by mari jaye blanchard

WIA: working from home

Last month I took part in the Women in Animation #workfromhome Challenge and I managed to make a new drawing/animation for each of the thirty days. It was really important for me as an artist to focus on that structure during the start of the lockdown, and I believe it kept me sharp as all other structure fell away.  I don’t totally know what day it is anymore, but I am working during every single one of them, and weirdly, that feels good!  Today, WIA announced the winner of the challenge, as well as those of us who hung in there for all 30 prompts.  Congrats, America Castillo for winning, and to my fellow thirty-day-ers for completing the challenge!

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 by mari jaye blanchard

NYFA comes to Rochester!

I was honored to speak this weekend during the New York Foundation for the Arts’ (NYFA) presentation at Flower City Arts Center to promote NYFA’s programming for artists.  After arriving here from Brooklyn two years ago, I have been impressed with spirit of artists in this city, and want them all to know that NYFA houses many resources they could be utilizing!

Felicity Hogan and Judy Cai touched upon many of those resources including:

Fiscal Sponsorship

Online Resources including comprehensive classifieds and an artist hotline

NYFA Fellowships

NYFA Learning

Great to meet some new folks at the event, and to know that they’ll be spreading the word to other Monroe County makers about this wonderful organization!

 

 

NYSCA/NYFA Resources and Services Talk, Flower City Arts Center, August 2017. Photo: Judy Cai

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 by mari jaye blanchard

Years in the making…

Happy Belated Independence Day!

I have fallen behind with posts because of many exciting things (and many things that are not as exciting but part of being a full-time teacher of animation!), but I am happy to say that my Mutoscope, almost two years in the making, should be flipping an animation very, very soon!  It has taken a veritable village to get this thing made, but there’s finally an end in sight!

Posts coming soon of the finished product…once it’s finished!

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 by mari jaye blanchard

…every single inch of ground…

Thanks to some amazing colleagues, students and the always-up-for-a-challenge Greg Condon, we were able to complete this pixilation short in Mount Hope Cemetery after a one take, 10-hour shoot on October 17th (the ONE sunny day in the entire month and two weeks before Susan B. Anthony’s grave site was visited by thousands of people who had cast their votes).  May we treasure every single inch of ground we have gained, and protect it for all it’s worth.

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 by mari jaye blanchard

“Tired Tongues” at Westbeth Gallery!

In between teaching at SVA for the past two weeks, David Yockel Jr. and I completed a film for the NYFA fellows exhibition “Decensortized: A Safe Space” opening THIS Friday, August 5th, from 6-9pm at Westbeth Gallery (55 Bethune Street NY,NY).

The film is made up of over five hundred Pollack Flavor Co. stickers I found by the roll in a dumpster a few years ago.  I wrote David’s poem, word by word, on each sticker, and we photographed them throughout Brooklyn over several sticky, sweaty days!  Though in hindsight I would have shot even more frames per sticker, I am super psyched with the results, and will definitely be putting the stickers to use again in the future.  If you would like to express yourself through flavor stickers this Friday, head on over the Westbeth Gallery…there will be stickers there waiting for your own hand drawn message!

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 by mari jaye blanchard

It’s ALLiiiiiiiiive!

I cannot totally believe it myself, but this morning Kate Cosden and I turned the (hand-built) crank of an actual, functioning Mutoscope (sans animation for now!).  My welds are garbage, and there’s not a single set of parallel edges to be found, but I’d like us all to focus on the fact that it works!!

 

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 by mari jaye blanchard

“Reel” Progress!

Original prototype made with Xacto-sliced foam, wooden dowels and a whole lotta hot glue! Completely off-center, off-balance and every page was at its own angle. NOT good. I needed to see a real reel!
After a visit with the incredibly knowledgeable Todd Gustavson at the George Eastman House, I was able to make this sketch for Mark Reisch who thankfully agreed to help me create the 3D model.
Mark and Mike Buffalin IV put the final touches on the file...
...and just like magic, I hit print and the 3Ding began!
The exact piece I needed, hot off the press!
For the prototype reel, I decided to hand cut index cards using a laser-cut template, to make sure everything worked correctly before laser-cutting all the paper. That's three thousand teeny triangles...
The cuts worked well with the discs, but the pages stuck out at all different angles again!
This final touch made all the difference. Clamped all 1500 index cards together...
...and with some Tacky Glue and cloth...
...the pages were bound together...
...making insertion into the discs a piece of cake!

A big concern for this Mutoscope project was how I was going to build the reel.  Essentially, I needed hundreds of pages to wrap, Rolodex style, around a tube.  After meeting with Todd Gustavson at George Eastman House, and convincing Mark Reisch and Mike Buffalin to come along for the ride, I was in business! The above gallery is my progress on this very important step. And here’s a video of the result.

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 by mari jaye blanchard

Way to a Woman’s Heart…

FEAD it!  And by that I mean, give a woman her first official RIT FEAD grant and she will make the anatomical heart Mutoscope she’s been planning for eight months.  Found out this week my project is FUNDED!  Thank you, RIT, for being not only a fantastic place to work, but also a source of encouragement for my work outside of your heavily bricked but sort of charming walls.AngleGrind_Funded

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