Visual Art

The Juniper Tree

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These past few weeks, I’ve been working on a grant application for a new animation project: an adaptation of a very dark and gory fairytale by the Brothers Grimm entitled The Juniper Tree (1812). Features child death, cannibalism, ghost-birds and violent revenge. In short, precisely my sort of thing. The proposed film will be created using paper cuts and articulated paper puppets, all done in a backlit, silhouette style perfect for this early 19th-century dark fairytale. Below is some concept art of the paper cutouts and puppets, shot on my light box.

The red is coloured acetate (actually lighting gels for photography) and the grey is achieved by using regular white, 50 lb. sketching paper. The black silhouettes are 90 lb. black drawing paper. These images are “proof of concept”, and not necessarily final art.

And that’s a wrap.

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I’ve surprised myself by completing my short animated film, The Music of the Spheres, ahead of schedule. At just over 7 minutes long, this is my longest and (I think) best animation to date.

Here’s the synopsis:

Three celestial beings contemplate a post-human Earth where newly hybridized lifeforms have evolved out of the debris of the Anthropocene. Combining references to the art of alchemy, Catholic liturgical art, and the iconography of the Tarot, this film blends cosmology with an urgent message of ecology.

And now, on to film festival submissions.

Lobster prayer card

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Another scene for The Music of the Spheres completed. This one features our first glimpse at the hybridized crustaceans who have inherited the post-human Earth. Even though it’s a brief scene with only a rigged lobster puppet and spinning golden haloes, it’s one of my favourites thus far. The doily-looking background upon which the hybrid lobster sits is, in fact, an altered scan of an early 20th-century Catholic “paper lace” prayer card. I just love the intricate, cut paper borders.

Below are a couple of examples of paper lace prayer cards found on Pinterest. No information found on their origin.

Lobster walk (WIP)

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Lobsters walk on the ocean floor, but they can’t walk on land. Their spindly legs can’t support the weight of their heavy exoskeleton. I wanted a scene with a lobster walking on the beach, however, so I devised an insect-like walk that isn’t technically correct for a lobster but does the job. SO MANY LEGS. Not finished yet, but it’s coming along.

Weeping Marys (work-in-progress)

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I love liturgical art and, specifically, statues of weeping Madonnas, so it’s not surprising that this image has cropped up on my current project. Also, I just enjoy animating tears. You can be really loose with the drawing and it turns out pretty well.

This is the cleaned up footage, prior to digital paint. Below is one frame, painted.

Work-in-progress, January 2025.

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At last, I’ve completed the interior room of the two towers. My plan is to reuse the design for both towers — one for the Moon, and the other for the Sun — but change the colour scheme. The Moon tower is an analogous mix of blues, pinks and purples with the accent colour of silver.

This character is loosely based on the High Priestess archetype from the Tarot.