Category: Announcements/Events

Announcement: Retirement

Taking effect immediately, I will no longer be accepting any new students or any requests for studio or group based animation instruction.*

I love animation, always have and always will. For years, I’ve kept teaching and lecturing, staying on the sidelines of the industry, despite being offered various opportunities to return to it either as a head of department or director. I have always resisted going back to it full time. The industry was changing (and has changed) and so have its demands. But in all my years animating, directing and teaching, perhaps what I have enjoyed more than anything else was teaching (both online and onsite). Most especially though, it was coaching and mentoring students privately on a one-on-one basis that has been my greatest joy. I think it brought out the best in me and each student’s own passion for learning — I don’t believe there is any substitute for it. Studying, learning and doing this marvelous craft together with fellow artists — regardless of skill level — is what a lot of what being in animation is all about. And having witnessed so many of my students go on toward solid careers and, more importantly, mature into fabulous people, makes me incredibly proud. Unfortunately, the time has now come for me to end my involvement with the animation industry altogether. In order to further an overdue commitment to my own art (painting) and to leading a healthier and saner life, I must move on. It’s been a difficult yet necessary decision. Whether this choice is permanent or not one can never say, but that is the intent. As for this blog, it will go on, at least for now, and perhaps with even more openness and frankness regarding this craft and the issues that plague it or what might save it. So, to my former colleagues and students who have helped make my life so enjoyable within the confines of this wonderful craft, I wish to thank you all. It has been my honor and blessing to have worked with so many wonderful and passionate people.

*Current students will, of course, remain under my tutelage until they are ready to move onwards and upwards.

The Journey

Wall painting for Homer’s Odyssey

As we embark on the new year, so many questions lingered in my head. I had doubts about this blog — this place I share using time and resources to make happen. I began to question its usefulness or relevance. I considered deeply whether I should close it down. I’ve been posting less and less articles (which take many hours to write). More and more of my video analyses/tutorials were being blocked by studios despite the fact that they actually promote their products and I make absolutely no money off of it (actually, I lose money). Furthermore, my teaching notes, demos and drawings were being copied and used by others as if their own. All rather perturbing realities. I also know that closing this website would give me more time to my art projects and to my students/clients who have requested my guidance. I’d also have more time to spend with family and friends, and rest and care for my body. There are so many reasons.

“The more I wrote, the more I became human.” — Henry Miller.

Then the thought came about as to why I created this website in the first place: to share, to inspire, and to help if possible. And like my art, this blog which is now over seven years old (with no social media links or advertising) is part of a journey. And like any journey it has its struggles and doubts but ultimately it’s part of who we are, and in this case who I am, as a teacher, as an artist and ultimately, as a person. Just as drawing is the probity of art, giving is the probity of being genuinely human. I want to live in a better world. I want to see a kinder world, one of beauty and consideration, a human existence in harmony and alignment with nature, rather than dissassociated from it. Art — writing, music, painting, filmmaking, etc — is that act of courage that says yes to living and yes to greater possibilities, possibilities of creating a world more invigorating and more meaningful than the one we’ve created so far. Our legacy lies in not just how we see the world, but how we live it and who we become. Isn’t that the best blueprint we can lay forth for future generations? Or as one of my favourite thinkers noted so duly:

“Men walk as prophecies of the next age.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

So to cut out this blog from existence would be to cut short the journey. Henceforth, I will actually try to increase the rate of my postings, perhaps making them more succinct so that it can be more readily disgested. That will be my compromise. But succinctness might reduce repetitiveness which, as a teacher, I naturally tend towards. After all, art is process and process is a journey of change. It’s also a form of nourishment. Like Homer’s tale, journeys are hard, requiring immense effort but ultimately, incomparably fulfilling. Because to live without art — without expression and connection — and the long trial it implores would be terrible in its shallowness.

“The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable.” — Charles Bukowski