I’m finding the work on, first, Fiego and now Odin, as a series of artistic hurdles.
Where I had spent thirty years mostly working in Hollywood on commercial projects ( no matter how hard I struggled with the artistic aspect and having committees wanting to tell you what they wanted) they were still funded by dollars from McDonalds and cereal.
Getting back to my indie film roots meant not always having a hurdle of external approval in your creative head. Not always having a tight deadline in your creative head. Or volume challenges, crew management, and managing relationships with upper management and network and studio heads.
Different sides of the brain to creative thinking. And sometimes cutting off the voice of inspiration.
They fell away one at a time. Usually kicking and screaming as my old belief systems had to be rewired.
As much as I would have wanted a lifetime career of an indie such as Don Hertzfeld, my path bore lots of fruit and many kids, and experiences I would not have had otherwise.
Now I am with my art. I am a monk in a stable producing my little films. Some may like them. Some may not. They are not like my past television projects. They are what lives in my spirit at the moment.
And looking at animation as art. I have turned down offers to enter back into the world of animation as a product. As commerce.
I like where I am.
