as a kid, maybe without knowing it at an early age. My score for Lorelei Pepi's film Happy and Gay was inspired by Stalling's work for animator Ub Iwerks. For the 12/17 performance, I've added guitarist Danny Blume (who is a huge fan of Carl Stalling's work in particular) and bassist Joe Fitzgerald, to join the regular cast of GTO. Hope you'll come see us perform this unique music.

MFA Boston Reinstates Women's Art Prize

After 4 years of absence, the MFA Boston is (hopefully) restoring the valuable Maud Morgan Purchase Prize, an "annual" award which was established to recognize an accomplished woman artist with a $5,000 fund and an MFA solo exhibition. Edward Saywell, chairman of the MFA's contemporary-art department, says that the MFA has chosen to award the prize less frequently so as to be able to generate a more meaningful amount for the fund. Sooooo, since they've been sitting on it for four years, that should mean that there is now $20,000 attached to this prize. We'll see.

Big kudos to Greg Cook, the Phoenix's art blogger/reviewer for bringing this topic to public attention.

"Keenan at Sea" music video

“Keenan at Sea” is the latest music video by The Girls, Alison Cowles and Mikaela Davis, and directed by Jeremy Galante and David Cowles, with special thanks to Janis Dougherty. Jeremy was a student of mine at the Rochester Institue of technology, in the grad dept studying 3D CG animation. Right away he showed up as a super talent, and it's clear why he's succeeding now! Rock on, Jeremy!
|| post by Lorelei P. ||

Funny parody from Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Via Jerry @ Cartoon Brew, this parody of an old news reel about the animation studio RadicalAxis is pretty funny!