Roots

        Good evening. Welcome to the Pinwheel Arts blog.

        Erm.

        How does one introduce a blog? Welcome to... sounds ridiculous. It's not an event or a place. I don't know. Does it matter? Maybe not. The point is, this is the beginning of Pinwheel Arts and you saw it first.

        So what is this blog, and indeed, Pinwheel Arts, all about? Getting my work active and out there is the short answer, but I know you'd much prefer the roundabout backstory.
        I graduated from a Foundation Degree in Film & Television Production at the Northern Film School in the summer of 2010 and since then haven't got anywhere. There have been visits to the Jobcentre, an intermittent bar job in an awful establishment, countless bottles of wine consumed. Of course there was my opportunity to work as lead animator on The Mind's Wood - a lovely short film directed by the very talented Dave Bond, which utilised a blend of live action and classic stop-motion, something I liked very much.

Sizeably weirdly, though in a good way.

        Aside from this one thing, however, I was very much stuck in a serious hole until traveling to America to teach at Camp Ballibay this summer just gone. I could talk so much about Ballibay; the wonderful folk I met, the sense of self-worth it instilled, the degree to which I was inspired by everything about those two months, but that is for a different time, maybe a different entry in this blog.
        It was there that I was reintroduced to stop-motion animation and began heading a stop-motion unit during the last two weeks of camp. It rekindled my interest in animated fiction, in particular a script I had written several years back entitled Shell of Light (again, we shall learn more in the future). The time had come to go further with this art form, and maybe even allow it to overtake my decade-long ambition in live-action film. So after settling back into the rhythm of Wooler and getting back on the Jobseeker's, I began. Pinwheel Arts was born and will only grow from here.

        Right then, this blog. This blog will deal with upcoming projects; revealing what's going on behind the scenes, gaining the interest of others (or so I'd hope), getting what's going on in my head out as some visual art. Telling stories. And of course I'll treat you - though I use the word 'treat' tentatively - to some general discussion on animation, gigs, music, gaming, anything I feel like rambling about.
        And that's that. This is Pinwheel Arts. There are projects in development, and they will be rearing their heads soon. In the meantime, I will embed once again the teaser for Shell of Light. I know you have all already seen it but right now it's all there is to offer up. That won't be the case forever.

        The breeze begins to blow and the pinwheel is turning.

        JBN Johnston

Night Bus (Shell of Light teaser) from Pinwheel Arts on Vimeo.