Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Padgett.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Amber. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I was raised by a couple of weirdos in the suburbs of Sacramento, California. Doing school was never one of my strong suits. I’d sooner use a computer as a plant stand or a beading surface than for its more conventional purposes. A friend convinced me to take a Photoshop class at the local Community College to help rid me of my fabricated hang-ups, and it worked. I went from arriving 20 minutes early to feel confident turning the computer on by myself to pumping my fists all the way to a subsequent video editing class.
This is where the idea of stop motion animation was introduced to me… and it became an obsession. Having spent a fair amount of time in the music scene, it was no challenge finding bands that needed music videos. The stop motion elements began as merely tiny snippets of accent in the videos I made but quickly bloomed into my central means of artistic expression. After a year-long project of nights and weekends with co-animator, Alex Steele of Millennium Deathcult Productions, I up and moved to Los Angeles in search of professional life in this field.
March 3rd, 2018 it rained hard in LA. It also happened to be the day I was able to muster the chutzpah to go knock on the front door of my dream stop motion studio, Open The Portal. Half drenched and fully hopeful, my timid tapping was answered by Jason Milov, a producer that happened to be near the unused side door to nowhere that apparently I was knocking on. He took pity on my soggy disposition and babbling inspirations and offered me a tour of the studio. I left there so full of the future that I drove right to the grocery store (a company I’d worked at for ten years) and quit! It was a bold and terrifying move that I’ve never regretted.
I began interning for them, creating stop motion content for their Instagram, and then finally working as a fabricator and animator for some of their clients. I’ve now met and worked alongside so many insanely talented people and had the great opportunity to be included in all scales of projects for a variety of studios in Los Angeles.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
When I had my eyes squinting on the horizon, it appeared like a smooth road. However, there were plenty of periods during my journey that left me tripping on cobblestones. I recall one particular stretch of months that left me feeling fairly hopeless. A project I’d headed up was put on indefinite hold, a video I’d spent quite a bit of time on missed the mark, my plants all got ravaged by bugs, and a beloved cat went missing. LA life can so quickly go from feeling invincible to discussing the finer points of breakfast for dinner with one’s six-day-old sweatpants.
Attempting to be in a creative field for a living sure has its benefits and challenges. Most artists I know tend to be fairly sensitive and introspective creatures which is what makes for thought-provoking and relatable work. Unfortunately, we also need to pay our cell phone bills. In more recent years, I have come to terms with the fact that I’m not always going to love the product I’m creating, and that’s okay! I believe that there is always something to be gleaned from experience, and sometimes that’s just the practice of perseverance.
I found it supremely helpful to keep other avenues of personal art in regular practice. For instance, 45 weeks ago I started a series of weekly animations that I create only using my phone’s camera, an app, and usually zero editing. It’s 100% for the fun of experimenting paired with my need to stay dedicated but lighthearted about my craft. Sometimes they are garbage, sometimes they are kinda cool, but they always get dumped to social media on Wednesday at noon no matter what. It’s made a world of difference for my outlook on making art.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I started Heavy Sweater Productions in 2015 with the interest of creating stop motion art for music videos, short films, and commercials. I produce both pristine works within a studio setting but am passionate about creating stop motion art out in nature and urban landscapes. I’ve long been inspired by the dedication to natural beauty of a sculptural artist, Andy Goldsworthy, the pace and quirk of stop motion animator, Jan Svankmajer, and the design/color palette of director, Wes Anderson.
I’d say I specialize in and am known for my practical abilities. I take recognizable things that already exist and make them interact in ways that one wouldn’t expect. I prefer flashlights, frosting, spray bottles, and raw wool to green screens and post-production. I want to intrigue onlookers with shaving cream graffiti, public flower sculptures, and tiny repetitive movements of large, awkward objects. I got into stop motion because I love and have the patience for the painstaking process.
As a company, I am most proud of the fact that I get to do this for a living… and I pay my bills on time every month. 🙂
What were you like growing up?
I was a horribly shy child with a vivid internal world. Standing quietly and watching was one of my favorite pastimes. My mom likes to retell stories of me as a child having endless patience for tedious projects including organizing a wall of chapsticks at a grocery store and untangling six-foot streamers from branches of an oak tree for two hours.
Luckily, I was fortunate enough to go through the Waldorf school program, and it helped me to focus my ‘eccentricities’ into more practical skills. But needless to say, I got straight A’s in basket weaving, knitting, and calligraphy.
Contact Info:
- Website: HeavySweaterProductions.com
- Phone: 7196405832
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/heavysweaterproductions
- Facebook: facebook.com/heavysweaterproductions
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