"Papa Pasquale" - Awards and Official Selections.

Happy! My film "Papa Pasquale", the true story about an adventurous young man who immigrates to Canada from Italy in the 1950's, has made the rounds of a few festivals and won a couple of awards.

Here's the updated list:

• Anim!Arte 2015, 12th International Animation Festival of Brazil, Official Selection.
• Canada Independent Film Festival 2016, Montreal - Official Selection, WINNER, Best Animation.
• The Humboldt International Film Festival 2016, Arcata CA - Official Selection.
• WINNER Ledo Matteoli Award For Best Film With An Immigration Theme.
• SOHO International Film Festival 2016, NYC - Official Selection.
• The Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2016, Canada - Official Selection.
• Athens Animfest 2016, Greece - Official Selection.
• USA Film Festival 2016, Dallas, Texas - Official Selection, Finalist.
• Salento International Film Festival 2016, Italy - Official Selection.
• INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION AWARDS 2016, Rio de Janeiro - WINNER, Short Film Competition
• Montreal International Film Festival 2016 - Official Selection.

• Detroit International Festival of Animation 2017 - Official Selection.

The Detroit festival is coming up on April 7th and 8th, wish I could make it, but alas! I cannot (sad face).

Otherwise I'm pleased as punch.

And ...since the topic of immigration is important right now, I'm making the film available for download through Teachers Pay Teachers. Good fit for social studies and history. There's a very small fee to help me towards my next animation project, "Flowers", so please enjoy!

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PickleWeasel Shamrocks.

Took a little break from making a zillion clip art drawings to do some animation for you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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The Very Bored Elephant.

It used to be the biggest thing in the room, and now, three years later, the shrinking elephant is so very bored.

Definitely not drinking is easier than drinking; my struggle ended when I made the decision to quit. It incinerated this punishing loop of self-loathing.

I remember being scared, like, what if I fail? And my mom said, "Yes, you might fail. But if you fail, it's alright; you start over. You're allowed to fail." And I was like, oh, that's pretty straightforward. I can do this.

Life is a little different. I lost a friend or two along the way. It forced me to re-evaluate my friendship goals. And that was sad, but ultimately liberating.

I don't get invited to aaaaalll the parties anymore. Though I do get invited to some. I was at a friend's birthday celebration and I was laughing and having fun. A man offered me some wine. I told him, "No, thanks". He then straight-up told me that he was going to order a bottle and that I was going to drink some. After momentarily toying with the idea of just telling him, "I'M AN ALCOHOLIC" I thought, but why give any explanation when "no" should be enough? So I simply repeated myself, "No. Thank-you." He backed away.

I have the power. I'm good. Love you guys!

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