Laura Nhep
Danbury, CT
Advisor: Heejoo Gwen Kim
Artist Bio
Laura Nhep is an artist and animator from Danbury, Connecticut. From a young age, she always had a passion for drawing and creating art. Starting her creative journey as a traditional artist, she mainly worked with pencil, ink, and watercolors. While still creating art in traditional mediums, she also learned and adapted to working in digital software such as Photoshop and After Effects to create motion graphics and digital animations. Currently, Laura is a Digital Media and Design student at the University of Connecticut, concentrating in Motion Design & Animation. She hopes to find a job in the industry that fuels her creativity and passion for visual storytelling.
Artist Statement
Phantasma is an experimental animation that revolves around 3 different characters; A mysterious woman with flowing hair, a man that is slowly falling apart, and a spirit that inevitably unravels and disappears. Phantasma focuses on the visual aspect of the three characters, while the story has a fractured narrative. With the dream-like atmosphere, there is a sense of wonder and mystery within the characters and the place that they are in. Alongside wanting to create something visually poetic, my approach to creating an experimental animation largely stems from my life, my experience, and what my current feelings are. I feel that many things in my life haven’t made sense lately and that things have been at a standstill for some time. Those feelings and emotions are also present in this work where the audience is viewing it from a certain perspective. Like many things in life, we only see something from our outside point of view and will never know the true story. Just like the characters in this animation, the audience only sees them through the way they are presented. One can only speculate and wonder who they are, what they’re thinking, and what is happening in their story.
