How does an artist develop a personal style? In this film, artist Martha Colburn traces the evolution of her work, from her first found-footage films to subsequent hand-painted and stop-motion animations. Inspired by Baltimore's experimental filmmaking community, Colburn describes how her earliest films were assembled from audio-visual cast offs found in the city's surplus dump. After making films without using a camera, Colburn describes how she started to shoot her own original paintings and collages. Creating evocative, dream-like scenarios within a tight logic, Colburn's humorous, frenetic, and visually dynamic work embraces a DIY aesthetic and the physicality of film as a material. Featuring the films "Feature Presentation" (1994), "First Film In X-Tro" (1994), "Asthma" (1995), "Evil Of Dracula" (1997), "Cats Amore" (2002), and "Groscher Lansangriff: Big Bug Attack" (2002), with music by Haleh Abghari, Jacques Berrocal & friends, Martha Colburn, The Dramatics, Jad Fair, The Jaunties, Felix Kubin, Jason Willett, and Nathan Whipple.

Martha Colburn (b. 1971, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA) lives and works in Queens, New York and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

CREDITS | "New York Close Up" Created & Produced by: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Editor: Joaquin Perez. Cinematography: Michael Tyburski & Andrew David Watson. Key Grip: John Marton. Sound: Nicholas Lindner & Nick Ravich. Associate Producer: Ian Forster. Production Assistant: Paulina V. Ahlstrom, Don Edler & Maren Miller. Design & Graphics: Crux Studio & Open. Artwork: Martha Colburn. Music: Haleh Abghari, Jacques Berrocal & friends, Martha Colburn, The Dramatics, Jad Fair, The Jaunties, Felix Kubin, Jason Willett, Nathan Whipple. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved.

"New York Close Up" is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support provided by The 1896 Studios & Stages.

For more info: http://www.art21.org/newyorkcloseup