Ethan Osman Bio
BIOGRAPHY
Since graduating from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2006 with a BFA in Animation, ETHAN OSMAN has continued a studio practice of making hand made, process based animated films. In its approach, the work is largely informed by parenting a neurodivergent child, his experience managing StudioWorks, an art studio that supports neurodivergent adult artists and his own experience living with learning disabilities. The work does not aim toward a certain vision or narrative where success is contingent upon, rather its success is based on discovery and following a process. The practice puts more emphasis on intuition and being human, than technical craft, and allows meaning and narrative to come from that freedom of making.
In recent years, he has developed collaborative relationships, shown work in film festivals, galleries and created commissioned work. Recent collaborators include musician/artist, Carrie Neumayer; Louisville Ballet dancer, Ashley Thursby; and musician/songwriter, Will Oldham. The work has recently been shown at the Opine Dance Film Festival, Below The Line Short Films, Louisville Film Society Short Film Slam and as an installation in a group show at Plug Gallery called, “Can I Take A Message?” This year, a music video was made for the song “Bananas” to promote an upcoming album by Bonnie Prince Billy.
ARTIST STATEMENT
After years of working abstractly to explore movement, I found I was able to embody mark making when using the figure more than with dots and lines. I realized that using an abbreviated gesture of a human form, allowed me to somatically experience movement by imagining how my own body would move from one frame to the next or how it would exist in space. Although this use of the human form serves a utilitarian purpose, I embrace the meaning and symbolism of the human form. Each dancer is me, but they seem to long for a sense of community and support.
Animation is a medium that has the ability to expose its own process, instead of hiding it under layers of paint or clay. I generally animate 12 frames per second, so I am not as interested in what each drawing/painting looks like but what happens between them. By making repetitive images for weeks or months without knowing what the images will do all together, it is very exciting for me. When the images are sequenced as a film, I can see all that time condensed. I can see when I had to mix more paint and the colors are altered, or when I finally got bored with a process and allowed myself to shift directions, but mostly I can see how my ideas and daily approaches evolve over time. For this reason I don’t edit, make preliminary sketches or plan a narrative.
To supplement my animation work with a more immediate studio practice, I started creating quick large figural drawings in a similar way of following the process and embodying the figures.
The repetitive and somatic nature of this work allows me to become absorbed in a process and to explore new movements and compositions that document the link between brains and hands.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & FESTIVALS
2023 Can I Take A Message?, Plug Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2023 Opine Dance Film Festival, Bryn Mawr Institute, Bryn Mawr, PA
2022 Below the Line Short Film Night, High Horse, Louisville, KY (Fall and Winter)
2022 Louisville Film Society Short Film Slam, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
2021 Louisville Film Society Short Film Slam, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
2019 Connecting Community Through Creativity, StudioWorks, Louisville, KY
2011 Kansas City Flat File, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City, MO
2007 Frame-by-Frame Animation Festival, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
2006 Saturation and Surface, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Cookies in the Mill Film Festival, University of New England, Biddeford, ME
2006 Kansas City Jubilee Film Festival, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
2005 KCAI Painting Exhibition, Lawrence Dodge Gallery, Kansas City, MO
COLLECTIONS
H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City, MO
Gallery 852, Los Angeles, CA
Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Jannes Library, Kansas City, MO
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT & COLLABORATION
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Bananas | 2023
Created a handmade animated music video to promote an upcoming album by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy via Drag City records.
Louisville Story Program | 2019-2020
Assisted editor Carrie Neumayer and LSP staff in the development of "In Heaven Everyone Will Shake Your Hand: The Art of Judy Baldyga", a book providing an in-depth look into the art of Julie Baldyga, an extraordinary self-taught artist in Louisville, KY.
KMAC Museum | 2019-2020
Assisted curator Joey Yates in the development of "Julie Baldyga's Heavenly People" exhibit and facilitated the relationship between Baldyga, her family and KMAC.
Eye Level Films | 2019-2020
Assisted Gary Miller in the development and production of documentary film about Julie Baldyga
Kentucky Derby Festival | 2018-2019
Facilitated relationship between artist Chimel Ford, the Kentucky Derby Festival, and Derby City Litho in the commission and production of the 2019 Kentucky Derby Festival poster.
Will Oldham | 2019
Collaborated with Louisville musician and songwriter Will Oldham to create a live performance event and a songwriting workshop series for 50+ StudioWorks artists.
Colors of Earth Collective Art Experience | 2019
Collaborated with 13 artists from Louisville and Oaxaca, Mexico to host a Day of the Dead event, including live performances, authentic Mexican cuisine, and a gallery show.
Louisville is for Lovers | 2019
Assisted musician and producer John King to host an album release party for Louisville is for Lovers Vol. 14 "American Promenade." Facilitated the creation of album covers by four Louisville artists.
Carrie Neumayer | 2018-present
Engaged in ongoing collaboration with Louisville artist/musician Carrie Neumayer to produce several short films, experimental animations, and a promotional film for an event for november Group benefiting Girls Rock Louisville.
Ashley Thursby | 2018-2020
Collaborated with Louisville Ballet Company Dancer, Ashley Thursby to produce a series of workshops for 50+ artists.
CURATORIAL WORK
2020 Daydreams, StudioWorks, Louisville, KY
2019 Menagerie, StudioWorks, Louisville, KY
2019 Parade: A Chimel FordPop-up Show, StudioWorks, Louisville, KY
2018 End of Summer, StudioWorks, Louisville, KY
2018 Bloom, StudioWorks, Louisville, KY
2004 Umbrella Project, Kansas City Art InstituteKansas City, MO
AWARDS
Rising Star - Zoom Group, 2018
Dean's Honor Roll, 2007
Competitive Scholarship 2003-2007
Creative Achievement Award, 2006
HOUSEPLANT-BASED WORK ARTIST STATMENT
I make handmade animated films and studies. By intuitively following each film's process without preliminary sketches or editing out mistakes, the films serve as a document of their own process. Ideas, mood, and focus shift each time I enter the studio. These subtleties are evident when each image is sequenced at 12 frames per second, and months of work can be condensed into moments. Similar to AI generated art, my work starts with following a process (algorithm) that often uses prompts, but the work holds all its meaning in being made by hand with life wrapped up in its process.
This body of work grew out of a time when many of us became more intimate with our domestic environments. I became more aware of the houseplants and scrubs that surrounded me, their forms and the shadows that moved throughout the day.
In animation, there is a technique called rotoscoping, where animators trace live action footage. Since my interest in animation focuses on discovering new movements, I never explored this technique. But, by manipulating the plants and a light source, I created movement by rotoscoping their shadows. In "Bloodleaf," "Boxwood Colors," "Crown of Thorns," "Forsythia," and "Spider Plant," the dynamic shadows preserve the plants at that moment in time, but also distort a sense of time and space.
For "Boxwood Strata-cut," I explored the form and movement of a boxwood branch. Each line drawn around the branch was then plotted on a piece of paper to imagine it as a two dimensional plane. Overtones from a shruti box were layered to illustrate the branching patterns. Similar overtones were also used in "Boxwood Colors," to illustrate the layering of shadows.
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10 Questions with Ethan Osman
1. If you could be any animal, what would you be?
I was asked this question as an onboarding ice breaker for a new job. I had to go 1st, messed up and said, “a 17 yr cicada, because I’m totally fine being alone and underground for 17 yrs just to come out for a few months to leave a little sculpture of myself on a tree and make a lot of noise with other bugs.” Everyone else after me chose animals that illustrated there ability to do the job (hawk, mama bear, shark). I suppose my answer is appropriate as an experimental animator who does everything by hand. This job was not that.
2. What is your most irrational fear?
My most irrational fear is having a seizure in a China shop. I’ve never had a seizure and don’t spend much time in China shops.
3. What would be the title of your memoir?
My memoir would be called “Going Through the Motions.” Other than making process-oriented art that explores motion, it also expresses my experience of living with ADD. I struggle with going through the motions and doing things carelessly with things that aren’t (but often should be) important to me. Whereas, I do the opposite and can get lost in the moment when doing things that are important to me.
4. What is your proudest accomplishment?
My proudest accomplishment is being known as someone who is impossible to feel embarrassed around. I have been told.
5. What is the weirdest hobby you’ve tried?
Once I had some dowsing rods and would go to forests to look for water. It’s a weird hobby since I always had water with me and had no use for water.
6. What is the best concert you’ve ever been to?
Baby Dee, for dragging her harp out of her Prius wearing slippers, to make a bar full of hipsters cry.
7. What is your quirkiest hidden talent?
I can do acceptable vocal impressions of most Muppets, Aaron Neville and Richard Dreyfuss
8. Do you believe in the power of manifestation?
I’m learning to ask for help and what I need. It’s going well. If keeping things internal, doing nothing, and just hoping for good things, is the power of manifestation, then ‘no.’ There’s definitely moments where the sense of self goes away and internal happenings and external happenings are the same, but that’s something else.
9. What do you like to listen to while working in your studio?
Usually silence, especially during the ‘ideas’ phase. Then for the follow through, records are nice because they are constantly suggesting silence (after each side). It’s a good sign when you realize the record ended a long time ago and you’ve been flowing.
10. What is your favorite movie?
My favorite movie is Fata Morgana. It was the 1st movie that felt like listening to an album. It didn’t require following a plot, and I wanted to put it on the next night. It also was neither a documentary or narrative- something in between and better.
