We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paris Baillie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paris below.

Alright, Paris thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

On my first course advising day at CalArts I had a meeting with Stephen Chiodo to try to get in to his stop motion performance and directing course. I sheepishly shared that I was nervous to take his class because I’ve never had any “proper training,” and he laughed at me saying most stop motion animators are self taught and I had nothing to be embarrassed or scared about. He was correct.

I took my first animation course as an undergrad at Skidmore. Animating digitally on AfterEffects was fun, but not for me. I asked Professor Sarah Sweeney if I could maybe experiment with stop motion for the last two assignments. She converted a storage closet into a little stop motion space for me to experiment by myself, because I learned very quickly that my bedroom was not great to animate in. “Cracking Animation” the Aardman book of 3-D animation was incredibly helpful to get started.

I learned the most by failing and making mistakes. Learning from mistakes can be incredibly annoying but rewarding all at the same time. How else was I going to get better? It has now been almost 10 years since I did that first stopmo assignment, and now I can see how putting in the time and work does make you a better artist. Might seem obvious, but it is what it is! I did learn a lot by myself, but I didn’t realize how much I did not know about stop motion animation until I went to CalArts for grad school. My puppet, fabrication, and animating skills improved so quickly. In the end, I learned that maybe I couldn’t figure out everything on my own and now I’m a better artist for opening up to other artists for advice or guidance.

Paris, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a stop motion animator and artist based in Los Angeles. I direct and animate short films that focus on my community of fabricated characters and their own worlds. I also enjoy making music videos and collaborating with musicians.

My stop motion short film, Tulpa, has been screened at #MoStopMo Festival, New York Shorts International Film Festival, Atlanta Shortsfest, and a few more. Tulpa won best animated short at Brooklyn Film Festival in May 2023. The film is about my Tulpa characters and where they come from. Then I record conversations with my sister and parents about what their Tulpas could be, and then I try to bring them to life through stop motion animation. I’m currently in post production for my next short film, Humantis, and hope to share it with the world in 2024. This film is about my Humantis creatures, and how one is in denial about going through a change.

I graduated from Skidmore College in 2017, majoring in Studio Art. My concentrations were in painting and digital media, specifically animation and digital installation. I continued studying animation at CalArts, and got an MFA in Experimental Animation. I’m continuing on my animation and artistic journey after graduating in May 2023. I love everything about stop motion animation!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There was a long period of my youth where I thought I was going to be on Broadway. I really loved acting and musical theater, but now I like making my puppets do all the acting and dancing. In elementary school and high school I was very involved in the theater and musicals. Most summers I even participated in theater programs. But at the same time, I was starting to become really interested in photography and painting. I decided to go to Skidmore college because it was a liberal arts school where I could major in both theater and studio art. My love for theater didn’t really die after my freshman year, but my urge to be on stage kind of fizzled. I started to take directing classes at the same time as animation classes. I realized that stop motion animation combined all of interests into one experimental medium.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Keep funding art education in schools. Every school! Every child deserves access to not only a good education, but also access to all kinds of art electives. Including funding for after school programs. This not only provides more job opportunities for artists interested in teaching, but also could be fun and inspiring for students. I have a lot of fond memories of doing wood working classes after school, and I loved staying after school for dance and theater rehearsals. Even if a student doesn’t plan on pursuing an artistic career, I genuinely believe practicing any kind of artistic expression is good for the soul. I hope this kind of funding and support continues onto college, grad school, then residencies and so on. I believe in equal opportunities for all students, especially in the arts. The transition after school is kind of wild – I guess starting a career in the arts can be kind of wild in general. Artist still need help funding their practice even after graduating. There are other ways to support artists besides funding like showing up to their shows, or sharing their work online. Support can be many things, and it is important.

Contact Info:

• Website: parisbaillie.com
• Instagram: @pbfarts
• Other: https://vimeo.com/parisbaillie

Image Credits
Portrait by Andrew Macpherson