DIRECTOR BIO
Lara Parizek is an Argentine animator living in Brooklyn. She’s focused on surreal animation but also explores other mediums such as film, painting, illustration, and sculpture.

DIRECTOR STATEMENT
There's always been this underlying feeling of being so immensely uncertain and confused by the way the world works. It took me a long time to realize that nobody truly does. Everyone seems to be floating in oblivion, desperately trying to get their act together, to find a way to belong. During these realizations and depressive episodes I notice that my surroundings are depleted of color and saturation. It’s here where I ask myself what makes me feel the most alive when I feel like my soul has left my body, and that's color, expression, and my connections with other human beings.

I try to create pieces that make you feel more alive while not ignoring the idea that feeling tremendous loss and pain needs to be embraced, not ignored. That’s why most of my characters have white eyes and heavy eyebags. This creates a soulless, tired appearance which I think accurately describes this overwhelming feeling of floating in oblivion. Everyone’s tired. It’s a fast moving world and pain is a huge part of it. I am, at the same time, just trying to make it really beautiful, not to say that being happy is self deceiving. Happiness is a fantastic thing but it’s simply not realistic to constantly strive for it, because scarcity is what makes happiness so valuable. We need to appreciate the pain and loss that eventually allow us to recognize and feel joy. As I’ve grown I’ve noticed that the closest connections I have with people are through the sharing of pain. When you're lonely with a group of people that feel it too, it's a feeling I would describe as euphoric. I try to capture this emotion in my paintings and animations.

I animate, paint, draw, and film trying to capture these different and complicated, sometimes paradoxical feelings; my intent is to make them beautiful and honest. Through the course of my animating career I’ve sat down with dozens of different people with drastically varying characteristics and ages and I have noticed that they are not all that different. My goal is to have at least one aspect of the pieces I make spark inspiration or at least a feeling of connection within loneliness. That’s partially why I never reveal the meaning or intent of a piece to a viewer. When someone looks at my work and creates their own meaning out of it based on their personal experiences, then that's what I want it to mean for them. I’ve seen my work spark creativity in non artistic individuals because they've realized it's about the expression and not the outcome. That's what I'm striving for.