{"id":10819,"date":"2019-03-21T01:05:45","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T05:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=10819"},"modified":"2019-03-21T01:05:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T05:05:45","slug":"karen-aqua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/03\/21\/karen-aqua\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Cambridge Animator Karen Aqua With Live-Soundtrack Screening Performed By Her Husband"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Once I saw my drawings move, it was a big magical connection,” Cambridge animator Karen Aqua told The Boston Globe in 1994. “It is a really addicting experience, to see the things moving. For all the things we come to hate about it, like the process being so tedious, and how long it takes to do it and how hard it is to get your stuff shown, it seems impossible to do anything else.”<\/p>\n

Aqua made 12 films, plus 22 shorts for the children\u2019s television show \u201cSesame Street,\u201d before her death from ovarian cancer in 2011 at age 57. World Music\/CRASHarts and the Institute of Contemporary Art\/Boston present \u201cAnimated Films of Karen Aqua,\u201d<\/a> a screening, at the Boston museum at 8 p.m. Friday, March 22. It’s a chance to see seven of her personal projects plus one of the \u201cSesame Street\u201d shorts. (Her films are available via rental from Vimeo and her website: karenaqua.com<\/a>.) They\u2019ll be accompanied by a live soundtrack of alto saxes and drums led by Aqua\u2019s husband, Cambridge saxophonist-composer Ken Field of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and Revolutionary Snake Ensemble. Field will be joined by alto sax players Stan Strickland, Lihi Haruvi and Neil Leonard, with Savannah Marshall on drums.<\/p>\n

\"Ken<\/a>
Ken Field (left) and Karen Aqua. (Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This live-soundtrack screening arose because about a year and a half ago, Field, who composed music for and played on the soundtracks for most of Aqua\u2019s films, was invited to show Aqua’s films and perform live musical accompaniment at the 2017 Animator Festival in Poland. “I had written all but one of them, but they were written for very different instruments,\u201d Field says. He dug out the original sheet music\u2014and rearranged them for four alto saxes and one drummer. “In some cases, it meant adding parts. In some cases, it meant getting rid of parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

He considered different ways of synching the life music and recorded films. “In the end, I decided let’s just fly free and let the chips fall where they may,” Field says. “You just can’t be perfect with that kind of thing.”<\/p>\n

“It’s not difficult for me to do this. It’s very positive,” Field says.<\/p>\n

“The work is so much a part of me and part of my life. It just seems natural really,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI like being reminded of Karen. I like the opportunity to have her presence, to experience her presence, which we all will do through her films. The best way to honor someone you love after they’re gone is to think about them.”<\/p>\n

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