Machina, 2004
Machina was my first figurative animation, created between 2002-2004. I taught myself how to use 3D animation software when I produced her. I thought of myself as translating painting into a different time-space, one that was compressed, where time almost but not quite, stood still. Her slow, drowsy movements articulate all of the minutiae of a single moment. This projected "painting" is a representation that is primarily a persona. Based on the classical Odalisque and images of his wife by the Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens, Machina consists of a series of animations that morph from painting to canonical painting. Arranged in random combinations on a timeline, the resulting animation is sensual but without dramaturgy, evoking clockwork. Occasionally, Machina opens her eyes to gaze at the viewer, in a moment of transformation, allowing the object of our gaze to subject us to hers.