Jessie Brugger
I am a painter, drawer, and sculptor. I use all mediums to create stop motion animation videos. I am interested in telling a story. My story is about: Being a Woman, It is about living in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and growing up in Auburn, Washington. My story is about being raised Catholic. I am interested in how women are projected both presently and historically. The church has been a main influence on my life and work; as it is the first place I understood hierarchy, power struggles and gender injustice, at the same time experiencing beauty, light, and spirituality. My work has many references to the Virgin Mary, and her role in society.
I often use the “Carnivalesque” as a vehicle to portray my thoughts and stories. “Therefore, rejoice o friend and sing in the deep dark sorrow, Night is the Mother of day, Chaos the Neighbor of God.” These words come from the last line of the poem “Friend in the Desolate Time, by Erik Johan Stagnelius. I love this quote by Stagnelius because there is laughter and celebration in the underworld. Night and darkness represent creativity and chaos, which is the mother vessel for light and day. In my art, I try to capture the Beauty in the Grotesque.
I create my vision through clay maquettes that I build in order to tell a story. The sculptures are raw and imperfect; they are how I see the world. I use the maquettes as a world to draw from, and then Animate. I am interested in video because of the time element; I am interested in stop animation because of the freedom of imagination it allows for. Each photo that is taken in the process of a stop animation video is a moment in time that is captured, and complete, yet it is part of a bigger picture. My maquettes, paintings, drawings and videos are all part of a bigger world, in which I am creating.
