the art of stripped away

by garrett gilchrist

The creation of art is a very personal act, and this being my most personal movie to date, I wanted the language spoken onscreen to not just be verbal, but also visual - I wanted Hank's mind to speak, directly to the audience, through the medium of cartoons. I drew all the art for Stripped Away very quickly, as shooting had to be done in little more than a weekend, and apart from the "funeral" and the Lucky Xenon material, none of it was inked. What you see onscreen is rough pencil art, first sketchy drafts of things, basically, unrefined and raw, xeroxed to appear darker onscreen. The entire Lucky Xenon animation sequence was in fact created in one hour. Despite the rush, I am proud of the art in "Stripped Away." It is raw and rough and I think it evokes emotions that are hard to describe and believe verbally, and it shows the power comic art has that we believe and understand Hank's mind when we're shown it visually.