I’m Short, Not Stupid Presents: ‘The Collagist’

I don’t know if you’ve ever had artist’s block, but if it ever comes along just say, “No thanks.” The only solution (which has a success rate of about 7 percent) is to drink coffee, smoke, pace back and forth, sit in front of the desk for hours, and stare off into space until the spark comes back. This is about the point when one starts getting meta and makes a piece of art about struggling to make art. The fact that that move is common means that it too is cliché and usually verges on self-indulgence, but when done right it can be eye-opening—like Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ or M. C. Escher’s Drawing Hands.

There’s an animator named Amy Lockhart who, while collaborating with her partner Marc Bell, decided to address this idea of spontaneous and original creation via a vision board. However, “original” tends to be a misnomer, because creation requires influence and basically anything ever created has been informed, transformed, and combined with something else. That depressing line of nothing’s new anymore is also misrepresentative, too. Despite the fact that 74 percent of studio films released now are sequels, remakes, or adaptations shouldn’t hide the fact that there are still people out there addressing those old concepts in new and interesting ways. Lockhart tackles the artistic process with a double meta approach. In her cut-out paper animation style she portrays Marc Bell sitting at his desk drinking coffee, smoking, and struggling with his his own artworks. The artwork on Marc’s page shuffles, scuttles, blinks, changes, and morphs. The film is a decidedly more simple and lo-fi send-up of the artistic process, but the two-minute short’s light and offbeat spirit hits home in a very familiar way with no pretense. That’s what I want. No bullshit. Just fun, creation, and destruction.

I did a little interview with Amy below, and she’s as silly as her film.  

VICE: Where did this idea come from? 
Amy Lockhart: I’ve been making cut-out and paper-puppet animations since the ni-ni-ni-nineties. I learned from Helen Hill. I started out making them on 16 mm film on an Oxberry stand—then switched to digital. I use the same set-up, just with a DSLR (digital) camera. I like stop motion because it cuts down on the labor of animation (like drawing every frame), but still allows me to make things with me hands. Also, I get to improvise under the camera while shooting.

The idea came from Marc and me being asked to be resident artists at the California State Summer School for the Arts. So we had to figure out some way to collaborate. This is what we came up with. The hands are traced from his, and also the pens and scissors are all based on his tools of the trade. We both drew the cycled collage bits, and then I animated it. 

Was this fun to make or only fun to see once completed? I can imagine this style of cut-out animation is tedious and painstaking.
This took way longer to complete than it should have because of the nomadic set-up I had. (I could work on it anywhere—so there was no pressure/time crunch—so I didn’t work on it…) It was fun to make—other than that. I made up the “story” as I went along, playing with the cut-outs.

Your work does not focus on collage or even the blending of multiple disparate ideas at once. How was it working with Marc in creating something in your style more akin to his work?
It was fun. I am a sucker for the miniature recreations of things. I do work in a lot of different media, so it wasn’t that big of a stretch. It’s nice to work with someone else and have someone to bounce ideas off of. You don’t feel so alone.

Have you ever had an issue with cigarettes burning a painting or artwork? My apartment has poor airflow, and I’ve accidentally sweated onto a watercolor and ruined a pretty wonderful painting of a person before. 
No. I’m sure a cat’s walked on something here or there… I have had paintings that have been lost in the mail—it’s a bummer (like the cover of Nog a Dod, a great book on Canadian psychedelia that is edited by Marc Bell…) Sorry to hear about your water color. Such a delicate medium. But I have a funny story: Marc used to live in this place with a cat named Honda who would sashay into his room, look him straight in the eye, then knock over a glass of water with his paw. Dang cat! I believe this did cause the ruination of some drawings and high-quality paper goods.

What are you working on now?
Right now I am working on a feature-length animation with paper puppets and cut-outs. It’s called Dizzler in Maskheraid. 

Watch the trailer:

Jeffrey Bowers is a tall mustached guy from Ohio who’s seen too many weird movies. He currently lives in Brooklyn, working as an art and film curator. He is a programmer at the Hamptons International Film Festival and screens for the Tribeca Film Festival. He also self-publishes a super fancy mixed-media art serial called PRISM index.