Talking with Caroline Leaf. (Page 41)
This book includes interviews and profiles on female animation artists from as early as the 1930s. The book doesn't include any accounts of artists in the modern day, but it does provide a good insight into the development of women's reputation within the animation industry. One woman in particular, Caroline Leaf, was well known for experimenting with sand in her pieces. She created it whilst studying in a carpentry center in Harvard University (1968) and shares her experience with Talie Schenkel, who like most of the interviewers in the book is a friend of hers. (This, as a side note gives the book a warming sense of sisterhood and familiarity that I think female readers can appreciate best.) It is stated that Leaf didn't actually have any faith in her drawing abilities at first. This I can relate to, as I don't have any faith in my drawing ablities either. Yet Leaf took animation in a different direction, bringing in a method that was still fairly new...using sand to shape characters. Her peers were very impressed by this, with famous animator Norman McLaren (director of such productions as 'Neighbours' and 'Narcissus') being particular in awe of this new method. The book mentions how the sand's abilitiy to create a flowing quality created strongly metamorphic and 'dreamlike' quality. (As I am assessing this after completing my final animation, I wish I experimented with this form of animation instead of going back to pixilation. I will definitely try something with sand in the future.) She, like most artists I've read about apparently fell into the world of animation after only having two choices of undergraduate courses: documentary and animation. This seems to be a pattern, where people with real success seem to stumble into their craft. It makes me wonder whether people like me (within live action film or animation) who are trying really hard to enter into the media world will actually get anywhere.
She said that in her class (taught by Derek Lamb) it wasn't the drawing that was important, it was the movement. As long as it was moveable, the class used it within the productions. (They would use such things as keys, shaving cream, pencils and coins...every day objects.) She said using sand didn't feel like drawing so she could ease in and enjoy the process, therefore making her productions better. It took her 6 months to make her most mentioned production, 'Sand, or Peter and the Wolf', which in turn has won many awards such as coming first in the student animation category at the 5th Annual Chicago International Film Festival in 1968. Leaf isn't the first to use sand in animated films. A man from Switzerland, Ernest Ansorge has been using sand in animations for years. By the tone of Leaf's comment, she didn't seem too impressed with his work and I'd imagine she wanted to be the first to think of this method. Everyone wants the recognition that comes with being a pioneer. After the success of this animation she spent a year in Rome, learning to draw and how to speak Italian. She was eventually called back to Harvard for a fellowship where she worked on the project 'Orfeo', composed onto glass.
