Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The end of an era.... (for now)

My yearly Holiday Card tradition was born out of a deep desire to entertain. At the time I needed, and so I created for myself, an outlet that would allow me to create and to express myself artistically while also hopefully adding a little magic to the holiday season.
Over the years I have (mostly) enjoyed the process of coming up with something new each year, producing it, and then, just in time for the holidays, releasing the final image, images, and/or video.
From a Nutcracker come to life, to a 1950’s comic book inspired spaceman, to Jack Frost, to a Blue Christmas Elvis Presley I have loved each and every year. 
Each year has felt appropriate for that particular year, and represented where I was creatively and personally. Sometimes, I was even able to also create films that connected to the images, like the year my holiday card was a World War 2 propaganda poster, which connected to my holiday short, Everything Twas or the year I did the ghost of Jacob Marley which thematically connected to the period short film, Christmas Visitations.
While deeply fulfilling, these projects were often also exhausting, stressful, and financially quite challenging. The challenge was always worth it “in the end” and the creative and artistic payoff was what had me coming back bigger and better the following year!
I have been fortunate to work, over the years, with some truly stunningly talented and amazing artists on these projects! They helped my imagination truly come to life in ways I couldn’t imagine! Even more impressively, many times these working artists donated (or highly discounted) their time and talents!! Some of them even came back to help with multiple years!
I have tagged many of these amazing individuals here on this post, as a way to once again sincerely thank them, but also in the hopes that those reading this post will click and further investigate these talented artists and learn more about them and their own work!
It was not an easy decision, and I have to be honest, it took me awhile to really commit to it, but I have decided that I will not be doing a Holiday Card this year. 
As I mentioned earlier, I really started this tradition as a creative outlet because I wanted more in my life, as an artist at the time. I’m happy to report, that is not currently the case. Not only am I continuing to create short format films, promos, and music videos but I am ramping up to do even more with our latest series, Ann Asks and my comedic series “LA be like…”. My suspicion and hope is that the 2018 mid term elections will bring additional work and creativity and maybe even some more Paulitics! 
In addition to all of this I have officially begun work on writing a feature length script!! My first!
I know in my heart, that all of you will understand and respect this decision, and that you will support me, but I still felt it necessary to officially inform everyone and give my reasons. Many, many people over the years have expressed their excitement in seeing what I come up with for the year. I really do hate to disappoint so I hope this will help to defuse a bit of the disappointment.
The good news? You never know what the future brings, and I make no promises the Holiday Card tradition will not return!
Plus, as previously mentioned, all the previous years and years of images, films, behind the scenes, and alternative shots are preserved and available for you to see at anytime. I specifically recommend you check out my “Paulidays” playlist on YouTube if you are feeling festive! I also truly hope you will investigate the many talented artists who have worked with me over the years. In addition I have started you off with some embedded videos below.
Thank you for understanding and thank you for sharing in my dreams and imagination over these many years. I have loved creating and bringing some magic to your holidays!

No comments:

Post a Comment