Mawson of the Antarctic
I was invited to be an Artist-in-Residence at a Marketing firm in Portland, OR entitled "The Curiosity Group," and my goals were to create signage for the company, work on various projects, and ultimately create a poster, story, and motion graphic for a story of my own choosing. I had just crossed the great expanse of these United States from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan after graduation from Cranbrook Academy of Art and my friend and I smoked a bunch of cigarettes, listened to old Radio Plays with Vincent Price, and at night I read from this book, "The Aztec Treasure House" by Evan Connell full of stories of adventurers—hell, I was on one myself and there was an entire chapter on the adventures (more accurately, the misadventures) of the early Antarctic explorers, of Douglas Mawson and his expedition wandering in a strange world full of curiosity and wonderment. Through extensive visual and conceptual research into Antarctica and conversations with the principals and fellow partners, we were able to craft a story that builds upon a youthful audience in the Pacific Northwest's familiarity with both video games and nature into a fable of of discovery and illustrate the Kafka quote that art needs to be the "axe for the frozen sea within us."