Doodling in Dallas.

Last weekend during my trek back and forth to Frederick, Maryland from Vancouver, I had stopovers in the Dallas airport. For, like, 4 hours. So...... what a perfect time to sketch unsuspecting travellers!

Goin' to Maryland!

UPDATE: Below is a scan of the paper about the festival I taught workshops at - what an amazing weekend! Click here to read the article online.


We are still in the midst of some boxes and unpacking here in our new home in Coquitlam, BC... but already we are feeling like this is the place for us. We miss home and the people there like crazy, but we know this is where we should be. Amid us unpacking, I got invited to a film fest in Maryland to come and teach animation workshops to kids. Of COURSE I was all on board for that!

Click on the link above for more info. If you're in the Frederick, Maryland area during Nov 19-20, stop by! I love when life brings about random opportunities :)

I'm a-BC Boundin'!

So... life changes, and mine will be a lot in a few short weeks! We have decided to make the leap and move to Vancouver as of November 1st. As I always say, life is too short, and ya gotta take risks! I will miss my family and close friends of course the most, but Tams and I are ready for a new adventure!

Stay tuned..... :)

Hawaiian Hooligans photos

Click on the photo to see an online photo book of our adventures in Kauai, Hawaii for a film festival last November! What an amazing trip on an amazing island!!

Memories for Christmas :)

This was the first year in a few years that my life wasn't consumed with school, so I was able to think ahead a bit more for Christmas gifts for my fam :) I made a few photo books of some of the greatest trips I have spent with my family, click on the books to view them online!

Memories are the best gifts, I think. No need to return or exchange them!

Aloha, Animation workshops!

Here are a couple [rather rough] quick snippets of videos that Tams took whilst Andrew [Marshel] and I taught the animation workshops out in Kaua'i, Hawaii last week.





What an amazing time; the wide-eyed kidlets with their pencils brings everything back to perspective! :)

Teaching animation in Kaua'i!

I am enjoying the last couple days we have here in gooooorrrrgeous Kaua'i, Hawaii, but I thought I would post a few pics of my experiences teaching a few animation workshops with my newfound pal, Andrew Marshel! We met out here in Kaua'i for the LA Intl Children's Film Fest, as both of our films were screening there.

We had a BLAST teaching the 7 different workshops over the festival weekend, but the best part was seeing how excitedly all the kids responded. It makes everything SO worth it!













More updates to come.
Muhalo!

Aloha, "Tah-Dah"!

I have been riding this rollercoaster of wonderfulness ever since graduating in April with my film, "Tah-Dah", and I never could have predicted all the amazing places this film has taken me since then! I am sooooo blessed!

The newest development: I am going to Hawaii!!

Well, the island of Kauai, to be exact. I got invited through the Los Angeles Intl Childrens Film Fest - they are putting on a "Best of Fest" in Kauai, Hawaii, and they asked if they could screen my film there! How could I say no?? More info on the fest is here.

Tams is coming with me, as she put in tons of work to help finish the film, and HELLO its Hawaii! We leave two weeks today! Here are some pics of the island I found, I cannot waaaaaaaaaaait. [They filmed "Jurassic Park" on this island, among other things!]

Sketches of the experience to come :)








2010 UPDATE: If you want to see some of our pics from our amazing Hawaiian adventures, please click on the below links. I recommend EVERYONE trying to make it there at least once in your lifetime!

Album 1
Album 2
Album 3
Album 4

A Feel Good Film Fest Interview!

The great peeps at Actors Reporter let me know that they posted the interview they did with me on the red carpet at the Feel Good Film Fest this past August. [See above :) ]

It was such a wonderfully trippy experience to be, first of all, on a red carpet at all, and secondly, to have pics taken of me and asked to do interviews! I am so proud of everyone who helped and supported me to finish "Tah-Dah", and I wouldn't have been to any film fests without them!

Feel Good Film Fest

Having my film "Tah-Dah" screened at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood as a part of the Feel Good Film Festival this weekend has been nothing short of AMAZING!

More details to come :)

If you want to check out a few more pics from the event, click here.

LA Shorts Fest + "Tah-Dah" crits

My brother Cody and I jaunted down to LA this past weekend to see my film "Tah-Dah" Premiere at the LA Shorts Fest. The films screened at the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theatres on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. It was his very generous birthday and early Christmas present to me...it was amazing!

A couple quick videos to show our excited experience: [we are obviously related]
Seeing Courtney Cox
Seeing Scarlett Johansson

It was a great experience, besides getting to sit right beside A-list stars like Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher & Lena Headey, I got to screen and participate in a filmmaker Q & A after my film screened. It was a huge honor to be invited to screen my film among these true Hollywood productions! I met a lot of great people in the Industry, and got some really positive feedback on my film. It was overall definitely worth the trip!

Festival is in November at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood:

The second fest I got some great feedback from was the AniMazing Spotlight - my film was included in the Quarter 3 entries and got feedback from amazing professionals in the Animation Industry all over the world.

Here are some of the comments I received about "Tah-Dah":

Nancy Beiman: [worked with Chuck Jones & a Disney Animation veteran]
"Good sound, interesting design. The animation is good, The style is highly derivative of 1950s Disney design and story but the film is professional looking and pretty to watch."

Bill Dennis:

"Delightful little film. Loved the sound track."

Paul Dopff: [animator & instructor from France]

"Just perfect, with a very good tribute to the UPA style.

very professional creation, visual and sound level together."

Bill Matthews: [Disney Feature Animation veteran]

"A short (very short) animated film using the flat, designy approach reminiscent of the 1950's style of commercial animation. Rather refreshing departure from all the 3-D computer shorts in this competition; used a jazz-type background for a character playing a cello concerto!! Nice expressions but just as I was "getting into" the idea, it ended. (Usually, I found that editing on some shorts would have tightened up their stories...here, I couldn't get quite enough!)"

Thanks so much everyone!!

A sketch & a quote.

An awesome woman I stopped and memory sketched super quick when we were exploring the streets of Seattle. I find life to be so many shades of beautiful.

Here's a quote a friend of mine shared, of which I am enthralled, and am now sharing. I think we should all take some time each day to ponder stuff like this.

"Two men looked out through prison bars, One saw the mud, the other saw the stars."

San Diego Zoo sketchlings

The amount of sketches I did in comparison to the amount of animals we saw at the famed San Diego Zoo! What an amazing place, if I lived anywhere around there I would SO get an annual pass to draw it up!

I [stupidly] forgot my pencil pack back at the house when we left, so I bought a nice ol' HB San Diego zoo pencil and used that.....aaaaahhh, the quality lead that comes in those pencils, lemme tell ya.


I can't wait to spend some quality sketching time this summer at the ol' Winnipeg zoo!

Fest Numero 5, 6 & 7!

An update from Davis, California!

I am still on my extendedly wonderful vacation touring the better part of California and staying with wonderful friends along the way. I have had so many amazing experiences these past few weeks to honestly last me my lifetime!

"Tah-Dah" has made it into three more film fests, I feel so overwhelmed! I just wish I could be there to see each one screen....hmmm....if only I could get a plane ticket that would be free flights forever.......

Anyhoo, the three fests are:

On July 26th at Comic-Con in San Diego:

My film will be played at the San Diego Intl Children's Film Fest, which will take place at Comic-Con, so that is uber exciting!

On July 24th at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Hollywood:

On July 18th in PEI:

Yay for film fests! I hope to make at least a couple of them but we shall see. Well, on the road again.....

Fourth Film Fest!

On Aug 7th @ 11am in Hollywood:

Whilst enjoying our jaunts down South [my apologies on lack of posting, but we have been traveling by foot seemingly every waking moment!]...I heard from a fourth film fest that my film,
"Tah-Dah" has been accepted!

Yahoo! [The excitement never ceases for me!]

It's the West Hollywood International Film Fest, or WHIFF. Click on the image above to see their site. Visiting Hollywood this week is extra exciting for me, as in August my film will screen there!

As for our crazy awesome road trip extraordinaire, it has been going fabulously. More pics and sketches to come, but until then here's a few snapshots thus far :)

Moi hugging a HUGE rock formation at the Arches National Park in Moab, Utah.

Tams and I on her 30th birthday at the Arches National Park in Moab, Utah.

Super excited moi up in an air balloon for the first time over the beautiful vineyards in Temecula, California!

Doing some watercolour paintin' at the AWESOME Grand Canyon!

Doc and me, checkin' the time in Universal Studios, Hollywood.