Another Birthday

And today it's mine!! I reflect on many things today. I am a twin so cell development must have been a hectic process in utero!! And i am hoping someone else is making my cake. In fact when I got home there was a star shaped chocolate cake awaiting me!

Today I presented Norman McLaren's 'small phantasy on a nineteenth century painting' to the class.
The film begins with a painting , surrealist in style, and through animation sets a scenario McLaren has invented. It is interesting to note that McLaren started out at Glasgow School of Art as a set design student. This painting becomes a set within which a new scene emerges.
McLaren explores atmosphere by his additions of changing shape and colour. The lighting changes as if on stage, a coffin appears from which emerges a ghost who sets in motion destruction. Walls crack, fire blazes from a burning bush !The film was made in 1946 and I feel it portrays a sense of the havoc and destruction wrought by Nazi Germany during the second world war. At one point the Nazi Eagle even soars above the scene. The Eagle re appears later like a skeleton, perhaps reminding us that there will always be war somewhere on the planet? McLaren used subtle changes of pastel shading to alter the light in the background, and often used this effect in the background of future films.(see attached 'Phantasy') He was deeply affected by war , and had first hand experience while working as an animator in Spain in 1936 during the civil war there and again in 1951 in Korea and China. He remained a staunch pacifist and films like Neighbours give a sense of his strength of feeling.


Have also been watching Norman McLaren's film 'Spheres' which he later used as part of 'Phantasy'. (1965)
His awareness of spacial orientation was intense. It is something those of us who have it take for granted. It is only when you see someone who does not have it that you truely appreciate it. For me it was a eureka moment. I was a great athlete, sprinter and jumper ( finally finding a perfect purpose for my oversize feet!!)I also loved art at school, and discovered I was quite competent at drawing. But on my first introduction to the theory of Rudolf Laban and the body in space, I was the only one in the class who 'got it' right away. PERFECT ALIGNMENT, DIAGONALS, PLACEMENT. I just knew where I was in space. And so began the combined use of art and physical ability. Art and movement. The Art of movement.