Rhythm

The rhythm of life and the daily routines that become the cornerstones of life was often talked about between artists Sharon Dipity, Sarah Ruttle and the residents at Clonakilty Community Hospital.  As they shared stories of the post office visits, the one-stop shop that had everything, the people they met and the places they passed it became apparent an animation would be a wonderful creative format to express this experience.

The process began with the static visual elements, which were drafted out in black line drawing with coloured ink being added to bring vibrancy to the images. Filmmaker Colm Rooney was brought into the artistic collaboration to bring the drawing to life with his animation skills. He layered each of the drawings to create a series of scenes. Justin Grounds composer and musician worked in parallel with the participants on a different day to create the soundtrack to the animation. Sounds were made using a variety of everyday objects that featured in the participant’s stories including the musical playing of a bicycle to illustrate the story.

Taking participants stories from a drawing and bringing it to life in an animation was required the skills and collaboration of all four artists from the Arts for Health team.

‘I worked together with Sharon and talked about trying to create the feeling of depth in the scenes of the piece and get an idea of what they’d like to achieve visually. ‘ explained Sarah.

‘Having the Arts For Health programme increase in size recently to include the music programme it made sense to connect with Justin Grounds one of the composers on the team to create a sound piece for the animation. Colm and Justin worked on linking the visual and sound work for the completed piece.’

Being part of a networked team of artists, each with different skills meant that the artists were in the fortunate position to be able to share ideas and work in an interdisciplinary way to collaborate both creatively and technically.

‘Talking through concepts or ideas with another artist a small idea can grow into a complex creative plan. Working together makes these complex ideas achievable, drawing from each other’s strengths. Working with artists who understand the complexity of working in healthcare settings brings a unique support. There is a general understanding of the issues we face and supports in finding solutions for both practical and/or creative challenges.’