10/27/21 Corrie Francis Parks (ONLINE)
Corrie Francis Parks
Introduction by Xingyu (Vicky) Gu, Q&A by Shengwei Zhou
Corrie Francis Parks brings life to the inanimate through frame-by-frame manipulation of physical materials. With one hand under the camera and the other on the computer keyboard, her films and installations maintain an organic connection to traditional production methods while fully integrating digital technology.
Parks received her B.A. from Dartmouth College and her M.F.A. from University of Southern California. Now an Associate Professor of Visual Arts at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Parks continues to research frame-by-frame movement from a practitioner's perspective. Her book, Fluid Frames: Experimental Animation with Sand, Clay, Paint and Pixels explores the tactile nature of moving malleable materials directly under the camera, bringing together traditional and digital workflow through interviews with contemporary animators and workshop-style exercises.
Parks has been Artist-in-Residence at the MacDowell Colony, Fundación Valparaíso and Klondike Goldrush International Historic Park, a Fulbright Fellow to New Zealand, and a grant recipient from the Montana Film Office and Maryland State Arts Council. She has created projection-based installations for Light City Baltimore, USA, International Media Art Biennial SEE DJERBA in Tunisia, and the UnDARK Festival in Russia. Her award-winning short films have screened at Annecy, Hiroshima, Ottawa, Zagreb, and at major festivals around the world.
Shengwei Zhou (szhou894@usc.edu):
ReplyDeleteI think the most unique aspect of Corrie's sand painting art lies in the transformation of her artistic concept and methodology from the macro landscape to the micro individuals.
Corride’s early sand painting animation is not much different from normal sand painting animation, that is, sand is used just as a medium to create works of different themes and styles. In these sand painting animations or sand painting performances, sand is just a material, just like clay animation or paper-cut animation, the artist only uses sand as a medium to create other characters and images, such as animals, human, and sceneries.
When Corrie began to photograph individual sand particles with a microscope-level lens, her artistic concept and life experience truly resonated, and gradually developed her own view of the universe and art. As she said, her respect for the beauty of the individual is perfectly demonstrated through the process of observing and expressing the shapes, textures, and relationships of these tiny sand particles in an animated way. When she really starts to focus on the individual sand particles, the audience can see the full picture of the individual sand particles, as well as the subtle dynamics and rhythms of each one. The metaphor behind it is respecting for the individuals.
Many times in our human history, collectivism has been used to create a grand narrative, but often the beauty of the individual is swallowed by this grandeur. Just like those sand animations that only use sand as a tool, the audience cannot see the appearance of individual sand particles in those works, but can only see the image composed of countless sand particles. The beauty of the individual is engulfed by the overall image, which is like fascist aesthetics: to control all individuals with an abstract sense of grandeur, so that the individual is submerged in the collective wave.
I also deeply resonated with this, because the series of works I am creating, Perfect City, is also about the opposition and contradiction between the beauty of the individual and a certain grandeur. The difference is that the forms used are different. Corrie uses sand in micro-lens to express the beauty of the individual, while I combine 3D animation with a uniform default like material with the stop-motion animation of different textures to highlight the diversity of the individual.
PS: My first short in USC: Perfect City: The Mother, also the first short of Perfect City series, will be soon meeting everyone in the mid December. Thrilled to make it come true.
Corrie’s works are incredibly tactile, something I haven't tried before and would love to try just by watching her films and listening to her thoughts on them. I’ve always considered stop motion, sand animation and other non-digital mediums very personal, and sometimes too personal to be translated into a more commercial form. But her film “Foreign Exchange” kind of changed my mind on this. The idea to make cutouts from banknotes and animate those patterns is incredible, and it was so beautifully executed that I can see the style grow into some really fun practices.
ReplyDeleteI brought this up in the Zoom chat: In “Foreign Exchange” the sand comes forward to become the subject, with each little piece of rock/sand being showcased on the screen, as opposed to the traditional sand animation where sand is used as just the medium. I loved the tactile feeling of the sand that contrasts with the flatness of the money, and brings us to the moist breeze from the shore.
I also see much of simplicity, or purity, in Corrie’s films. It is tempting for animators to keep adding stuff to the frame, but in Corries’ work everything is kept succinctly. From her works you can almost see her thought process, as each element in the frame finds their right place to be and congregate altogether in satisfying harmony. I really enjoyed her films as well as her presentation. Thank you Corrie and Sheila!
Oops this is Charlene Xu
Deletetianyun lyu tianyunl@usc.edu
ReplyDeleteI feel really grateful to Seminar for inviting Corrie Francis Parks to share her creative experience with us. It’s really inspiring. After taking Lisa’s class, I tried various materials to make animations, and then found that stop motion animation is really a very attractive form of animation. It allows me to be more able to connect with my animation. More interaction compared with digital animation, and it also can experience the relationship between nature and people.
I also asked Corrie a lot about her technical questions when she was doing stop motion animation, because the fish animation she made was really vivid and real.
Her other animation about banknotes around the world and grands around the world, the sound effects and concepts I really like. One thing I really like about stop-motion experimental animation is that its materials are integrated with the feelings you want to express.
So like last time lynn, I really appreciate the opportunity to communicate with them.
Stefie Gan stefiega@usc.edu
ReplyDeleteCorrie's films are beautiful with textures and visuals we haven't quite seen before. This was an intentional choice when making her films as she wishes to make something new. I thought this was an inspiring goal to continue to push the animation medium and be innovative. She loved working with sand but didn't like the colorless nature of films with sand. Her first film she used colored celluloid to bring vibrance to her film.
When I make my film, I'm figuring the film form as I go, rarely do I have the time to decide how I may push the filmmaking medium. This seminar inspired me to think about the form as well as content. I spend more time crafting the content of my films than thinking about how the form may represent those ideas. I'm often face with my own limitations, deciding on production feasibility since we make most of our films on our own. The plastic film I made under the camera was rewarding and feasible. By accident, I made a film that others haven't quite seen before. It was through an intuitive process of bringing color and lighting to an otherwise dull picture. I was also experimenting as I went. It seems harder to push the limits when doing a traditional 2D animated film. However, after this talk, I was brainstorming ways I might add mixed media to my film. Perhaps in a smoke sequence, I can add some sand animated effects to bring texture to the film.
I'm inspired to continue to explore various mediums past my time at USC. I'm eager to make another film about climate change, using under the camera techniques. Our world is already so rich, it's satisfying to bring these real life objects into the camera so people can see these objects differently and start to pay more closer attention to the life and objects around them. When people have more awareness of the stuff that's around us, the consumption, production, waste, and nature, then perhaps we'll live in a more conscious society. I hope to bring these themes to life in my next films.
Anna Wang
ReplyDeleteawang206
The quote Corrie shared with us, about how the sand that surround our awareness is our world, was an accurate description of the theme of Corrie's film.
Throughout her lecture, she reminds us the beauty that is hiding inside the smallest things. For example, in her film Foreign Exchange, we can see all kinds of little stones that comes together as sand, the beautiful patterns representing different countries, and even the very subtle texture of the money. The sound of the sand moving through the image makes the sand lively and its own character. It's like the sand is this stream of "awareness" that we all have in common that connects everyone in the world.
She also taught me how animation is always a constant learning and experimenting experience.
Thanks so much to Corrie Francis for a beautiful presentation! I admire how Corrie keeps exploring different subjects and perspectives when creating new art pieces. Corrie seems to have a focus on and strong connection with nature. Nearly every one of her art pieces is based on nature. This fact may be coming from her feeling comfort around nature since she was little. It is heartwarming to know that she is implanting her safe space in her art even without purposely doing it. That is the reason why her films and installations are so grounded, dependable, and steady. When the foundation is solid, the building can go up into the sky. When the roots of the tree are planted firmly, the flower blossoms are the most splendid.
ReplyDeleteCherry Guo (guomengy@usc.edu)
Kacey Layson
ReplyDelete(klayson@usc.edu)
I really enjoyed watching Corrie Francis Parks’ films and listening to her experiences and thoughts behind her works like ‘A Tangled Tale’ and ‘Foreign Exchange. Corrie’s stop motion work is beautiful, bringing inanimate objects to life through frame-by-frame animation. I was inspired by her use of natural mediums like sand and objects that are common/everyday such as paper money. Her works are often grounded in observing the world, nature, and textures around her.
One quote that stood out for me, was when Corrie would talk about her process and say “Keep working, the work will sort itself out.” I think that idea is valuable because to keep working in animation is to move forward, improve, and make progress. Often, with my projects, I can think about my ideas and keep it internally for a while. But the best thing to do for my project is to get started and create a physical, visual version of the work. To get out all my ideas and create a first pass, even though it may not be the best version. There will always be room for improvement and eventually it will start to work better, which is what I understand by “having the work sorting itself out”. Thank you so much Corrie for sharing your beautiful work with us for Seminar!!
It was an excellent opportunity to have Corrie Francis Parks give us a valuable and informative presentation of her animation career. As an incredible artist, Corrie not only stops at exploring different materials, but she is also very open to embracing new technologies. We can see how she combined traditional materials with digital methods well from her stop motion animation, such as Foreign Exchange and A Tangled Tale. Her exploration and creation of different levels of sand also impressed me. Stop motion and sand painting have not become gimmicks in her artistic creation. Corrie’s solid and excellent traditional animation skills are also one of the important reasons why her works can be fascinating. Thank Corrie so much for taking us into your beautiful art world!
ReplyDeleteNaicheng Liu
I admire Corrie's take on persistence — keep at it and the art will figure itself out. As an animator persistence is very important. You often come across creative problems which really drain you thus people abandon projects/ideas. Her exploration of different materials while combining digital methods was fascinating. A true testament of how her actions add up to what she is saying, and that is difficult. "Keep at it. You will find solutions or a new approach" is what I took away from the talk. A lot of art advice seems vague to me at times, but seeing her approach to her films and how it applies to her work is what really sets it apart. I really liked her fish animation, it was so full of vigour. Thank you for introducing us to Corrie and her amazing work.
ReplyDeleteDelaney McCallum (jmccallu@usc.edu)
ReplyDeleteI really love Corrie's work and it was so exciting to have her in seminar! I really appreciated her fundamental enthusiasm for animation. I like her emphasis on experimentation with materials, and chasing what makes you excited. I like the combination of the digital and physical, especially in Foreign Exchange. I was interested in her story, freelancing and then eventually being able to pivot to education and creating her own work through grants. It was nice to hear from an animator who really created her own route in her career, outside of the traditional studio roles we hear about. I am going to lean on the idea that the work will sort itself out. I'm inspired to experiment with combining different mediums. Thank you so much to Corrie for a wonderful seminar!
Thanks Corrie for showing her beautiful work as well as explaining the stories behind them. I really like the work “Foreign Exchange”. She explains the meaning of sand in her work, and she mentions that she might explain it differently every time. I agree that it is an idea that should keep open and unsettled, implying various things according to the content. I agree that it creates a flow in humanity, and gives a sense of stream of consciousness. I used sand in my short video work before. For me, sand means the flow of time, and also, it gives a feeling of hard to control. Like when we try to held it in our hands, it will fall from the gaps. It doesn’t have shapes, but millions of grains. They are next to each other but they’re separate, just like each individual in the world.
ReplyDeleteXiaoqian Zhu (xiaoqiaz@usc.edu)
I appreciated Corrie Francis Parks presentation on sand animation last week. I thought her discussion of A Tangled Tale and the digital compositing behind it was interesting. It made me think about how digital advancement can help to make the animation process a lot easier, even when you’re working with a traditional medium. It seems like digital compositing is a really helpful asset in allowing for new cinematic opportunities, especially as an independent animator.
ReplyDeleteI think that working in sand animation is admirable, because of the time and attention to detail that it requires. It was cool to see how working with sand at different scales can greatly change the look. In Foreign Exchange, the sand grains looked like little pebbles. Adding the money as another collage element was really creative. I like how it supported the intercultural themes of the film.
It was helpful to hear about how Corrie started as an animator and gained opportunities to pursue sand animation. Even though she did not feel like there was a path to doing sand animation when she first entered the field, she was later able to earn a grant for her sand animation work. It is nice to think that even if you don’t see the path to what you want to pursue right away, opportunities can still be brought to you within the future.
Victoria Cruell (cruell@usc.edu)
Corrie’s work is so interesting! My favorites were the underwater works (A Tangled Tale and the projection) and Foreign Exchange. It’s impressive how she takes a form of animation which is considered old school, and modernizes it with new techniques to make it fresh again. The way she uses sand allows for fluid motion and interesting textures you can only get with that medium (if you know how to use it like she does). I came to animation from a fine art background, and her work reminded me how important the art world is to other industries. The experimentation and innovation of technique and visuals done by artists like Corrie are what inspire mainstream industry professionals to try new things (for example the game Gris). I was also impressed with how meticulous and detailed her sand animation is, especially the individual grains.
ReplyDeleteSomething she said which really stuck with me is allowing some room for the viewer to interpret the work in a way that makes sense to them. Ambiguous art always makes for interesting conversations and speaks to people in a way that straightforward art sometimes can’t. By this I mean that the viewer will pull from their own experiences and thoughts when interpreting the meaning/visuals, so it can reach a wide audience and signify something deeply meaningful to them. This is one of the priceless characteristics of art, and it made me notice how much more I enjoy films with ambiguous interpretations or unanswered questions. I prefer the mystery and post-viewing contemplation over “wrapped with a bow on it” narrative endings. Going forward, Corrie inspired me to use my art brain and combine it with modern techniques to create something hybridized and enticing.
-Nina Ceklic
I watched Corrie Francis Parks's sand film that she did at USC with color gel during Lisa's stop motion class and I was fully impressed. I then tried to make sand animation and realized it is so hard to control everything in this medium. The shape, the volume, the details, everything need extra care to maintain the good quality in all frames and Corrie was so skilled and patience to make all this.
ReplyDeleteThe film "Foreign Exchange" is my favourite film from her. I never saw animation like this before. I love the texture of the money and she did a good job on combine different country's bill and turn that into a new piece of art. The texture of sand works so well with the texutre of the note and I can't imagine how much patience required to animate those sand. I need to work hard and try to be as paience as Corrie.
Her works once again reminds me to always keep an open mind to all kinds of art and medium. Sand animation might be really unpopular nowadays, but it does not means there is no value in it. Even I am not good at working with sand, by having an open mind to try to understand the process of sand animation and seeing great sand animation surly inspired me a lot.
Thank you for your comment. Can you please let me know who this is?
DeleteThank you,
Sheila
I really enjoyed Corrie's talk. I was surprised to see how much content she could pack into the media she uses. She gave a very insightful lecture about her journey as an artist and independent animator. The rich textures and visual expressions of her films are fascinating. Her journals and the huge body of frame-by-frame artistic works she showed us were testimonials to her enormous talent. I loved the way the practical way she animated different mediums. When taking Lisa's class in the first semester, media was a huge thing. But later on, during my study and animation production, I rarely spend time considering the medium of creation. I can't help but use the general concepts of "3D", "2D," and "live-action" to limit my creative scope. Watching her work made me pay attention to the medium used in my animation.
ReplyDeleteShengluo Zhang
shengluo@usc.edu
I watched Corrie‘s Tracks in Lisa's class before. I was impressed by Corrie Tracks in Lisa's class before. The atmosphere, tone, sound and picture are very harmonious and beautiful, and the coarse material like sand is used to make very delicate animation. As Corrie said, sand was both two dimensional three dimensional and you could draw on it, but you could also you know do shading and it's sort of like sculpting. But in reality, it is very difficult to make good use of sand. Although it was interesting to do Lisa's homework before, sand is really difficult to manipulate and make delicate things, so I admire Corrie very much. What I didn't expect was that I thought there was A reference for A Tangled Tale. Corrie said that she loved animals so much, so it was understandable that the fish swam so beautifully and smoothly. And I also like that Corrie uses some materials to express some ideas implicitly, which is very interesting and gives the audience space to think.
ReplyDeleteShiqi Hu
shiqihu@usc.edu
Corrie Parks is a special animator, I enjoyed watching her short films and found her animation truly interesting. It’s especially nice to see how animation can bring anything to life and how we creative an artist can be. It is so fascinating to see what she does with grains of sand, the creativity of the idea, her methodology of her own setup to animate the grains of sand on a multi-plane using a light table with a down shooter setup and choreographed separately. I also thought that her projection animation and experiments were beautiful, especially the snow beach. Corrie Parks inspired me to be adventurous to try to animate different materials and use different mediums for presentations.
ReplyDeleteDina Garatly
ggonsalv@usc.edu Gina Gonsalves
ReplyDeleteCarrie was a very impressive guest. I loved her animation styles and strong creativity in her work. After seeing A Tangled Tale I was very impressed with the beautiful colors, textures, and contrast. It was absolutely incredible. I have tried working with sand in Lisa's class my first year and though I loved it, it was incredibly difficult, that just proves how much talent and passion Carrie has for her work and what sets her apart from other artists. Great guest!
Shon Xiao
ReplyDeleteIt’s always great to see individuals in the animation industry that utilize non-conventional mediums of animation. Corrie’s work in particular is so innovative within a rather difficult medium. Her use of color with sand animation adds so much vibrancy to her animations that I have not seen in any other sand animated works. I find her microscopic works to be the most intriguing. Many sand animators work off of the fluidity of sand, the way that people normally see it. However, Corrie’s works like “Individual Grains” and “Foreign Exchange” treat sand more like stop motion puppets. Not only must that process be meticulous and back-breaking, but the unusual feeling of being so up-close to the sand as a viewer causes me to think about how I am scaled to the world, and how the world must be perceived so differently from different beings. An ant versus a human versus an elephant would all see sand with a different sense of scale. Experimental animation always challenges what people assume animation, art, or the world to be, and I hope to see more of Corrie’s work and other experimental animators’ work popularized in the media.
Last week, Corrie Parks gave an insightful talk about her work in sand animation. As everyone mentioned, Corrie's choice of sand as her medium is something that I really respect and admire because of how arduous and time-consuming the process is animating hundreds of tiny grains. It was interesting to see her philosophy of life resonate a lot with the medium she chose. She embraced experimentation as an important step to discovery which leads to innovation in her later work. I appreciated her concentration on the sand medium given that not many artists do this. Her work demonstrates that the medium itself can be a point of inspiration for the artist.
ReplyDeleteJarrod Chatham (jchatham@usc.edu)
Corrie Francis Parks creates breathtakingly beautiful work with sand. Each of her works is constructed with grains of sand and sometimes, objects like dollar bills. I liked how she infuses her work with a natural, organic approach to the film's story. My favorite film of hers is "Foreign Exchange". The complexity of the layers and the micro-scale of the materials created a dreamlike, microscopic world. Tiny grains of sand move like surface critters; a wave of sand becomes a waterfall. As the film progresses, the sand and dollar bills become more fantastic. Dollar bills morph into flying animals and shifting faces. For Corrie, the story is not as important as the experience itself. I feel her work is successful as an art form and as a way to be entranced by the fluid characteristics of sand. There is something grainy and gritty about working with sand. Sand erodes and eradicates things. As Corrie shows, it harbors a strong force that is "alive" and "dynamic" through animation.
ReplyDeleteParker Chatham (pchatham@usc.edu)
DeleteTyler Krantz, tkrantz@usc.edu
ReplyDeleteI knew a fair amount about Corrie Francis Parks going into this week’s lecture. I heard her speak a few times while at the University of Michigan, where she discussed her work and practice. After taking Lisa’s introduction to animation course last fall, I feel a new appreciation for Parks films and methodology. The tactile feeling of her films seems to elevates the animation off the screen. “A Tangled Tale” is my personal favorite. It’s incredibly impressive what Corrie Francis Parks is able to achieve with sand and other granular material. I appreciate how she blends analog and digital to create a unique aesthetic for her films. Thank you for speaking with us!
It was a pleasure to have Corrie Francis Parks in last week's seminar. I admire people who have the patients to work with such micro-scaled objects. I tend to get pretty meticulous when I plan shots or develop stories, but that is done through my head and my eyes. As Jennifer from our previous seminar said, I am an artist of the mind. I love torturing myself with ideas getting detailed to a psychotic level. But when it comes to my hand and body, in other words, muscle control, I am very lousy. I get bored and grow tired of it easily and lose interest within a few moments with physical exhaustion. (Maybe that's why I need to work out more?) I am a terrible dancer and so are my hands. I tried various exercises in Lisa's Introduction to the Art of Animation class, and my conclusion was that these are not my favorite medium. In fact, the inbetweening in Eric's class isn't either. I hate it when my mind isn't challenged and only my body is. Being on set when it comes to live-action is not my favorite choice either. Thus, I came to the conclusion that I am not that much of a "Production" step artist. I am madly in love with the preproduction era, and maybe the post, but no I don't think I would enjoy working with my muscles.
ReplyDeleteThat said, was my favorite out of all her films. The tactile properties of the materials were so raw and meticulous, my eyes had fun watching them. The sound and the editing were very in sync too. And the idea/message that she wanted to talk about matched well with her choice of medium. I enjoy watching these, but the more I get to know about how they are made, the more sure I become that I won't be producing with these mediums. I will stay as a happy consumer.
Thank you so much for your speech and time, Corrie!
Aloha Lee (haekyung@usc.edu)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the format of Corrie’s presentation it was in a different format than speakers before her, as it was interactive . At first it felt odd but It was actually cool because she wasn’t just speaking to hear herself talk. She was just there waiting for us to ask her questions. In other words she was so attentive and ready to give us answers and advice. Additionally is shows a lot about her character and how humble and down to earth she is. Taking notes for future reference, it was a great way to keep the audience on their toes as it more of a personal conversation.
DeleteI also agreed when Corrie said Keep working on the artwork, the work will sort itself out. I can defiantly relate to that at time I can’t achieve something or make something happen but I don’t give up I just keep at it. Sometimes it works out the way it was planned other times it works itself out through what I like to call happy accidents. Sometimes those happy accidents become a huge part of our work and aesthetic style.
I was also very impressed with her work “FOREIGN EXCHANGE” there is a lot to say about this work. What I loved the most was her response was to people that would ask what the work represented or the message . She would give a very vague response almost like a memorized line which itself depends the mystery and drives the audience or viewer to come up with their own conclusion or interpretation.
Pedro Chinchilla
(Pedrochi@usc.edu)
Thank you for inviting Corrie, I remember I was astonished by her film TANGLED TALE when I was in my first year. and I was thankful to have the opportunity to hear her inspiring presentation again. Her dedication to go for the style and the medias she loves and making individual films that is highly accomplished and unique is impressive to me. Although sand animation already has remarkable pages in animation history. But I feel like she manages to push the boundary of sand animation further with her dedication in thinking process while working on them and great use of materials and digital tools.
ReplyDeleteLydia Su
lrsu@usc.edu
I've seen Corrie's films in Lisa's classes during first year. So I was excited to know that she's going to talk in this week's seminar. My favorite film out of the ones she showed was Foreign Exchange. I love how she combined different materials and textures. She collected sand and paper from numerous countries. And it creates this very interesting raw texture. I also loved how detailed the film was. She really played with every element that's printed on the money, including the numbers and characters. Corrie also talked about the working process of her films. Which was really helpful as well. In general, I really enjoyed this lecture. I'm always interested to listen to someone talking about what they're passionate about. Because it makes me think about my path and why I wanted to learn about animation in the first place. Thanks Corrie for the inspiring talk. :)
ReplyDeleteJessica Wu
wujessic@usc.edu
Corrie shared her beautiful films with us as well as her journey as an artist. Her talk surrounding how she finds inspiration for her film is really inspiring. She said beauty is hidden in everyday objects, and that’s how she got inspired for most of her film. Her film, Foreign Exchange, for example, was inspired by bank notes her grandmother left her. The medium she chose is so unique and the fact that her experiment on the medium started here in USC in Lisa’s class really inspires me. Her persistence and determination in what she’s doing and the confidence to “let the art figure itself out” is really encouraging.
ReplyDeleteHer knowledge about artist residency was also really helpful. Artist Residency is a wonderful opportunity for independent artists to have some time working on their own without worrying too much about daily chores. Corrie gave us some introductions about what we can expect from an artist residency that really interested me. I’m definitely planning on researching more about it.
Rouyu Chen(chenruoy@usc.edu)
It's been a blast to hear from Corrie the second time. We have had her as a guest last year and hearing from her a second time is still as inspiring as the first time. She first talked about her career path, from being in USC as a MFA student just like us, to finally finding her own voice as an animation artist, her whole journey in animation so far has been very inspiring and motivating. She started to find her interest in stop-motion and sand animation in her first year and created a stunning sand animation short called ' Tracks'. I fell in love with the film the first time I watched it, and it's still refreshing to watch it the second time. I also love her film ' A Tangled Tale ', it was delicately made and involved multiple media including both traditional path and After Effect animation, which is also inspiring to know since the combination of traditional filmmaking and new technology works really well with each other and have brought a lot of life to the films. It was really great to listen from her again and I'm very thankful for the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteRui Han (ruihan@usc.edu)
Another really talented Baltimore animator! Corrie Parks’ real, fully in-camera animation is amazing and intricate on its own, but her mix of digital techniques and attention to detail and texture make Foreign Exchange a magical masterpiece. I’ve never seen sand animation as smooth as the beginning of the film, and the replacement animation of the eyes is amazing as well, but once it transitions into the more digitally manipulated animation, it starts to blur the line between possible and impossible, and it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s been recreated digitally. But beyond just the technical, her films have a magical quality that comes from her connection to nature as a subject matter and as a material.
ReplyDelete-Jackson Roberts (jpr02403@usc.edu)
Vicky Gu (xingyugu@usc.edu)
ReplyDelete(Sorry for the late blogpost, I posted my comments earlier but somehow it didn't get published properly.)
It was an honor to be the one to introduce Corrie Francis Parks in our seminar! I have long been fascinated by her works after Lisa showed us her films and her book in our first semester at USC. It still blows me away whenever I get to meet an amazing alumni. I remember struggling with sand animation for Lisa's assignment and I really admire Corrie for her patience and craft for working solely with this intricate yet malleable medium. A Tangled Tale is such a wonderful metaphor for all kinds of relationships and it was really clever of Corrie to utilize both the camera as well as digital media. It was also super interesting to see some of her more recent films and installations in which she also used sand but in many different ways. Her latest short Foreign Exchange has taken sand animation to a microscopic scale and the texture of sand and paper was just astonishing. Corrie's films has demonstrated so many different possibilities to animate with physical materials and they have given me great inspiration on future projects.
Corrie has also given us insights on how to survive as an artist and her advice on applying for grants and artist's residencies were really helpful. It would be great if we could have a workshop on these topics because I've started to worry about graduation.
Hi Vicky- I recorded a Zoom lecture on grants you might find useful: https://usc.zoom.us/j/6652268478
Delete-Sheila
Clara Chou
ReplyDeleteyuncheng@usc.edu
It was so wonderful to have Corrie Francis Parks and listening to her talk about her journey of becoming a professional animator. Watching her films that combine sand animation with computer animation is so inspirational! I really enjoy multimedia films very much. I love how the mixture of the sand texture with digital color and pattern have added some richness to the quality of the film. I love the graphic looks of her films, and how she plays with silhouette, colors, and patterns. The projection mapping installation project looks really fascinating! I love how the audience engaged with the film physically. I was so amazed by her films, thank you so much for this great session!
Adriel Meka
ReplyDeleteameka@uscc.edu
It was such a pleasure having Corrie Francis Parks our class and get to hear all about her work! I loved following her journey and hearing about how she was able to develop a name for herself in the world of experimental under-the-camera animation. Her works reminded me of Lisa's class and it was so nice to hear that it was those assignments that sparked her inspiration and passion for sand animation. it was also delightful to see how she was able to incorporate elements of the nature around her such as the fish reference from the water near her or the sand at Venice Beach. One thing I was also particularly intrigued by was the discussion she had about looking into artists residencies and working abroad while creating works of art. The audience truly connected with her and enjoyed hearing all about her journey! I look forward to this weeks speaker as well! Huge thanks you to Corrie for her wonderful presentation!
It is such an honor to have Corrie Francis Parks. It is not the first time to listen to Corrie Francis Parks. It is always amazed to see her sand animation mixed with other media. I really enjoy to see how she develops her film a little by little and changes her way to make films. When she said as she began to make sand animation, she also started to collect sand from different places. I think this is a really interesting process, that how the media itself is changing her making films as well. I really enjoy how different sands can really represent different styles and feelings. I also appreciate how she is inspired by collecting sand to collect different money from different countries. The film is so beautiful that she uses sand and patterns on different currency. It is just like a mental travel through different countries: peaceful and colorful. I am inspired by how she uses these icons and physical materials to make a film. It is the second time to watch A Tangled Tale, but I am still amazed by its visual and story telling. It is so smooth and the beats are just there. I cannot imagine the hard process and how she insist on this. But I think the visuals of physical material she used in this film can never be replaced by digital process. It is such a pleasure to hear from her again.
ReplyDeleteSiqi Fu(siqi@usc.edu)
I really enjoyed Corrie Francis Parks's talk last week. The storytelling and visuals of her work feel very poetic to me. Foreign Exchange is a mind-blowing piece of film to me. It has such a refreshing and meaningful perspective. It's rooted in the observation of everyday life but elevated as an art form. The execution of cutouts and sand animation was also amazing and pleasant to watch. It was tremendous amount of work but Corrie didn't seem to back down from it. The sand seemed so unimportant in our life but they look so big and charming on the screen. She really gave sand life.
ReplyDeleteWhat interested me as well was her artist residency and grant experiences. I know there're lots of artist residency and grants for painters, filmmakers or illustrators. It will be very interesting to find out more opportunities like that for animators. I also love independent animation. I think it's crucial to have them in the industry besides the big studios and commercial work.
Chenxue Lu
chenxuel@usc.edu
Aisha Jamila Harper (ajharper@usc.edu // 5377-7371-00)
ReplyDeleteI was truly blown away by Corrie's work. I didn't realize that I hadn't actually seen sand animation before, so seeing how she incorporated it into her work and how beautifully it came out was a definitely a treat. I love how she explained her process and went in depth about what inspired her.
I'm personally not into experimental animation, but I can definitely appreciate beautiful animation when I see it. I also noticed how a lot of my classmates really resonated with her, and that was beautiful to see in itself. Also, her bringing up the art residencies was something completely new to me. I had no idea that was even a resource we had access to. It just goes to show you how everyone can help you grow as an artist in some way.
I truly love how diverse the work is within the animation community! There's something out there for everyone, and more than one way to be inspired.
I’m grateful to have Corrie Francis Parks talking with us. Corrie is a incredibly talented and skilled full artist, she makes many traditional frame by frame animations, sand animations as well as installation arts and all of them are beautiful and poetic. I like how Her art is incredibly detailed. Every tiny bit in her art is meaningful. She likes to use physical materials to animate, while taking elements from nature, culture, memories and so on. Everything she’s animating with has its references and origins. The meanings inside these physical materials is not something that could be replaced by digital computer graphics. But at the same time she uses digital techniques to tune her colors and textures and creates a rich look to her works. I enjoy her films and it’s a eye-opening lesson for me.
ReplyDeleteTangjiay@usc.edu
Jiayi Tang
It was such an honor to have Corrie Francis as our guest at the seminar, again! I actually had the pleasure to meet her online during Lisa's stop motion class last year, seeing her for the second time was just as amazing as it was before. In Lisa's class, I was so impressed by her work, "Track", made when she was at USC. It was hard to believe that was one of her earlier films with sand animation due to the maturity, the confidence in the material, and the level of creativity. She also demos how she made sand animation during that talk, and it was mind-blowing! I've always known sand is very difficult to control, but looking at her manipulating , shaping them into something beautiful is like magic to me, and I think that really expanded my definition of "animation". Corrie also gave out super helpful words to us. She encouraged us to keep working no matter what, as long as we are passionate about the things we do. It is always nice to have someone who's super talented and amazing to remind us that we are doing the right thing and shouldn't give up. I am already in love with Corrie's work and I look forward to seeing more of them in the future. Thank you, Corrie!
ReplyDeletepinghsin@usc.edu
Sydney Chen
Corrie's animation as well her process was very soothing to watch and learn from. I've been a digital artist up til now. The thought of getting my hands into the materials and get down to it always daunts me. I would worry about not being able to keep it tidy or not being able to make changes easily. But seeing Corrie's very textile work and also hearing from our option A students who are taking Lisa's class this semester, it almost sparked a light in me and make me want to break out of my comfort zone and just have a good time with my art.
ReplyDeleteJiamu Tao
I like many of my colleagues watched Park ‘s Tracks in Lisa's class in our first year. I have always been amazed by her process that she has to animate in sand, and found it all while she was here in the Hench program is really inspiring. Having done sand animation before I am blow away at her ability to control the material and not just keep a consistent silhouette form but also render objects with shading. The mastery of craft is a spectacle, and it was a pleasure to get to see how she works in her studio in my own home state of Maryland. She combines all this ability into a well told, thoughtful, and expressive story that has a whimsical charm. Thank you Corrie!
ReplyDeleteKaisey
From Armando:
ReplyDeleteIt’s crazy that Corrie Francis Parks is also based in Maryland. It seems like Maryland is the hub for under the camera animation. It was a delight to listen to her speak again because I had the pleasure to listen to her describe how she works in a prior class. Having worked with sand before I am always amazed by the precision she is able to obtain with the medium. Seeing the result always tempts me to go back and try it again but I know I do not have the patience nor the delicacy to work with sand. Her work was beautiful and I loved hearing that she is now a professor and is teaching animation while also continuing to make more short films
-Armando Sepulveda Mendoza