Blog Assignment 12

For this blog post, I want you to link and describe an internet sensation that has inspired you and/or a person that you keep up with regularly.  I am constantly telling you the importance of technology and staying connected with others which is capable through Twitter and your PLN.  However, here I would like for you to tell about a person you have learned about through the internet and are a fan of (that I have not introduced you to) and why.  If you do not have anyone like this, go look for someone and tell me about them.  Then, I urge you to continue to keep up with them and their work.  This could be an artist, politician, author, teacher, architect, singer, dancer, etc.  You name it!  You might ask why I would assign something like this and the answer to that is, this whole class has been about me telling you who to follow and what to do.  This time, I want you to tell me about what you like and who you like to follow.


Kirsten Lepore (the video on the home page of Kirsten's website has some material that may not be suitable for younger viewers)

This is a still shot from the short film Bottle

        Kirsten Lepore is a graduate from CalArts with a degree in experimental animation.  She has created multiple animated movies and posts them to her YouTube channel and on her website.  She has also done freelance work for MTV, Glamour Magazine, Nestle, Utah Hogle Zoo, Heinz, and an End Tag for shows on Cartoon Network.  She is so young yet she has done work for all of these big companies!  Her short film, Bottle, won Best Student Animation at the Stuttgart International Festival and Best Animation at the Florida Film Festival, Arizona Film Fest, Slamdance, and so many other awards that I cannot list all (you will have to go to her website to see the rest).
        I have been keeping up with Kirsten Lepore's work for the past two or three years and she has been a big inspiration to me.  Her videos are quirky and different and show her creativity.  I could see myself telling my future class about Kirsten Lepore and how her passion drove her to do great things.  It could be a source of inspiration for my students in creating their own videos that I will assign as homework.  From what I can tell, Kirsten got all of these large company connections through posting her work on the internet and through her college career at CalArts.  If a student of mine really wanted the success like Kirsten Lepore has had, they would have the opportunity to do so.
        In one of my older blog posts, I linked her video, Sweet Dreams, which follows a cupcake's dream of leaving his old home.  She sometimes collaborates her videos, but most of the time she is doing them independently.  She will sometimes post videos showing the making of some of her films (such as The Making of Nestle Drumstick Spot and The Making of Bottle) and it gives me some insight into how much work it took for her to make the videos.  It is not that I ever hope to make videos as good as hers, but that she gives me artistic inspiration by keeping such a difficult and monotonous animation style alive.  It reminds me that I need to keep up with my traditional painting.  I would love to one day see her produce a full length stop animation movie comparable to The Nightmare Before Christmas.  You can guarantee that  I would be there for the midnight release!


You can keep up with Kirsten at her blog.