Contemporary Art in Context: Cressa Maeve Beer

Cressa Maeve Beer is a transgender stop-motion artist whose work is featured in short films, music videos, documentaries, and more. Her animated works share positive messages about overcoming bumps in the road of life. Beer produces works that celebrate every individual’s personhood, and as advocacy for the transgender community, her work shows how art can be a transformative component in personal growth and rejuvenation.

Working in the Medium
One of the motivations in Beer’s work is to transform her negative emotions into visually and spiritually uplifting imagery. This is particularly true with her 2020 short film “Coming Out” (bit.ly/CressaBComingOut). In the short, Godzilla, the Japanese sci-fi King of the Monsters, discovers his child, Baby Godzilla, is transgender. Godzilla ultimately celebrates his child’s new life by gifting her a crocheted transgender flag. Beer has had a lifelong fascination with Godzilla, whom the artist has always identified as the strength she did not have. “Coming Out” was also created in memoriam to her late father, who, like Godzilla, accepted her coming-out with love and support. Interestingly, the original Japanese version of Godzilla was nonbinary, while American films gendered the mythical monster.

Beer admits that the stop-motion medium is “tedious” (twenty-four photos are needed to create one second of animation), but also views it as a meditative process. Unlike other stop-motion artists, she does not do extensive planning for new works, but bases them on a general outline. Much of what becomes the finished work results from time spent creating. A one-minute-long piece may require ten hours of shooting, with objectives often changing. This process became even more challenging when she produced a video for Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle’s 2021 song “Anhedonia,” in which she had to combine stop-motion imagery of a moth’s life cycle with live-action recording (bit.ly/CressaAnhedonia).

Art History: Stop-Motion Animation
Stop-motion animation is the oldest style of animation, pre-dating cartoons. The first stop-motion short was produced in 1898. These shorts gained popularity in the 1910s, but the process was not used in feature-length films until the 1920s, the first being The Lost World (1925), a work about dinosaurs. The landmark sound movie King Kong (1933) established a template for all subsequent monster movies. One of the most important developments in the art form came during the 1950s when animators used modeling clay to create more malleable characters. This technique is called Claymation.

About the Artist
Born in California, Beer now lives and works in Brooklyn. As a young person, she already had a vibrant imagination with which she created entire worlds and characters with backstories. Her movie-buff parents showed her Godzilla movies, which greatly impacted her creative direction. She was particularly influenced by the stop-motion movies of Ray Harryhausen (1920–2013), especially the skeleton warriors in Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

ARTIST Q&A
How did you get into stop-motion animation?
Cressa Maeve Beer: My dad, who was responsible for my obsessions with monster movies and horror films, showed me a lot of Ray Harryhausen. When I was really little, I was so enamored by the Medusa in Clash of the Titans that I forced my mom to craft a paper version of the character so I could recreate the scene. My biggest inspiration to this day is Bridget Appleby’s The Reluctant Dragon.

But it wasn’t until I saw a behind-the-scenes feature on Wallace and Gromit that it finally clicked how stop-motion was done. So, I started making animations of my LEGOs using my parents’ VHS camcorder. I gave up on it in high school because it never occurred to me that stop-motion animation could be a career. But then seven or eight years ago, I received a Godzilla figure from NECA through an old job (I used to work in news media and would receive promotional materials for movies). It was incredibly articulated, so I figured why not try stop-motion again for fun? I started posting these online and was surprised by how much people liked them.

From there, I learned by practicing on my own—lots of trial and error, attempting recreations of movies I’d seen or whatever came to mind. This was further bolstered by a workshop at SVA (School of Visual Arts) where I learned some wonderful tips and met my co-conspirator Phoebe Jane Hart. During that time, a friend asked me to make stop-motion bumpers for a film festival, along with giving me a little push that I could be making money from this. Once I received the opportunity to make a music video for Chelsea Wolfe, I took that as my sign from the universe and left my office job to pursue animation.

What is a typical workday like for you?
CMB: A typical job usually takes about a month to do—a week for pre-production, one to two weeks for animation and editing, and a week for revisions and client feedback.

When I’m in pre-production, I’m usually spending my days ideating and creating beat sheets for what I’m going to animate, and sourcing materials or designing the aesthetics—backgrounds, props, etc. On animation days, I’ll get started early and power through until maybe 5 or 6 p.m. I find stop-motion to be very meditative, so it’s easy to get into a good flow and stay there, but I’ve started setting alarms on my phone to take breaks. During post-production, I’m on my laptop editing all day until I get to a good stopping point. I also try and edit as I shoot, at least putting what I’ve shot on a timeline, that way I can triple-check my work in the process of animating and cut down some of my post-production time. I try to make each day as productive as possible, but I measure that productivity by creative output and not quantity of hours spent.

Do you have specific strategies, rituals, or routines that help you work and/or generate ideas?
CMB: If I had one specific strategy for ideation, it’s to just engage with my imagination and let my mind wander and play, and to sit with all my feelings and pay attention to them. I have dedicated time away from all screens—walks in the park, meditating, or just sitting and staring out the window. (The number of times I moved past a creative block by just taking an hour to sit quietly and zone out!) If I have a silly thought, I follow that thread without judgment. If I’m sad or upset, I sit with it and think about ways I can express it or exorcise it. I try to let literally anything inspire me; I try to consume as much art as I can, I read a lot and watch a ton of movies and go down rabbit holes of stop-motion artists on Instagram—there’s an entire universe of inspiration waiting.
As we grow up, we get conditioned to stomach a lot of our emotions, be less imaginative and less childish—which is silly because we’re still kids, we just have more ownership and responsibility for our actions. If you let your inner child guide you, it can take you wonderful places (e.g., I let myself tinker with a Godzilla toy in my late twenties and now I’m working with my favorite bands and brands).

Can you recommend some apps or programs for inspiring animators with low or no budgets?
CMB: Stop-motion lends itself wonderfully to low/no budgets—you don’t need fancy gear or an expensive program to craft your vision. You just need to be resourceful and adaptive—which may even surprise you with something better than initially planned. I think most computers come with some form of basic editing software (like iMovie), and that’s all you’ll need because it’s all done predominantly in-camera. I know some animators who do a lot of amazing work, and they just shoot on an iPhone. Just make sure the lighting is consistent and the camera is stable, and you’re ready to rock.

Tell us about a memorable moment in your career.
CMB: A huge moment for me was getting to make a music video for Chelsea Wolfe for her song “Anhedonia” with Emma Ruth Rundle, because she’s been an important artist and inspirational figure in my life for a really long time, and for her to not only have interest in my vision based on my very silly little dinosaur animations but to also trust me with a very emotional song was immense. It was also my first chance to make something outside of what I’d more or less accidentally branded myself artistically—I got to make a darker, more experimental piece, which was not only a great challenge, but it’s probably the most cathartic thing I’ve made so far.

What can art teachers do to better support their LGBTQ+ students?
CMB: First and foremost: Listen to them. Defend them. Let them know they’re supported. Especially if they’re trans or beginning to question that. Kids know who they are, and we are all born the way that we are—no amount of denial or suppression is gonna make anyone less trans or less gay. (Just like no amount of queer media is going to turn straight people gay.) We still live in a world that will consistently try to deny kids that and dismiss all possibility of something that isn’t cisgendered and heteronormative—which is creepy. It’s important that kids feel there is a safe place for them to be themselves. I didn’t have support at home, but I got it at school from teachers—kids need adults on their side, and it’s our responsibility to give them that support.

Second, a great way for teachers to support their LGBTQIA+ students is to research and feature more than just the “standard” fare of art history—even just focusing on a queer artist or piece of art and discussing it in class will allow for broader viewpoints and expressions without having to directly single anyone out. Queerness in art is as old as art itself; if there are kids in your class just beginning to figure themselves out and are unsure of where to turn or how to let that out, recognition in (and creating) art can be absolutely lifesaving.

DISCUSSION
Ask students if they are familiar with the stop-motion animation. Offer several prominent examples such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Wallace and Gromit. Discuss how the films are created one photo at a time, then edited together to create “realistic” movement. Next, show Cressa Beer’s “Coming Out.” Ask students to retell the story, paying attention to how a complex concept or story can be simplified into a series of actions and movements. Then discuss the sequence of events and how the characters, background setting, and sound are combined to create the short film. Ask, “How did the artist create emotions and character traits with the toy figures?” “What visual or other clues tell the viewer more about what is happening?”

STUDIO EXPERIENCES

Create a short stop-motion film using everyday objects or toys. Concentrate on creating a clear sequence of events rather than characters and story.
Create a storyboard illustration for a short animation about a current issue that is important to you. How can you simplify the issue to create an easily understood statement with your short film?
Create a stop-motion film based on your storyboard. You may wish to collaborate with a few of your peers to complete the film more quickly. For example, one person creates the set, another moves the characters, and the third is responsible for cinematography and photos.

Uplifting Animation