Lauren Sloan
Class of 2023
You incorporate painting and color into a lot of your work. What do you love about the properties of paint?
I think paint texture, especially oil paint, is what draws me the most. I started my creative pursuits as a painter, but I have not yet learned how to mimic that color and texture in digital programs. Even if I could get the look, the fun part of painting is playing around with the gooey texture.
You've been experimenting with animation. What is drawing you to this medium?
The Last Airbender, a show I watched growing up, is probably the main reason I have stuck with animation. Even though it's a much different art style than the animations I have worked on, it is a great reminder of the kind of worlds that you can create with animation. I started animation at my first university, and the labor intensiveness of it really made me question if it is something I could keep doing.
Lauren Sloan
What are you working on now?
My other interests are in acting and writing. Screenwriting is definitely what pushed me to this program. This semester is a heavy acting, but outside of school I am writing a short that would require both live action and animation. I hope to use it as a test to combine all three of my interests into one project. I am also partnering with a programmer on a project for an interactive website. It is based on a Medieval fantasy world so I am developing the iconography for the items and enchantments. I am also writing the history and mythology of this world.
If you could learn something new, anything, what would it be?
I would love to learn about game engines for animated films. I was really inspired by Ian Cheng's Life After Bob which was on veiw at The Shed. It was so colorful and surreal. I would also love to learn 3D modeling, and get some use out of the 3D printers we have in the Collaborative Arts Fabrication Lab. I would also love to learn aerial arts with silks or learn to sail well enough where I could sail from San Francisco to Cabo on my own.