William Kentridge

Long before I learn how animation works, I’ve always been a fanatic of cartoon films. I enjoy watching the process and steps to developing a moving image. It could be 2d animation, 3d animation, stop motion but personally, I prefer 2d animation because I strongly believe that anyone can do it.

Such as William Kentridge, who proves my point and has become a motivational artist for me. I appreciate his dedication and time to compose a narrative story that connects to the world. Now, I’ve just recently learned a little bit about him but so far, I admire his work. It’s nothing that I would have imagine; I’ve always thought animation had to be perfect and demonstrate a final sketch. However, he reminds me that there is no limit in art medium and that we can explore what is dispose before us. His artwork consists of sketchy moving artwork like a storyboard and creates words from a newspaper and transforms it into a bird. He’s constantly changing something into something new that connects with each other and I find it interesting.

In some cases, I’m unsure of what he’s trying to explain to us and it can be confusing. Yet, he does express a deeper meaning behind the sorrow and pain in the images. Still, the charcoal medium that he uses tends to deepen his values and alter ’s a darker feeling, therefore it is a flexible material. Just like William Kentridge mentioned countless times in his interview, charcoal is a wonderful use of creating emotion and ‘you can change charcoal as quickly as your mind.’

Moreover, I’ve notice that he is regularly staging an impactful and dreadful feeling in the animation films. For example, “Felix in exile,” was depressing and characterized a shallow mood which I wasn’t a great fan of it. But he did cross his point through and I realized that it wasn’t just about a regular men sitting on the bed. Most of his videos had to do with politics and distinct perspective of the world. At first it takes time to notice this aspects because of all the moment of the animation but when you watch the film slowly. The images began to unravel and you began to see the bigger picture.

In conclusion, William Kentridge is a wonderful mix media artist who does his work in a different form than most folks wouldn’t do and I respect that part of him. Yet, I might not understand all of his creative mind of miserable images but I do feel that animation is a process and can be difficult. So, I do believe Kentridge deserves credit for being a motivational artist and someone who puts himself in a position where he contradicts and is self-aware of his surroundings.