Local artist, musician and animator Violet Crabtree has been involved in the local underground scene since she moved to Humboldt County 20 years ago. She first caught my attention with her band The Comix Trip, which usually features Crabtree narrating a story featuring her own comics — with the aid of an overhead projector — while her bandmates provide the musical score and Foley effects. The result is always a treat and showcases her unique, handcrafted approach to multimedia storytelling, which stands out in an era defined by an increasing excess of digital and A.I.-generated animation. Wildfur, her first feature-length animated film, is premiering at the Eureka Theater on Sunday (details below). It is a musical production full of songs by local artists like Daniel Nickerson, Meg Baird and Hudson Glover, as well as work by prominent New York rock cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis, among many others. I interviewed Crabtree via email to get a sense of what to expect.
NCJ: Tell me about yourself and your background as an artist and animator. How long have you been doing this work and what are some of your previous projects?
Crabtree:
I’ve been doing stop motion animation for about 10 years. My background is in illustration, clothing design, sculpture, painting and storytelling. I’ve been doodling my whole life, but fashion design was my first passion around the age of 12.
The first films I made were with a group of friends. It was their idea to make the films based on the comic book stories I was performing with The Comix Trip back in 2012. We filmed intensively every weekend the first half of 2013, including a long late-night stop-motion session with Sierra Martin, a local artist and friend. He was inspired to animate the death of my character Jonesy from [my early short] The Fruit of Jonesy. I helped make Jonesy’s clothes and torch the fallen puppet to make it appear to decay (stop-motion style) on the forest floor. The Fruit of Jonesy premiered at the Minor Theatre’s grand re-opening in 2016 with other local shorts.
Our group lost momentum and a few important shots were left unfinished. I was determined to get all five of these short films out, I “filled-in” these missing sequences with some very crude claymation. It was so satisfying. I finished the films and showed them in November of 2016 at the Miniplex.
After that, I convinced [local rock trio] The Monster Women to let me make a claymation music video for them. It was called ‘“Lost at Sea.” Again, very crude, but I still like it.
After that, I made a claymation music video for Lyndsey Battle called “Bigfoot He’s People.” I began to feel very ambitious and contacted a bunch of bands outside the area. Next was a video called “Alien” for Mommy Long Legs, a Seattle band. I did a bunch of different animated projects in 2018, and finally landed my dream job in 2019, making a claymation music video for the Seattle band Tacocat called “Crystal Ball.” They had just signed to Subpop Records, which was so exciting to me.
NCJ: What was the genesis of Wildfur? How long have you been working on it and what is the story about?
Crabtree:
With the help of the Sanctuary, I got a community grant from Humboldt Area Foundation to start making a feature film based on an illustrated story of mine called “Finnea Wildfur.”
The story came from my frustration about the election results of 2016 and feeling powerless. I wanted to create something that voiced my anger but channeled it into a cute story for kids. I can’t help it. I make cute stuff when I’m mad. I get mad, make cute stuff that makes me laugh, and then I feel a little better. Finnea Wildfur is a Sasquatch who has discovered that Bill Ding, a villain with a house for a head, is stealing natural resources from the forest and enslaving animals to work in his factory. He’s selling condos in the clouds and everyone who lives there is hooked on these new furry phones that have replaced their pets. They are very disconnected from reality and nature. Finnea and a team of friends work together to try to restore balance.
The film is very much an anti-capitalist movie. It’s not subtle at all. I was inspired by the eco-feminist movement, Judi Bari and other forest defenders. It’s about taking down the patriarchy and finding healthier ways to live. Respecting plants and animals. I hope this will resonate with kids, since us adults are so indoctrinated into the toxic consumer way of life.
NCJ: Walk us through the technical side of Wildfur. How was it made and who were some of the actors in the film?
Crabtree:
Wildfur is a stop-motion hybrid, which means it also has live action. It’s a many-layered thing. I used every kind of animation I could think of. Mostly 3D, but also a little hand drawn 2-D and lots of paper cut-out animation. I used a lot of claymation, including flat claymation. I think the only digital animation is some lightning bolts.
Almost all the live stuff was filmed in front of a green screen so that the actors could be plunked into my miniature sets in post-production. The miniature sets usually take weeks or months to build. I make them out of cardboard, hot glue, paint, paper-mache and fabric. Wildfur is full of old lace. Almost all the bushes and small trees are painted lace. It kinda looks like your great-grandmother crocheted this film.
Most of Wildfur was animated in my tiny studio, adjacent to my house. I call it the Art Shack. I was lucky enough to have access to several large workspaces in the last six years. The first was Outer Space Arcata’s “new” spot on the plaza in June of 2021. They weren’t having in-person shows yet, so I was able to spread out in the spot that is now the stage area. I made a huge forest set, with Finnea’s unique circle-of-albino-redwood-trees home.
I spent this last winter working in my friend’s garage space in the Arcata Bottoms, making another huge set of an alleyway behind some shops.
I filmed almost all the live action stuff at the Sanctuary in 2022, during a two-month artist residency. I filmed my friends, who happen to be great non-actors, mostly. Bill Ding is played by my old friend and Comix Trip bandmate Andrew Anderson. He is larger than life, a hilarious bad guy.
NCJ: What does the future hold, ideally, for Wildfur and for you as an artist?
Crabtree:
I’m hoping to get Wildfur into some film festivals and known outside of the Redwood Curtain. Film festivals cost money, so I have a GoFundMe to help make this happen. We’ll have a QR code at the event if people feel inspired to donate a little after the showing. I’d like a streaming company to pick up the film. Only time will tell.
After this event, I’m going to finish a comic book/novel I started last year and make a couple of music videos. Do some Comix Trip shows, including one Monday, Oct. 12, at Moss Oak with Blub, Tiffany and Sun Toy. I’ll do some puppet shows, make some birthday presents and do a bunch of short-term projects. Enjoy life and be part of the arts community more and alone in my Art Shack less.
Wildfur premieres this Sunday, Sept. 6 at the Eureka Theater. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids under 12. There will be two showings at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., with live music in the lobby after the first showing and a Q& A with Violet Crabtree after the second one.
This article appears in ‘More of the Moment’.