Animation &Art Art &Commentary &Independent Animation 19 Mar 2011 07:21 am
Jeff Scher
- I’ve known Jeff Scher for quite some time. In the NY animation front, he’s come to represent what I think of as the truly Independent animator. His work touches abstration, live action filmaking and an absolute love for film animation. Essentially, he’s creating Art in film.
The outlet for his work had grown enormously when he started appearning in the NYTimes. There, for a year, he did a monthly video editorial for their internet site. After the year, they reduced it to a less frequent schedule. Now his videos appear more arbitrarily. (The Times is looking to make money, which means cutting back, yet charging the readers.)
These videos are short, lyrical, animated essays all made with a strong purpose of design in Jeff’s studio in Chelsea. Most of them have music by Shay Lynch. The two artists couldn’t be a better matched pair; their work together seems inseperable.
In a recent conversation with Jeff, I learned that he is self-distributing his DVDs, which collect the many films he has done. These sales are done through his own website, Fezfilms.net.
His enthusiasm for his art has always been an inspiration for me. Jeff seems to find new and adventurous ways of doing animation, and that, no doubt, keeps him alive.
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He also has a blog which talks about the making of his current films. The blog has the wonderful title, Reasons to be Glad. The image above comes from a Paul Simon video he did called “Getting Ready For Christmas Day”. You can find that video on the blog here.
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The website also features a gallery where you can watch some video and see art from many of the films (all of which is for sale.) I take pleasure in the beautiful piece of artwork Jeff gave me from his film “L’ Eau Life”.
It’s painted with watercolor on bristol, like all the other frames of this film.
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Jeff teaches in New York at the School of Visual Arts and at N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts.
There’s an excellent interview with him, discussing process, here.
on 19 Mar 2011 at 6:30 pm 1.Richard O'Connor said …
His blog does have a great name. As a choosy beggar, I only wish he updated it more frequently.
The title resounds with his films. The most extraordinary aspect of his art is it’s unbounded optimism. Artists who use similar techniques -rotoscoping and found footage especially -tend towards cynicism. Jeff’s films are not only perennially fresh, they’re fresh air too.