Tess Martin

Tess Martin is an independent animator who works with back-lit paper cut-outs, ink, paint, and sand. Recent works include The Whale Story, animated on a 16 foot high wall in a public park, Hula Hoop, a loopy sand piece, and A Walk in the Woods, a one minute short told with natural materials. Her films have displayed at galleries as well as festivals worldwide. She is a member of Seattle Experimental Animation Team (SEAT), a collective of independent animators, and has curated a program of SEAT films titled Inter-Action, which screened in Seattle, Portland, New York City, and toured Europe in October 2011. She was awarded a 2012 CityArtist Project grant from Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and in 2013 was featured on Seattle Channel’s Art Zone.

Tess received 2012 GAP Award funding to work with a composer to clean up the audio from interviews and to add music to a new film. The film will address the life of the artist’s cat and how the cat’s evolution mirrored changes in the family. Additionally, the animated film will act as an exploration of the broader subject of human-animal love and animal consciousness. The funding will also provide the artist with the time to animate the film frame by frame.

Tess received 2009 GAP Award funding for materials and equipment to make a film on the arrival of an entity into a land where buses fly, buildings are on stilts, and word bubbles appear when you speak. The project is a stop-motion, paper cutout animation, linked to the artist’s stay in Ghana. Although clearly stemming from Tess’ personal experiences, the film includes puppets with masked heads, flights of fancy and symbolism, and a detailed paper universe.