Hello! It’s me, Hannah, coming at ya with some sad news. All good things must come to an end, like Michael Phelps’ career, or in this case, my column. Mixed Vegetables has had its ups and downs, its chunkily cubed veggies, its promise of a five-minute tendon-snapping animated film, its delivery of a 37-second long short. Maybe it’s a metaphor for the creative process? Maybe that was my plan for this column all along. Who’s to say!
That being said, in my effort to document the process of developing an idea for a film and actually going through and making it, I ran into one of the most common pitfalls of making art: running out of time. In the 400-meter race against time, I started strong then stumbled at the 100-meter mark. A few yards later, I got distracted by the lovely landscaping around the stadium. Then my shoe laces came untied and I took a tumble. Then I rolled into a pit. After recovering from my fall, I climbed out of that pit and into a ditch (This is like catharsis, right?). I realized that I was way too far behind the other runners to come in anywhere but last place. So I cut across the track field to the finish line. Now I’m here!
What I’m trying to say is that it’s easy to forget that when you want to work on a slightly longer project, the universe is going to focus all its energy on kicking you in the knees and shoving you into a pit. So this is the message that I would like to impart: Always double-knot your shoe laces and bring your own scissors for any corners that you need to cut. Also, ignore the referee!
