Meet Chris O’Hara

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris O’Hara.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’m originally from Ireland. I grew up in the countryside of a small town called Longford, surrounded by fields and cows and not much else. My father is a stonemason, and I have five siblings. I’m not sure how much more Irish you could get. Growing up, I spent my days making things, be it woodwork, metalwork, or artwork, amongst other things. I think I always knew I would end up pursuing a career in art, and when I was introduced to animation, it felt like the perfect fit with the type of art I was making. I swapped the rolling hills of the countryside for the red brick and cobbled streets of Dublin City, where I attended the National Film School of Ireland to study animation for four years. During that time, I learned the essentials of animation and film-making. Through making a film every year, I realized my passion for storytelling and how great animation was for doing so. After graduating, I began working in the industry and became an animator on various TV productions for the likes of Cartoon Network and Disney. Ireland actually has quite a burgeoning scene for animation, and I was grateful to have relatively consistent work following college. I began freelancing for the LA-based Company JibJab while still in Ireland. After working with them on numerous projects over the course of a couple of years, they eventually offered me a position in-house and with it a potential move to Los Angeles. The prospect of an exciting job in sunny LA made my Irish eyes and pale skin smile. I packed up my life into one big suitcase and moved across the Atlantic to begin my LA adventure. It’s been almost six years since I moved to LA and I have spent most of that time at JibJab working on a variety of projects from e-cards to apps to TV shows. Most recently I just finished up working on Season three of the Emmy Award-Winning Show Ask the Storybots and am now looking forward to the next challenge!

Please tell us about your art.
I’ve been an animator, a designer, a storyboard artist, an animation director. Animation is at the core of what I do. I’ve been lucky enough to mostly work on commercial projects that have stimulated me creatively, but it’s always been important for me to also produce my own personal work outside of that. This ranges from short, quick little animations or GIFs to comics and short films. Films and storytelling are still at the heart of what I really enjoy but committing to making a film whilst also working full-time can be a challenge. I think my work has slowly evolved over time. Early on, I was keen to make fun, comical work. I wanted to make people laugh, and I still do. Most of my commercial work is light and funny, but as I’ve gotten older, I have tried to play around with more serious and contemplative topics in my personal work. I have just finished a short independent film called “Quick Fix,” and it focuses on our desire to look for quick solutions to life’s problems through various kinds of drugs. It’s a topic that really drew my attention after moving to the US. Drugs are advertised everywhere here, and it all seems so casual that it was something I felt I needed to speak about. Spending my evenings and free time on such a serious subject was a stark contrast to my day job where I was animating talking lions and dancing frogs, but I really enjoy the variety. It keeps things fresh and exciting. I like switching between light and heavy topics and even mixing the two. While the story is not always mine in the commercial work I do, I take great joy in helping bring other peoples characters and stories to life. Through animation, you can literally bring a character to life, injecting them with personality and emotions that people connect with. Through my personal work, I satisfy my craving to get my own stories and ideas out there. At times I strive to create work that hopefully people can relate to and really think about and then other times I just want to animate a dragon breathing fire because it just looks cool!

Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Try new things. It can be very easy to get stuck under peoples expectations. I tried so hard to find my “style” or my “place,” and when suddenly you become known for a certain approach it can be so hard to break away from that or be afraid to try something else for fear of people losing interest in your work. I got so caught up in trying to repeat the things that people were expecting to see that it limited my growth in other areas. During periods of uncertainty and doubt, remember what it was that drew you into your art. I find myself more and more these days rediscovering those things, thinking back to my youth, drawing on big sheets of paper not caring about what I filled them with. With the presence of social media, it’s so easy to be precious with everything I try to do, so conscious of how people might judge it, and consequently judge me. I think it’s important to remember to not just make art for other people but to make art that’s just for you too. It’s also important to have hobbies outside of art too, things to keep your life balanced and not just focused on one thing. I always thought I had to devote all my time to my craft, but I realized how important it is to maintain other interests. Having only recently re-visited woodworking I’ve been reminded how relaxing it is to spend hours working on something completely removed from animation. It allows me to step out of my head briefly and to just enjoy the moment.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Most of my personal work can be found online through my website, Instagram, or Vimeo accounts. My short film “Quick Fix” is currently being submitted to film festivals, so hopefully, it will be screening in many various cities and countries. I will be releasing it online within the year so people can keep an eye out for that, but if people want to check out the film’s trailer, it’s available on my social media accounts. In regards my commercial work Seasons 1 and 2 of Ask the Storybots are available to watch on Netflix and Season 3 should be coming this fall.

Contact Info:

• Website: chrisoharaanimation.com
• Email: chrisoharaanimation@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/chrismakesthis
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisoharaanimation
• Other: https://vimeo.com/chrisohara

Image Credit:
Painting by Erin Kim

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