This month, five of us from ASIFA/Central met up in Kalamazoo for a nice lunch (where we discussed ways to build our community in ASIFA/Central) followed by a visit to the Kalamazoo Art Museum where they were hosting a display of Looney Toons animation and animation art from the golden age of Warner Brothers animation. As I, Jim, Deanna, Jennifer, and Gordon walked through the display, I was struck several times at how much these little gatherings with "my people" mean to me. This first quarter of 2010 won't see me travelling very much as I've got a big project to work on for Thistle-Threads. So there won't be any weekend excursions to Toronto for the TAIS workshops until I get the majority of the animation done for Dr. Nguyen. But these little in-State day-trips every month with ASIFA/Central should really help dispel those feelings of isolation while I toil away in my studio. Every month or so, there will be something in-State to look forward to--something to help foster that sense of community that I love so much that I willingly drive ten hours to Toronto in order to obtain it. Here in ASIFA/Central, we're pretty spread out, so we can't do the kind of weekly events and meet-ups like TAIS does in Toronto. But if we can get to a point where we're offering events once every month, I think that we'll not only be leagues ahead of where we were, we'll see our membership growing once again.
