Letters From Lily, Finished! I don’t believe the button will work since it has been converted to a MP4 to post on my blog, but you are able to click the video itself and have it played.
Artist Statement:
What I have created is an animation entitled “Letters from Lily” How this animation turned out to be was not what was originally planned. I originally planned to do something involving humor and fun in general, I did not mean for it to turn out to be an emotional piece about a frog missing their friend, their lover, or their family. But at last, it did! My plan started with a frog – something I just pulled out of a hat. There was no real reason to pick a frog as my main character, other than not having to deal with the complexity of the human figure. Then came the concept around the frog – I was gone the first day we introduced the project, so that left me alone or having to join a group as a third member. I decided to go alone and be able to choose exactly what I, and only I, wanted to spend the project on. I wanted to put a personal spin on it. I started the animation by drawing the backgrounds – I really wanted to somehow incorporate an apartment building since I had an itching to draw one, then came the kitchen. I imagined the main character, the unnamed frog, was someone who was neat and organized, and liked to keep a tidy place. Not being the wealthiest, the unnamed frog had to live paycheck-to-paycheck, in an area that was not the greatest. But that never stopped them from anything! Then came the reason for animating the frog’s stress, worry, anxiety, and sadness. I wanted to contrast these beautiful quirky backgrounds, with a tough concept. They were lonely. They were missing someone they loved. I wanted to convey in my animation the pain of missing someone you love, and then the happiness that you can receive from the tiniest things that they do, something as simple as receiving a letter from them. This idea came to my mind when thinking about moving on and looking to the past. I have recently had some major life changes going on, both stressful, and hopefully, stress-relieving. Things that involve losing that constant communication with those who you have grown to love and have seen every day. Moving on. Growing Up. Drifting apart. It’s all a scary, stressful, sad part of life that we will all evidently deal with. You never know what could take the ones you love away from you at any moment. You never can predict when you’re going to be missing someone. That’s why we need to cherish people in the moment and live in the moment. Reach out to people who you miss dearly. Tell someone that you will miss them. Tell someone that you cherish the time you spend with them. Such a hard subject is hard to convey in roughly a minute, but I think we can all relate to this type of pain in a way. Whether it be a text from someone you haven’t seen in a hot minute, a smile from a familiar face, a wave in a crowd, a poke on Facebook, or a letter from Lily, we all face the pain of missing someone we love.
