I’ve always been fascinated by cocoons. I think of them as a home, a place of comfort, and a space that I can attach my current identity to. It is a psychological security blanket that re-forms at each new stage of life. I think a lot of us have desires to break free from such an enclosed environment. But this desire can also conflict with a simultaneous fear and lack of security that comes from the absence of such a space. Once the desire grows too strong, escaping the cocoon often feels essential.

Re-exploring this topic

Years ago, I made a painting called Cocoon exploring this idea. I wanted to re-explore this concept because I felt that a narrative about self-confinement and gnawing your way out of it could become a more immersive, engaging experience viewed as an animated sequence where there’s a clear beginning, middle, and end to flesh out the details of this complicated narrative.   

a painting I did back in 2017

A few of the artists that inspired me

I looked to people like Len Lye who leaned into zig-zagged and wiggly lines of all sorts to create a disorienting + tumultuous moving image. And as a longtime fan of Maria Lassnig and her ‘body awareness’ method of using bodily sensations to guide her painting, I thought about how to convey psychological stress through a figure’s contortions.

The video tests got interesting…don’t try this at home.

In order to figure out which movements were suitable for the storyline and to get references to animate with, I recorded and edited footage of myself fighting plastic bags with my hands, feet, head,...etc from all different angles. I wouldn’t recommend doing this yourself because it’s potentially dangerous and will definitely freak people out (apologies to my roommates who had to witness this).

Style explorations

With more time in the future,I would love to experiment more with color in this piece. Given that I had a tight deadline, I chose to delve deeper into figuring out how to build up suspense over seeing how color might enhance the story. In the process phase, I did test out how a more vibrantly painted piece might feel. Hopefully that’s something I can return to later on.