We are all beautiful people but also strange in some ways. We all have psychological quirks that whisk us through life, along many paths that often are not really of our own choosing. Why did we choose art for a career — certainly not because we were good at it. If we were good at it we wouldn’t have to struggle so hard to make a go of it. But we plug along, each at our own pace, some eager and industrious in improving ourselves — some of us sit back and wait for the “light” to come on. Some of us are driven by some invisible urge to create. Others need some project imposed on us from outside to stir us into action.
Animation has a unique requirement in that its rewards are vaguely rewarding and at the same time frustrating. We are performers but our audience is hidden from us. We are actors but there is no applause. We are artists but our works are not framed and hung on walls for friends to see. We are sensitive people whose sensibility is judged across the world in dingy theaters by a sometimes popcorn eating audience. Yet we are called upon day by day to delve deep into our psyche and come up with fresh creative bits of entertaining fare. That requires a special kind of discipline and devotion, and enthusiasm. Our inner dialog must be amply peppered with encouraging argument. We sometimes have to invent or create an audience in our minds to draw for. Our fellow artists only partially serve us in that respect. We go to them for criticism not for praise. The directors are necessarily merciless. We at times almost connive rather than create to get a scene by them. I used to sing in operettas, concerts, etc., so I know what real applause is. It is heavenly. A living audience draws something extra out of the performer. A stage director once said to the cast of a play on the opening night:
You’ve had good equipment to work with, a theater with everything it takes to put on a show but you have been handicapped — one essential thing has been denied you. Tonight there is an audience out there, now you have everything you need.
Well, we do have an audience out there. We’ll be denied the applause but at least there is a potential audience to perform for; one to keep in mind constantly as we shape up day by day our year dress rehearsal. Even as we struggle with the myriad difficulties of finalizing a picture — what is the phrase, “getting it in the can” — we can perform each act for that invisible or mystical audience. We can’t see our audience, but it is real and it is something to work for.
So, all you beautiful people, if you are the kind that needs a little mental manipulation to keep your creative juices flowing, perhaps this has been of some benefit; if not, well, so be it.