female announcer: Today on "Studio Space," hosts Kati Texas and David Ferney take you to the studios of two artists who take their time to do it their way.

Animator Steven Vander Meer draws each frame by hand.

His short films have won him awards at prestigious film festivals at home and abroad.

Then discover what drives sculptor Dan McCauley to take junk and hammer it, weld it, and break it to create everything from goats to giant crabs.

"Studio Space" introduces you to art and artists in Northern California.

♪♪♪ announcer: "Studio Space" was sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Kati Texas: Hi, I'm Kati Texas.

David Ferney: And I'm David Ferney.

Today on "Studio Space" we'll drop in on two very different creators who have found their own unique paths of expression.

Kati: I'll be in the woods at the studio of sculptor Dan McCauley as he creates treasures from trash, but first David visits with award-winning filmmaker Steven Vander Meer who creates imaginative hand-drawn animations on 3 x 5 notecards.

Steven Vander Meer: If there's a background, it's drawn on every card and I draw 12 of these cards for each second of animation.

So, there's about-- David: It's a lot of drawing.

Steven: Yeah.

♪♪♪ David: We're here with Steven Vander Meer who is an animator and graphic artist.

We're really excited to have you here, Steven.

Steven: Thank you.

David: Thanks for joining us on "Studio Space."

Steven: My pleasure.

David: I've been a fan a long time of your work and I got to, a couple of years ago, come in and see your studio which is a real treat and see your work process.

And I've always been fascinated by the process of your work which is animation on 3 x 5 cards.

Thousands of them, literally.

Steven: This area back here is what I call my animation nook and this is where the magic happens.

I draw on little 3- x 5-inch index cards.

This is what I use for my storyboard.

It's magnetic.

And over here is my light table and this is how I am able to see through drawings.

I just put 'em on this little light table and I can see through two or three of these index cards at the same time.

David: That's what I was--that was one of the things I was wondering about.

Steven: Yeah.

David: Keeping stuff aligned in the sequence.

Steven: Yeah, and they're lined up by these little guides here.

These are printmaker guides, and you just, like, keep 'em in the same space every time.

Steven: One of my favorite things to do, and I do a lot in animation, is called morphing, and that's where one drawing will sort of melt into another.

So the beginning of the morph is at one end of the rack, and the end of the morph is at the other end.

And then the next drawing that I do is the one in the middle so I'll take the two and put 'em on my light table and then a blank one on the top.

And I can, as you can see--I don't know if you can see this, but I can see the triangle and the rectangle, both at the same time, and I can draw right in between 'em so now, that goes there, it goes there, and I just keep doing that.

And the next one goes here, okay?

I mean, this is a ultra-simple shape but it's just to give you an idea.

You can do this, not just with morphing but you can also do it with movement, like if something is moving from right to left or up and down, so there's that in between.

And then, and you can kind of see now, you stand back, how the triangle is morphing into a rectangle.

I went to art school and I studied photography, painting, graphic design, all kinds of things.

And as a requirement, I was required to take a film class or two and part of the assignment lineup was you had to do an animation.

It had not occurred to me to do an animation, ever.

And my teacher was not an animator.

She was a film teacher.

And she was lecturing about other animators doing this and that, different techniques.

She did mention one person whose name I forget, who made a film or films on index cards.

And that just struck me immediately because I'd already adopted index cards as something just to doodle on.

Actually, back in high school, I was one of those guys that did term papers by writing little facts on index cards and then organizing them and so, anyway, I was already into index cards.

And then when she said this guy did a film on them, I thought, "Yeah."

That just--and I didn't do it right away.

It just stuck in my brain.

And I got through college and graduated and I had an idea in my head to do a film on index cards and it coincided with another idea of doing an alphabet film.

Then I got the opportunity to come to Arcata, California, to sublet my brother's rental property for three months and I thought, "Ah, this is perfect.

I'll go out to California with a bunch of index cards, and I'll draw this alphabet film I had been dreaming about."

So I came out to California, brought my light table and my index cards and started drawing.

And then I found out that it takes a little longer than three months to make a film.

In fact, it took 18 months.

David: Right.

Steven: And it's a nine-minute film which is pretty ambitious.

Every project is different and I like to experiment and I like to try different things.

That was one where I wanted to animate to music so I got a complete set of music or piece of music and animated to it.

Another film, "Salmon Deadly Sins," I used prerecorded existing music but not until after I drew the film, which is interesting.

That's another thing.

I was working on the film, "Salmon Deadly Sins," and it's on salmon-colored index cards and there's all kinds of fish, well, all kinds of salmon in the film, and it's about the, you know, seven deadly sins and there's anagrams and all stuff and I worked on that for two or three years.

It's a seven-minute film.

And all the while I'm thinking, "Oh, what kind of music do I wanna put on here?

What's the soundtrack gonna be?"

And the thought of Leftover Salmon music just kept creeping into my head and I kept pushing it out because I thought, "Ah, that's too obvious.

I can't do that, but I like them."

David: Which is a local band, yeah, California band.

Steven: Yeah, so maybe I should just--you know, I used to listen to them, I think, back in the '80s, early '90s, but I hadn't since.

Are they still around?

What's going on?

David: Do I still like them?

Steven: So--do I still like them, exactly.

That was the question.

Do I still like 'em?

Should I even look into this?

I'm just gonna look into it to get it out of my head because it's stupid.

And they were still around and they had a new album out.

I put it on and listened to it.

Went, "Wow, I really love this song.

Out of curiosity, I'm gonna put my film on the computer.

I'm gonna play the song and I look at it at the same time."

And this is a dangerous thing to do because, as a filmmaker, you do not wanna get attached to a piece of music that you don't have the rights to 'cause it starts to be, like, that's your music and you really want it and then you can't get the rights to it.

You're corkscrewed.

But I did it anyway.

I listened to it.

I'm sitting in that chair right over there and it's on the computer and I got it on the big speakers.

I'm listening and, "This is looking really good.

Wow, I really like this."

And then the song ends.

The song ends abruptly, bam.

And when it ended like that, my film ended the same time.

I literally jumped out of my chair and went, "Oh my God.

That's the music I need."

And so, luckily, I was able to get the rights to it.

I contacted the band and they were, like, "Yeah."

Yeah, they signed the thing and took some money and then they also allowed Ryan Roberts who's one of the Absynth Quartet guys who knows them, they allowed him to re-edit the piece of music to really fit my film.

So certain parts had to be, you know, repeated a little bit and it had to be made exactly seven minutes so it had to be extended a little bit.

Yeah, so--and he did an excellent job in pinning it down.

So David, you were asking about this other drawing table here.

This used to be a drafting table, as you can see.

But I cut a hole in it and underneath I mounted a projector, a film projector, and it's now--and it's now a rotoscope.

David: Oh, wow.

Steven: So what happens is I film live action, usually of myself 'cause I'm available.

So I'm cheap.

Then I'm cheap, yeah.

So I film live action and I'll get it on that projector and it'll project it on the back of that screen right there and I'll put an index card in there and be able to draw-- David: On the live action.

Steven: On top of the live action.

But on an index card.

Most rotoscoping now, almost all rotoscoping now, is done on the computer and they can still do it by hand, you know, with like a tablet.

But I wanted a way to do it with a pencil on a paper, and so that's what I built.

David: So, did you use that for "Boomerang," for the model that you used?

Steven: No, I didn't do rotoscoping in "Boomerang."

I did do it in "Random Thoughts."

And you'll see it, you'll see me talking and acting very natural and that's rotoscoped.

Steven: Let's see, did you also know the letters in "A months drought" can be moving to spell "Random thoughts"?

David: Now, you said about your first film that you were using 16 millimeter back then and I know now, you know, you're using more and more computer technology for the stuff that you do.

Can you talk a little bit about how, you know, the process has evolved but still kept the same, you know, through the years with all the technology?

Steven: Yeah, it's a challenge, the technology and video, digital video, is most of it--most of it is way over my head.

I learned just enough about it to get by, basically.

I still draw all my drawings on 3 x 5 index cards by hand, but then instead of filming them, I put 'em on a scanner, flat-bed scanner, just a regular desktop, and I've got it set up so that when the scan is complete, they're 1920 by 1080, you know, HD video--or not video; they're a still, they're a jpeg.

And I've import all these jpegs, thousands of 'em, into Adobe Premiere which is a film editing program, and make--that plays 'em at 12 per second, allows me to sync up the sounds and the music with it, and in many ways it's so much better than the old film days because, for one, it's instant.

I draw a drawing, I scan it, and it's in the film like that.

I don't have to wait for processing.

And you don't have to, like, physically line up the sound with the film.

David: Then you can still change 'cause I also--I know also that you've evolved into using Photoshop for coloring on your drawings.

Steven: I wouldn't say I've evolved into it.

I've experimented with a lot.

Some films, I've--like "Boomerang," I've 100% colored in Photoshop, but I do that--in that film I did it in a way that preserved the index card completely.

So it's not like I just paintbucket filled in areas with blue, for example.

I would select an area and then shift it to blue so that the texture, the paper texture of the card remained there, it just turned blue.

And I set up all kinds of recorded actions in Photoshops that I could process these hundreds, thousands, of cards relatively quickly.

Quicker than scrubbing with a colored pencil or a marker.

I mean, your hands wear out quickly when you do that.

David: Yeah, thank you so much, Steven.

This has been really fascinating.

It's been a real pleasure to spend some time in your studio, learn more about your work and, as always, I'm a huge fan.

♪♪♪ [laughing] Dan McCauley: I know personally, as an artist, that I wanted to be around a community that was very similar to my lifestyle, to where I didn't feel as--so much of an odd person out of the mix of a general population of people, where other places I had lived, it had always been kind of looked at as a little strange, you know?

Like, why are you building 30-foot dinosaurs in your front yard?

And my answer to that was, "Because I want to," and we're sharing with a community.

But here, it's really well received, so it was--it was important to wanna live somewhere where I was received well.

♪♪♪ Kati: Hi, Dan.

Dan: Hi, Kati.

Kati: Can you tell us a little bit about where we are?

Dan: Yeah, you're at my magical little place here where I create all the artwork that I do.

Kati: It is definitely magical.

There's art tucked in to every tiny little--every tiny little nook and cranny.

Can you describe your art?

What is it that you do?

Dan: Okay, so basically, I like to take found objects and make creatures of this planet out of them.

Metal bits of things that I locate from roadside cleanups, dune cleanups, and property cleanups.

Kati: Oh, this all looks very exciting.

Can you show us how it works?

Dan: Thanks, yeah, for sure.

So I'm gonna end up creating a wren today, and it's gonna be out of this pile of goodies here.

Basically, what I love to do is I love to take things that are deemed unusable, unwanted, unloved, and create the beauty and love out of 'em again by using things that people would discard.

Unfortunately, unproperly too.

A lot of the stuff is either from this property or roadside cleanups and beach cleanups and dune cleanups.

So--and I love to recreate things and give it, like, a new beautiful life.

And to be able to share that with people and get them to think about seeing the world differently.

Take this, oh, that's a good one right there, yeah.

All right.

Kati: You're going out in nature, finding stuff that doesn't belong there and then using it to create a art of nature?

Dan: Correct.

Kati: Wow.

Dan: Yeah, yeah.

And it's kind of funny too.

Sometimes, I actually sell stuff back to people that they gave me to, like, in donation-wise.

And they don't realize it until afterwards, that it's individual pieces from their discardments that they've purchased back in a different shape or form, so.

Kati: Well, you added some value to it.

Dan: Oh, 100%.

Just gave it a little bit more beauty, you know?

Kati: What is it that you like about found metal, about sculpture with found objects?

Dan: Well, for one, it cleans up the earth, which is a really important part of what I do.

It's always interesting to show people what you can do out of one little piece of scrap metal.

And two, it's just important to give something like a re-beautification, like, a purpose again.

Gives it love again and I just think that's an important thing to share with the community and everybody.

Kati: It sounds like you have an affection for the materials.

Dan: Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, you think about it, everybody has had some kind of loss or whatever or disappointment, and I look at it the same way with materials that were created to perform a duty or be an object of some sort, and then for it to lose its value in some way for whatever reason.

Kati: Now, when you're out cleaning up or looking around, are you just grabbing whatever you find or is there something in particular you're looking for, for a material or an object to make it into your possibilities pile?

Dan: Well, typically, it's all random metal scraps and stuff, and plastic too, if it's there.

But--and then I kind of just go through it as I'm going through the mental process of what I might be able to use it for, and whether or not it's something I wanna keep to potentially use or just put it in the right disposal properly, as far as, you know, if I can't use a particular piece of metal, I take it to the scrap-yard so it's then dealt with properly, instead of where I had found it at.

So, yeah.

Kati: Have to appreciate leaving things cleaner than you found them.

Dan: Yeah, 100%.

I think that's the better way to go.

Kati: Yeah, so then you're taking those materials and exploring sort of life sciences subject matter.

What in particular?

Are there certain subjects that you really like to sculpt?

Dan: Yeah, ornithology, the study of birds, has always been my favorite science.

Just the idea of flight.

The fact that they're born with a lot of pre-knowledge, and just their ability to create so much beauty with their plumage and also their songs.

It's just kind of a joyous thing to be around.

I mean, who doesn't really like a bird song chirping?

So it's something that's relative to everybody that they can find some kind of beauty in.

Dan: Have yourself a little wren.

A lot of junk.

Dan: Ever since I was a little child, my parents had, like, a bag of rags in the hallway closet and when my mom would go to the flower shop to work and my dad would be outside working, I would sew costumes together out of the different colored materials, you know, and that was before I was five.

It just always has been a part of my life to kind of wanna create and have that fun.

Kati: Were you encouraged to be creative and explore?

Dan: I grew up, we had a sawmill so we built our own house.

We sawed our own lumber, built our own house.

Kati: Was that around here?

Dan: No, I grew up in Pennsylvania.

Kati: Oh.

Dan: Yeah.

Kati: What brought you here?

Dan: Well, the fact of I had visited a few times.

I have a cousin that lives out here.

And he had me come out for a summer and it was really nice to come out.

The area's gorgeous.

When I was out here the one time, I went to the Kinetic Sculpture Race and to see people from the community that wouldn't normally do theater or any of the sort to come together as a group, as a unit, a whole, and perform in front of the community with no monetary compensation, it was just purely for the love of art, I had never experienced that in my entire life.

Kati: Can you tell me about the dinosaur at the jetty?

Dan: Yeah, so that, that particular day I was just out there with Falkor.

I started seeing all these metal bits that were left over from the deterioring jetty.

Dan: Whoa, look at this.

Just found a dinosaur in North Jetty.

Daggone, man.

Right down here.

I guess it must have got uncovered last night by the water.

Hahh!

Just kidding.

Dan: The old wood that was kind of bolted down out there and whatnot, and I was finding all these old rusty iron bolts and rebar and it had a lot of, like, conglomerate oxidization so it was all clumpy rust.

A lot of the pieces assimilated dinosaur bones and fossils that you could excavate from the earth.

I spent maybe an hour and a half there, like, rounding pieces up and I had built so many dinosaurs before that it was kind of easy for me to lay it out and it was just fun to put out there for the public to see.

I didn't have to take anything, but once again, the people that did experience it before the tide had come in and, you know, covered it back up, which if it ever gets uncovered, how cool would that be?

And still be intact.

But just the fact of giving the whole idea of inspiring people, like, "Oh, there's a shape.

I can make something out of it."

Or, like, "This looks like this.

I can make something out of it."

Kati: Sometimes, when you find a material can you already see what--where it can fit into a sculpture?

Dan: Oh yeah, yeah.

Sometimes, things are already done and it is kind of funny because it's just, like, positioning it in a certain manner that it creates a different shape and then seeing that shape as potentially a tail, like, a tire iron instead of a four-way tire iron, just a little L-shape tire iron works perfect as a dog's tail wagging because it already has that similar shape, you know.

Spoons, you can cut a spoon and, like, three different spoons and create a whole bird sculpture because of, like, the body of the spoon, the ladle, and then where it necks up to the handle, you can cut that, and that's part of the beak.

So, yeah, it happens a lot to where when I see an object I'm seeing the shape.

I'm not seeing it deemed as, like, "Well, this is specifically this term."

It's more, "This is exactly the shape and this is what I'm gonna do with it," kind of thing.

It's funny 'cause sometimes this stuff is really already done and I'm just, like, a surveyor that, like, coming together so it's kind of strange in that sense of, you know, not really, like, a painter starts out with a blank canvas and then puts everything on a palette and mixes and does stuff like that, and yeah, sometimes, everything's already done and I'm just kind of putting it together.

In my brain, it's already done now.

Kati: Yeah, in your brain it's already done.

That's where I see the artist.

Well, Dan, this has been really great.

Thank you so much for showing us around.

Dan: Yeah, you're welcome.

Thank you so much for coming out and got to share it with everybody.

Kati: And thank you for joining us on "Studio Space."

Kati: We hope you enjoyed today's episode.

David: To visit with more Humboldt County artists, go to studiospace.tv.

♪♪♪ Dan: It barely fit in the bed of the truck.

Kati: I was just wondering how you got it.

Dan: Then I had to, like, push it out of the bed.

Kati: And not roll it down the hill?

Dan: Squeeze the bed sides out a little bit.

So I set up, like, a little thing of tires 'cause when I bought this place, it was just totally full of junk.

That's how I acquired this place, in a way.

They asked me to come clean up their property.

I made a joke of, like, it'd be easier to buy the place.

announcer: "Studio Space" was sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

♪♪♪ ...