Need a Christmas gift for that someone special?

Christmas is right around the corner. If you're looking for a gift for that special someone in your life, I hope you'll consider some of the following products that were produced by women animators: 

Jessica Borutski

Jessie has her own line of children's books that she publishes under her PandaRamaPublishing brand: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PandaRamaPublishing

Monica Theiler (née Bruenjes) 

Do your kids like penguins? Monica has a book following the adventures of her original characters "Penguin and Peep". 'Penguin and Peep: Feathered Friends' is for sale online via Monica's webstore.  

You can also find her book, as well as some extra Penguin and Peep merch, for sale on her Etsy store: ArtistMonicaBruenjes.

Angie Novak (née Hauch)

Lake Michigan inspired and produced jewelry using Great Lakes natural resources (and some not so natural) sold through her "Straight from the Lake" webstore. 

Catherine and Sarah Satrun 

The Satrun sisters have lots of their original artwork for sale on their webstore and you can find selected prints of theirs made into t-shirts on their Threadless shop.  

Joan Gratz

Need a little serenity in your life? Academy Award winner Joan Gratz has released a coloring book of her designs for sale on Amazon.com. Time to break out the colored pencils and pens for some quiet time with The Amazing Cosmic Coloring Book.

Corrie Francis Parks

And lastly, but certainly not least, for that budding animator in your life (or maybe the experienced animator who wants to expand their toolkit) we have Fluid Frames written by Corrie Francis Parks.

If you'd like to see Corrie's bona fides, as it were, check out her film 'A Tangled Tale' on her website -- or watch it below. This hybrid digital/traditional sand animation film was produced using many of the techniques she discusses in her book.

A Tangled Tale from Corrie Francis Parks on Vimeo.

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International Animation Day 2021

Happy International Animation Day--the day where ASIFA chapters all over the world celebrate the birth of animated film! The image above is the 2021 IAD Poster created by Maryam Mohajer.

Animated Thoughts: Dreams and visions

It's been an odd month.

I had two very vivid dreams about Erik in the span of a week and they pretty much set the tone for the month. They were those dreams we all have once in a blue moon: very, very rare, but feel so real, so visceral that they are completely set apart from the usual dreams we have.

The first was pretty short. Erik and I were in a spacious room and he was talking about his divorce (which is odd given that other than mentioning that he was divorced, he never spoke about it around me). At the end of the conversation, he leaned in and said "Chicken wings". I have absolutely no idea what that meant in the context of the dream, or of our overall friendship. But I did have chicken wings for dinner that Friday night, just in case. They were excellent.

The second is a little harder to describe. Similar location but I don't remember what we were discussing. I think that Erik was going to make some big life change, and it wasn't like he was looking for approval or anything, just sort of "this is what I'm doing next" or "if I don't do it now, I never will" kinds of things. At the end of the dream, I remember giving him a hug and trying to warn him that he was going to die of cancer in a couple years. And that's where the dream ended.

I don't know what these dreams mean. Maybe they don't mean anything, just random neurons firing while we sleep. But I guess if you put my feet to the fire though, to me, I think they mean that I miss my friend and I may be a little resentful about the potential years of friendship that were stolen from us.

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