Meet Ayden Lamb | Artist & Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ayden Lamb and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ayden, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
I think my work/art used to be made under considerably more self-applied pressure, and because of that was integrated a lot less smoothly into my life. First I was teaching myself to animate, so I was really hard on myself with technique and process. Then I was working under the impression that I really had something to prove— again, I think that was from being self-taught and then thrown into an environment with so many brilliant, experienced animators. I worked a lot and often felt scared about the quality of the work I was making, where it would go, etc. and I’d forget to live life and enjoy the process of making. I’ve had the opportunity to relax that attitude a lot as I’ve gotten further into my animation.
Hopefully I’ll be making art for a very long time, so it was important for me to learn how to practice that as just another part of my life and not a burden that stood in opposition to it. I live my life in support of my art and my art supports the rest of my life in turn, and both have gotten better for it.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I work primarily in fibre art and animation, though more recently I’ve been making more live projections and working with gelatin, water, and things I find on the ground. It’s fun to be able to let (or make) people eat your work. I try to make my art feel like a dream you’ve just stumbled into. Getting there is slow going but very fulfilling. Every day I feel myself getting a little closer to that.
I also do a very small amount of academic writing and was recently invited to present my paper at the Society for Animation Studies annual conference in Sydney, so that’s something I’m excited for.
I’m completely self-taught as a stop-motion animator— I learned how to animate during lockdown using the library, online tutorials, and a lot of guesswork. It was hard and lonely, as that time was for most people, but there was a lot of joy doing something so intensive that at the time was secret, and just for me. I still tend to work that way, and can be a bit of a hermit. Maybe counter-intuitively, my best lesson is how different but equally good working collaboratively feels. I love parallel play, where you work with another person on different projects but in the same room together and share feedback and inspiration. Going off by your own on your own wild journey is lovely, but it’s also important to come back every once and a while to share and to learn with people you care about.
This is an old maxim, but I want people to hear that if something you’re doing with your work feels scary for you, that’s probably a good sign to keep going in that direction.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I always say that Hollywood Forever Cemetery is my favourite place in LA. There are some spectacular graves, peacocks, SO MANY feral cats, and just a very strange but beautiful vibe. Goths are always crying at Judy Garland’s tomb and the cemetery dyes the water in the lake this horrible electric blue. I also love The Museum of Jurassic Technology, The Wende Museum, and hiking in Griffith. The tar pits are secretly pretty fun and they’re right by Craft Contemporary, which is a beautiful art/craft gallery.
I prefer cooking with friends but if we went out I’d insist on Nossa Caipirinha.
Genuinely probably the best thing to do in LA is pick a neighbourhood and just walk around for hours looking for weird stuff. There’s so much to do here that it’s a good idea to go micro and gorge on little things.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to dedicate this to the women in my family who taught me how to make art by hand. My grandma in particular was a formidable creative force— she was an incredible fibre artist, writer and gardener whose work was always beautiful and often had a practical application. She taught me how to knit. The first thing I ever made was this scarf that was full of mistakes and seemed barely wider than a shoestring, and she actually wore it quite often, which was very nice of her. I like to think I can see her in everything I make.

Instagram: lambhand

Image Credits
Ayden Lamb