This is “Holly Moon” from John Siddique‘s Thirteen Moons series. The paintings are by Dania Strong, Clarpupia Hernandez did the animation, and credit for direction and supervision is given to Walter Santucci. As with the others in the series, the original music was composed by Katie Chatburn in response to the video.
Tom Jacobsen made this latest animation for Motionpoems, illustrating a poem by L.S. Klatt which was included in his collection Cloud of Ink as well as in Best American Poems 2011. According to a blog post from Pixel Farm, the production studio where he works, Jacobsen based his animation on a series of photos of landscapes reminiscent of Wyeth paintings: “On a 9-day Dakota road trip with his son, Jacobsen snapped photos of the Midwest landscape that were inspired by the painter and then incorporated into the finished piece.”
This is from a series of animations called Thirteen Moons. I’ll let the author, bestselling U.K. poet John Siddique, explain:
A series of 13 animated films based on a sequence of poems from Recital — An Almanac (Salt). The poems are based on the Full Moons of the year and the Celtic mythology which names each moon after a letter in the ancient tree alphabet.
The films were created when I was British Council Poet in Residence at California State University in Los Angeles. Made with determination, love, and goodwill. Animation director Walter Santucci, his students, friends and myself set to work before passing the pieces to composer Katie Chatburn. My aim was to gave each artist a free hand in what they came up with in response to the poems, interjecting as lightly as possible.
The paintings in this one are by Dania Strong. I’ll be sharing more of these in the coming weeks, but if you’re impatient, you can browse them all — or twelve of them, at any rate — at the album Siddique has set up for them on Vimeo (whence the above quote).
A wonderfully abstract animation by Kristian Pedersen of Gasspedal Animert, who say in their Vimeo description:
Norangsdalen is one of Norways most narrow and steep valleys. It is notorious for its frequent avalanches and landslides. In 1912, an enormous landslide dammed the valley river, causing it to flood and submerge a farm and a small forest. This is today known as the lake Lyngstøylsvatnet – a popular expedition spot for divers.
According to the Norwegian Wikipedia and Google Translate,
Erlend O. Nødtvedt (b. 1984) is a Norwegian poet from Fyllingsdalen and the winner of the Youth Poetry Prize in 2008. He now lives in the city of Bergen, where he studies at the University of Bergen. Nødtvedt previously attended the Skrivekunstakademiet (Writing Academy) and is on the editorial board of the journal Vagant.
Glenn-emlyn Richards‘ latest animation was produced in collaboration with poet Eleanor Rees. (See also their earlier collaboration, Night Vision.) Rees is a Liverpudlian and author of the collection Andraste’s Hair (Salt, 2007), who “often collaborates with other writers, musicians and artists,” according to her online biography.
A silent kinetic-text animation by Kylie Hibbert, who notes that it was developed for a postgraduate study called “Belles Letres,” which “explore[d] the potential of paralinguistics and poetry as emotive narrative.”
A visually arresting, silent watercolor animation by Lilli Carré. The poem has its own Wikipedia page. (Hat-tip: Hannah Stephenson)
