Film is generally a collaborative effort, but the animated film, since the artist generates it all, has a level of control unattainable by the live action filmmaker. The work of the individual is what interests me, the distinctive voice, the single vision. In the clay painting technique, which I began developing in 1966, I work by painting directly before the camera, making changes to a single painting, shooting a frame, repainting and shooting, etc. In the end there is one painting with the process recorded on film, the product is the process.

The degree of improvisation (the accidental of subconscious) varies in my work but is to me one of its most interesting aspects. My two areas of exploration are film and painting. These come together in my animated clay paintings. I am able to bring movement, sequence, rhythm and process to painting and bring abstraction and stylization of the film image. Within this realm of animation I am most interested in the metamorphosis of images, not in smooth mindless computer generated metamorphosis, but those that can communicate another aspect of film.