Artist: Jeff Scher

Ohhh, goodness. What a discovery.

I love learning about a new artist whose work just makes me want to stop everything and start creating immediately.

Today I discovered Jeff Scher, who has a blog on the New York Times website. His bio says that he is "a painter who makes experimental films and an experimental filmmaker who paints." I like that. I like using the word "experimental" in a description about yourself, and I like the idea of presenting an identity that is a dichotomy of sorts. I don't think that artists should be able to define themselves too clearly. Kind of reminds me of that show tune lyric, "you gotta get a gimmick, if you wanna to get ahead."

I did some research into his work, and learned this on zanimation.tv:

Scher gave up his pre-med studies for film while at Bard College in the mid-1970s. He still makes use of rotoscoping, an old animation technique in which film frames are blown up and traced individually onto animation cels. In Scher's case, he painstakingly hand paints and shoots each frame of film, sometimes substituting clay, paper models or found materials for his paintings.

His work is sooooooo(etc.) moving. I'm especially recommending that you take a moment out of your busy day to watch his short animation, "You Won't Remember This." The title, the imagery, the movement, the music, is just so tender and precious.

I'm so in awe by this, as I usually am by animators, because I feel like the idea of capturing life frame by frame, light by light, is so awesome (and I mean that in the truest sense of the word). It's life in slow motion, then sped up again, but with an acute appreciation for how all our subtle nuances come together to create the big picture.

I'm really inspired by this.

--> His NYT blog, "The Animated Life"
--> His official website
--> "You Won't Remember This" - Film