Thumbnail Sketches(1977)

Overview

Like many of my films THUMBNAIL SKETCHES began as a flipbook. However this particular book didn't really flip. Each page instead of being one phase in a series (like a frame of film), contained a complete cycle of 8 drawings arranged in a rectangular ring. The reader had to construct the information conceptually not just optically as if it were a mosaic of abstract comic strip panels. The film begins with a 'live' prologue documenting the book's original form; then follows its destruction by scissors, a brief autopsy illustrating the mechanics of movement, and its eventual animated rebirth.