Rediscovering the Road Not Taken …

I was doing some animation work in the computer lab today and had an opportunity to talk with Mr. Gomez (an instructor at Brooks College) over a burger.

I ruminated a bit on the issue of animation and my personal belief that as artists we need to try to do meaningful work. What I mean is that that you get one successful, rude, adult cartoon and suddenly the guys holding the purse strings at the networks all want the same product in different wrapping.

Please don’t take it as a criticism of your art if you are involved but seems like there’s a lot going on in the world today. We have environmental concerns, social injustice, war and other critical issues that could benefit from the artist’s eye. I don’t think we need to beat people over the head but an artist has the ability to give birth to film, animation, sculpture and other creative expressions that motivate, educate, expose fallacies or injustice. Instead of numbing the public with yet more ribald humor how about putting something new in the mix?

I would love to create entertaining animation that also pushes buttons, engages people, gets them to consider the larger picture, and calls them to action. I hope that besides earning enough to buy butter for my bread, I will be able to make some contribution to solving the ills of the world through my art.