Lisa Anita Wegner

preparation for nuit blanche, september 29th 2012:

ever since i was a child i’ve had projects: art projects; film projects; theatre projects. many needed a team from 15 to 50+ people. filmmaking acting and being a and creative producer became my living and now i think of my story telling as my life’s work.

and because of health circumstances, i  have been largely working on project by myself since 2008. my video art projects sometimes include other people but no real co-ordinating. it happens on the spot and then i usually finish them in one or two days. and my art  making is always just me.

i have made several short films with more layers to put together and it would take me an inordinate amount of time to do tasks like getting funding, price quotes and scheduling because numbers  letters on occasion don’t hold meaning for me. i was able to complete one animated/ art music video for Jane Sibbery and handle a few documentary shoot days but otherwise had to pass larger projects onto colleagues.

working alone on creative projects is enlightening, surprisingly fulfilling and has honed my creative skills. i have slowly been ramping up my projects preparing to get back to a more traditional indie filmmaking. i’ve had some terrific help and creative conspirators.

so now i’m ramping up my work load preparing for my film and art installation at the revue cinema. i thought i could do with volunteer interns, but i realize i need to pull a little from the budget and get me a pro pm/line producer. it was interesting typing up the job application i was thinking “i’d hire me” and it’s a surreal experience because my cognition won’t allow that. and in fact i am terrible  -at the moment- at the nuts and bolts of producing because it’s so familiar and i know what to do but if it try to hold on to details, especially dealing with numbers and coordinating they just won’t stick. just hours ago brought someone on and i feel a big relief that i will have another brain on the project who will have the big picture in mind.

now that i have my first meeting with my new PM/line producer early next week, i can relax back into my creative work days knowing the larger project  will be taken care of.

also:

i love using this online photo and digital art application called MURO from deviantART. so even without my computer,  i can make and save stuff. and it automatically saves the process which i love watching. i ❤ digital.

lisa anita wegner

hello sunday,

i have been thinking about the nature of my creativity and i wanted to write down my thoughts to bring it into focus for myself. right now i am sitting in my living room with my dogs sleeping in odd positions around my feet. there is coffee brewing for my upcoming evening of editing and i feel very content in my life.  there are some crappy things going on too mind you, my life is not perfect. my life is beautifully inspiringly imperfect.

i have been figuring out how to use my pixel-playing and my filmmaking to make my life more authentic and to use it as a vehicle for truth telling. sometimes i have flashes of seeing how i can make my life and work merge if i really nurture this and continuously re-dedicate myself to it. ok that sounds overblown, but bear with me.

i have a short film that i have been cutting in my imagination quite diligently for months now.  i have all the clips in my editing system. i’ve watched all related footage several times. but i literally have made all the cuts and snips in my head. today i woke up and thought: this is the day. i re-watched everything, listened to the audio and went over my notes. i believe tonight i will follow up all my thinking with doing and finish it. i used to think i was procrastinating, but know i think i just wasn’t ready. the film had not finished cooking in my head.

i realize since going to phoenix i value myself as an artist in a different way. i didn’t like or use the word artist, in fact i used to secretly make fun of people who used the term in relation to themselves (now only if someone declares themselves an auteur).

i have chosen to align myself with colleagues friends and playmates who are positive, happy simple in their actions and pro-active. it’s a joy to be pulled along or cradled by others on my own creative projects.

now there is nothing holding me back from blooming fully. i have projects and people and teams effortlessly lining up. there are really solid people in my life. i see the power of pre-thinking and wise choosing. and best of all i have an easy flow stories that i am learning how to tell.

if you want to see these creative fruits of which i speak, then come to see my art show  and screening “some assembly required” which opens april 26th at triangle gallery- near queen and dufferin. come to the opening and have a drink. or come any other day to remain anonymous and avoid awkward small talk.

http://www.torontoartscape.org/events/some-assembly-required

kate meier found  the quote i’m going to paint on the gallery wall:

“But most of all, I love the free feeling in the pictures and stories of William Steig. As Jane Bayard Curley wrote in her essay “A Life of Creative Energy,” “His imagination simply flowed through the pen and onto the page.” No true artist or creative person would disagree: This freedom, this flow, is what we all strive for.

Amen.

after pushing myself a little last week, i got a migraine and after that slept for the most part of two days. i was thinking maybe i’m getting sick with a flu or some such thing. but then i remembered/realized that i don’t need to be sick to listen to my body when it wants sleep.

sleep and i have always been very much in love. and i will enthusiastically continue my love affair.

two things happened in my sleepy week: i’m getting a lot more practical and creative ideas; and i feel like my general curiosity for all things has blossomed.

thank you bbc3 and bb4 you make the best documentaries. i can’t get enough of octopuses, the human body, the mind, how big ships are built, politics, ancient egypt, cave dwellers, drummers, wildlife, undersea mysteries, gypsy weddings, dancing boys of afganistan, conspiracy theories, the history of design, art and photography. i’m eating it all up and i’m still very hungry. knowing the world seems like a good idea to tell stories, in fact it now seems mandatory for good perspective.

i feel like i am finally getting enough rest so my body and soul is happy and my curiosity for the world is piqued. i feel like a child because i get happy for small things like when i’m using a new toothbrush. appreciation for smooth clean teeth brings me contentment.

so i will sleep. i will take my time. i will listen to my body. and while this feels opposite to my previous history of endless doing and finishing projects of all descriptions. i bet with this new calm schedule based on my needs things are going to get exponentially better. i’ll bet i’ll get more done is less time.

i am very excited for the next chapter of mighty brave productions and the first chapter of the dufferson herman arts umbrella.  Big Love

Lisa Anita Wegner

I am proud of myself because I decided to postpone my Toronto screenings. I realized I wasn’t quite ready to do the talkback to my hometown friends and colleagues. Speaking in Phoenix was terrific practise, but as the date was looming ahead I realized clearly I needed more time. I have always listened to my impulses, or so I thought. I would override them with logic if something seemed good for my career. Now I realize that I am my career and my comfort is the most important thing. So I postponed everything and am taking my time, working on my artists statements, shaping the larger projects, and creating a steady flow of pixel painting.

Here’s the second draft of my newest statement:

Using a variety of techniques I interrogate traditional expectations and limitations of photography. My canvass, or the matrix I play in, is a digitized photograph or image which is photographed of found. The process is entirely organic, with fluid improvisation and no rules. I take the image back and forth between Picnik, Pixelmator and Photoshop to get the look I want.

My goal is an expressive image that is the emotional equivalent  to what I visualize.  I love that i can do anything in this reality, things that occur in my imagination. I can make anything I want and anything can have any colour, texture and exist anywhere. Each image is a fully developed story that takes shape in my head.

My face, taken by my computer webcam as I’m working, appears in many of my images. At first i wasn’t sure why, but now it understand that it’s my filter and reflects that everything you see is computer made. It’s a kind of signature. Already in the first several months of intense pixel painting I have found evolving styles of working and remain very influenced by the dada movement.

da·da (dä’dä) n. A European artistic and literary movement (1916-1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity. [French dada, hobbyhorse, Dada, of baby-talk origin.]

Haus Of Gaga has an army of creative talent working for Lady Gaga’s vision. Haus Of Dada is what I have called my two dogs, my computer and yours truly working for Lady Dada’s vision.  I know I am on the right track because I have effortlessly made over 200 pieces in 2011.

***

In other news: my film PLANE CRAZY (feature doc) is happily in production, with location shooting in California. Thanks John Bertram for keeping the torch lit on this project and now making it an international shoot.

TALES FROM THE G20 (feature doc) is completed and I look forward to seeing where this great project goes. I was so happy I could work with The Open Media Initiative on this eye opening project. I’m keen to get over my fear of the police violence I saw and be able to watch and promote the film.

I realized a long time ago that I make art and films for myself, but if just one person likes something I’ve made, it makes it all feel worth it on a new level. I got the best email from a Phoenix audience member yesterday:

Hi All at Mighty Brave Productions!

I attended the shorts event at FilmBar in Phoenix, AZ, earlier this summer. I was entertained and incredibly moved by the series. I have been searching for  the short film “Who am I…?” since the event, but have not found it anywhere. Is this piece available for download/purchase? I would very much like to share this with a close friend and relative.

Your film says so much without saying a word. Thank you, again, for sharing your very personal experiences in a manner that helps others! You rock!!

April Goldstein 

hello,

ever since i went to phoenix at the end of june, i have felt like myself again. maybe even more like myself than ever before.

while there i met excellent people, including a programmer steve weiss, who i have been working with since 2006.

i went down for a screening of “so who am i anyway?” at the phoenix art museum. this was the first time one of my personal video art projects was seen by a wider  and more diverse audience. it was exhilirating and weird yet awesome. someone in the audience said to me, “promise me you won’t stop making films”. it felt so good to put myself out there. you can’t bottle that stuff.

steve programmed “an evening of mighty brave films” with a talkback at film bar. these 5 mighty brave films and 5 personal pieces and the audience questions helped me see creatively where i came from, where i was, and where i was going. the appreciation i felt in phoenix definitely played a part in helping me to remember who i am.

and falling in love with the desert didn’t hurt either.

since then i have been generating an endless and effortless flow of creative content. just me, myself, my computer, my art room and i.  stories are squeezing out of my pores, ears and tear ducts.

now my work is dictated by the creative flow and the stories are showing up fully formed. the thing that used to get my down was when i couldn’t make stuff. doing anything in traditional film production required at least 20 people and and is not cheap. but from this low fidelity lowbrow grassroots medium i get the same thrill. it’s the same crack. and it’s all up to me.

now i have to schedule breaks in my day, because if i don’t i’ll have my paws in some pixels. creatively i can see where i’m going and a whole array of projects are presenting themselves to me. the next larger scope/scale multimedia is “the interface is the message”.

multimedia piece based on 2 images (not this one).

here’s my artist statement in progress:

using a variety of techniques i interrogate traditional expectations and limitations of photography. my canvass, or the matrix i play in, is a digitized photograph or image. the process is entirely organic, with fluid improvisation and no rules.

my goal is an expressive image that is the emotional equivalent  to what i visualize.  i love that i can do anything in this reality, things that occur in my imagination. i can make anything i want and anything can have any colour, texture and  exist anywhere.

my face, taken by my computer webcam, appears in many of my images. at first i wasn’t sure why, but now it understand. it is my filter and everything you see is computer made. it’s almost like my signature.

“i work to attain a state of heart”  quote i like by photographer paul camponigro from an exhibition catalogue from 1983.

haus of gaga has an army of creative talent working for lady gaga’s vision. haus of dada is two dogs, my computer and yours truly working for lady dada’s vision.

da·da (dä’dä) n. A European artistic and literary movement (1916-1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity. [French dada, hobbyhorse, Dada, of baby-talk origin.]

lisa anita wegner, who is not good at blog layout. yet.

first.2.

Staring Down Andy was shot at Practical Art by Bryn Corbett.