A Life Story, by Lizzi Skalka
Lizzi Skalka is a 17-year-old student attending the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA) in New Haven, Connecticut. She has been attending ECA for three years and is currently applying to a number of art schools to study drawing and painting. She developed the video below over a period of two months, illustratrating the circle of life. Something we find amazing about this video is that she created it using charcoal and one sheet of paper—constantly erasing and redrawing her thoughts.
“I hope my viewers will see the video in terms of the narrative and the medium. Because it was all done on one piece of paper, the sheet of paper evolves along with its characters. The two different stories represent, to me, the good and the bad, and how things can change so suddenly. While I was creating my piece, I struggled with the fact that five hours of work could amount to ten seconds of video. I think that some of that harshness is translated, perhaps subconsciously at first. The way I had invested myself into my art with no reward, in a way, made me feel like the story needed a happy ending.”
The video was inspired by some books Lizzi was reading at the time, including Thoreau’s Walden, Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the Great Gatsby. She was also influenced by the videos of William Kentridge. Check out her work below.