Friday, March 30th, Canterbury students gathered in the Duffy Art Gallery to experience the unique world created by visiting artist Kate Ten Eyck.
Unlike artists who mainly focus on static mediums such as painting and sculpture, Kate Ten Eyck tries to explore imagery related to the environment and social causes through stop motion animations which involve drawing and erasing thousands of images on one sheet of paper to create the illusion of movement. The current show consists of presentations of animations, soundtracks, and sheets of drawing paper where creation of the animations took place.
Graduating as a sculpture student at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Kate Ten Eyck first went to work for Oddfellows Playhouse, a Middletown, CT youth theater program which promotes self-esteem through performing arts.
In the Fall of 2000, Kate began working for Wesleyan University as Drawing professor and Art Studio Technician. Kate manages all of the University’s art studios, including wood shop, metal working, print shop, and film and photograph studio. She’s also responsible for teaching students about health and safety and trains students how to use all the working tools and welding tools safely. While working at Wesleyan, she completed her MFA in printmaking at the Hartford Art School.
When Kate was asked about her experience in the art world, she said,
“I’m not crazy about the galleries. Instead, I’m much more interested in education. Throughout my career, I’ve pretty much focused on my own projects and mainly supported myself through educating others. It works really well for me because something that I really believe in is to empower other people to do the things they want to do.
“It is really satisfying to help others,” she continued. “Rather than supporting myself through my art and selling works for money, I’d like my works to be more democratic. Animation is a fantastic way to do that because I can share my work with anybody who can get on Youtube. I don’t need to put my work in a gallery in order for people to see them.”
Compared to other mediums, Kate was especially drawn to animation because she has always loved music, dance theatre and drawing. Animation becomes a perfect way to bring what she loves all together. She thinks the great possibilities of animation allow people to do things they can’t imagine doing with other mediums. Kate also mentioned two artists, William Kentridge and Blu, who inspired her to first start creating her own animations.
Kate emphasizes the importance of patience and physicality when creating art.
“Animation definitely needs a lot of patience. Certain sections of these animations took me weeks to finish.
“I’m not interested in computer generated animation because one of things I love about my work is the physicality,” she said. “For me, computer generated animations are too digital. I love using digital tools to create these animations, but I love handling the fur, hot glue gun, and getting burns on my hands.”
Kate hopes that her show will inspire people in some way.
“While people are watching the animation and listening to the music, I hope that they might be transported and have some kind of moment of amazement. One of the most common responses to my most recent work, Firebird, is that my animation had made audiences cry. The fact that they are moved in that way is very meaningful to me.”
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