The ReAnimation of Bizzy Barefoot
My DEAREST ONES,
It is no news to you how hard this year has been on every last one of us. To come to you in the midst of national and very personal calamity feels bold to say the least. I understand, having spent so many years struggling to stay true to my most noble callings in the throes of poverty just how scary these times are for many of us. Myself included.
But as isolating and murky as this year has been, miraculously to me it has been a calling in and focus of my powers and intentions. I have spent this year in isolation not giving in of up, but leveling up. With the absence of public performance as we know it, I found myself doubling down on my skills, talents and magickz as a designer, and more specifically since getting introduced to digital art making a few yearsago as a video artist, and I have been zeroing in on where my most adamant passions, my focus and my ambitions and intentions lie.
I’ve spent 10 months getting closer to being the prolific artist I have always dreamed of being and I am about to embark on a journey back to my most deserving and magical self by fulfilling my earliest Childhood dream of being an animator.
When growing up I was certain I was going to become an animator. The medium has always inspired me from Loony Toons to art house masterpieces like Persepolis and Triplets of Belleville. You can pull off so many stunts, miracles, and unthinkable storylines with animated universes that we could never pull off in our comparatively mundane 3D reality. When animation is done well, it’s surprising, and moving, and all around thrilling.
My life however did not lead immediately in the direction of this dream but took me on a wonderful journey as a performer all over the country and beyond, and I don’t regret a second of that marvelous detour. I love performing and I think theater was just the right thing to master if I wanted to someday tell animated stories. Good storytelling is good storytelling.
I pretty much abandoned that dream though thinking I will never return to school to study and master it. But as it turns out the dream did not abandon me. Through the miracle of user friendly technology and apps of all kinds I have been slowly but surely cobbling together the skills, vocabulary, and all around knowledge I need to become a professional animator.
I was offered my first paid animation/ editing gig in April with the Circle Voting initiative. It taught me a ton and paid handsomely to boot. I got a taste for it. Subsequently I have been offered multiple other opportunities including a beautiful little origin film for the radical Mariposas Rebeldes Collective, a LatinX land and food justice project in Atlanta and I am beyond excited to be embarking on a musical animation piece with the inimitable Dane Terry over the coming year.
I’ve really come a long way on my own but I need better tools, better software, and some further education. I’m ready for all of it. I’m certain this is where I am meant to be heading with my work. It’s the right moment for work like I am trying to produce.
BUT I NEED HELP if I am to do the best work I can imagine and level up. I’m very seriously disciplining myself to make it a reality. And here’s what would help get me the rest of the way.
I’m asking for $6,500 to subsidize the basics for an at home animation studio. $6,000 includes a new iMac desktop computer with the amount of memory and processing power it takes to make and store this kind of video work, as well as accompanying editing software such as After Effect and Final Cut, as well as a year subscription to the Adobe suite for accessto Character Capture, Illustrator, Photoshop and all the other amazing software that can give me the ability to make whatever my heart desires. (Plus I tacked on 500 for the incidentals of this campaign including fees acquired by digital financial transactions. )
Or, whatever YOUR heart desires as with these tools and skills will come better work with which to serve my communities. I can continue to do top notch pro-Bono and volunteer work for deserving rad individuals, organizations, and movements who have righteous needs but little resources. If this works out for me, it’s a win for a whole bunch of people moving forward. You don’t have to take my word for that. Check out these animated testimonials from the community.
I am so grateful to them all and forever grateful for any help you might be able to give to fulfill this lifelong dream.
Jack Waters
https://youtu.be/U-xLcgjVJzg
Sarah Schulman
https://youtu.be/tSNUwflmF6U
Peter Cramer as Dame Eddie
https://youtu.be/sE-xpdDqBOw
Shelton Lindsay
https://youtu.be/aWBAJAmk-fw
Stephen Winter
https://youtu.be/Ge2iOEJwr2M
Omri and Multiform
https://youtu.be/kN4BVtHPo2M
Dane Terry
https://youtu.be/w6JGxAh7e6Q