Someone I don’t know
Polar Ardor
A short animation about polar life and love created by Camille Wainer (camillewainer.com) in collaboration with composer Sanford Bender (sanfordbender.com).
Inspired by the paper cut style of early animator Lotte Reiniger, Polar Ardor incorporates the additive techniques of woodblock stamping and Chine-collé printmaking to recreate a delicate landscape threatened by division and deterioration.The whimsical music of composer/architect Sanford Bender accompanies each stage of the polar bear’s journey through a varied composition using only two symbolic forms (the heart and the puzzle piece). Simply and subtly, Polar Ardor offers an optimistic message about the importance of collaboration and compassion in the face of an uncertain future.
Lycanthrope
Lycanthrope
Darting furtively through the mist
Cursed under lunar brightness
The valiancy of my heart
Slashed by razor teeth
Became my darkest side
Evil enclosing
My nocturnal lair
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Mud tracked prints
Find me sprawled
In the dawn of twisted sheets
Like tormented trees
Gnarled from remembering
What blackened life
Is forever gone
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
But only the music
Of wind and owls
And the crackling rain
Had abided my incessant howls
Until yet another night
When gliding clouds
Reveal another full newness of moon
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
S.R. Bender, January 8, 2011
Snow dance
Waves of Leaves
Silver Sky of Sadness
Pictures from from an unknown place
Two dancing pigs
“Two Dancing Pigs” was improvised by playing harmonica and guitar simultaneously. Any discomfort in physically managing two instruments was alleviated through closed-eye visualization of two dancing pigs squealing with delight in each other’s company. The artwork is a detail of the pastel drawing used in my previous post, “The Listening Drum.” Looking closer allows one to see two dark pig-like shapes appear (among other creatures such as a spider, a bat, or a raven’s tail). Perhaps, rainbow colored waves are perceived as dancing while the pig duo floats and soars overhead in sea spray and thermal undulations. A colorful drawing appearing to depict a single slice in time awakens and sequentially shape-shifts to melodic rhythms of musical joy.
You can find “Two Dancing Pigs” and other pieces on Sandy Bender’s album Terrain.
The Listening Drum
Long snowy walk home under a crescent moon
