Saturday, May 26, 2012

Art Show at EMP


Fluidtoons at EMP

I'm having an art show at E.M.P. Collective. Beautiful flyer design by Carly Bales.

Details:

Opening on June 15th 8pm at E.M.P. Collective, 306 W Redwood Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 

We’re getting animated this June (not literally, what a disturbing cartoon that would be). Animator and painter, Brett W. Thompson is heading up our month of animation with a brand new exhibition, Fluidtoons: First Year in NYC at EMP.

In Brett’s work, shapes flow into one and another becoming characters and, just as quickly, are subsumed and transformed into something else. His stream-of-consciousness drawing style has been described as “Keith Haring combined with a love of cartoon expressions” (ASIFA, ANYmator blog, January 2012). Brett’s animation also follows this aesthetic and builds upon it: most of his films are hand-drawn, marker on paper, and unplanned. He also combines impromptu musical scoring to the short films he creates.

Thus, Brett W Thompson’s work has an air of spontaneity, freedom, and most importantly, enjoyment to it that is refreshing and smile-inducing.

Opening Party at EMP: Friday, June 15 at 8 pm

We’ll be having a free opening party featuring hand-picked animation including work from Oscar-nominated John R. Dilworth, creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog and Fluidtoons animation with abstract soundtrack performed live on viola by Brett W Thompson. Other entertainment includes music from cellist/singer Meaghan Burke, a live painting of a piece, a screening of Mark Billings’ short film The Gift (a time travel DNA human rights film), and a comic book reading featuring EMP’s very own Ken Jordan.

Fluidtoons: First Year in NYC Runs: June 15 – July 6

Gallery Hours: Thurs – Sat , 2PM – 7PM

ABOUT BRETT W THOMPSON
Fluidtoons creator Brett W Thompson is a southern native and recent NYC-transplant where he is honing his skills as an animator and fine art with a cartoon influence. He was president of the Atlanta chapter of ASIFA for three years (ASIFA is the worldwide animation society) and also a founder and curator for the Animation Attack! festival. Fluidtoons animation has been screened in the Atlanta Film Festival, the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, the Montezuma International Film Festival, and others. The Ren and Stimpy-inspired Chickenheads was also shown on PBA 30 (Atlanta PBS) on a show called Atlanta Shorts. We’re delighted to present him in his first northeast solo show.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Piece from Tonight

I finally made it back to the studio. Tonight instead of doing my usual spontaneous painting, I drew it out with pencil first (directly onto the canvas). I'll post footage of the process but for now here are the stills: IMG_7431.JPG IMG_7433.JPG IMG_7435.JPG IMG_7436.JPG