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You've reached the portfolio site of M. McGee. Here you can find all of my artwork by following the guides below. Happy trails!
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Haven 3
Animation
About
"The adventure is my muse and the arts are my walking stick" - meHey there! I'm a 22 year old digital artist and designer, graduated from Skidmore College with a BS in studio art and a concentration in digital media. While my passions lie with illustration and character design, through my studies I've expanded into more branches of the trade- including graphic design, animation, and web design. Regardless of the medium, though, my fascinations always return to that of the otherworldly, the uncanny, the bizarre, and the fantastical. I like to question the laws that bind our understandings of reality, and investigating human relationships with the "abnormal" has continued to fascinate me more and more. After all, there is a lot to wonder about in those nooks and crannies of the universe- those that lie in the corner of the eye, in the outskirts of society, and in worlds beyond.
Find me
Commission info can be found at the paintbrush icon below.
Cinematic Story: "Captive"
Inspired by the film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover by Peter Greenaway. See below for full project statement. (Content Warning for depiction of weapons and violence)
In this narrative series, I’m attempting to respond to the ways in which The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover implies such a dramatic cat-and-mouse narrative when imagining that the dialogue is removed. Based on the general plot structure of the film, my narrative follows the Main Character (played by me) as they try to break free from a place of captivity, while being chased and hunted by their captor. I am the only character on camera, so the entire narrative is told through my expressions, actions, and movement, and through color-coded lighting. I utilize a saturated red-green complementary color motif inspired directly from the film to indicate presence of danger or safety, such colors present in both lighting and costume.
The nature of the captor and place of captivity is left vague intentionally; my hope was that the lack of characterizing indicators would create the general atmosphere of being trapped, and to write a narrative about how nonlinear and difficult “escape” from dark places and situations often is. Recovery from mental illness, for example, is not a one-and-done deal; relapses often occur, and it can feel impossible to escape at times. I approached the narrative from the perspective of mental illness with my own positionality in mind, however the inspirations I took from the film that largely responds to abuse were an additional attempt to create a narrative that can be applied more broadly.
This entire project was shot and edited while I was in quarantine with Covid-19 with naught but a camera, a tripod, and whatever lighting was granted to me by an empty, dark apartment. I think this really enhanced that feeling of being trapped, isolated, and left with very few resources to utilize.
A Monstrosity!
(This section is under construction while I make some edits to the comic.) A short comic tying my experience with identity to monstrosity. Read left to right, top to bottom
A Wanderer's Notes on fiends, creatures, and beings
Ablaze (Senior Thesis)
Ablaze is a short animated film about an anxious demon who accidentally breathes to life a chaotic creature made of flame. The story is meant to serve as a metaphor for disability and the struggles that we encounter in live, advocating for a future where we embrace these setbacks as a part of life and recognize that our struggles don't make us any less worthy of love. Below you will find the full film and the pre-production work that was displayed in the final exhibition.Credits:
Music: "Calling" by Ikson
All pre-production and animation material by me
