files/pictures/picture-35.jpgMichael Sporn has posted news on
his blog that independent animator Karen Aqua has passed away following a 10 year battle with cancer. She was born in 1954.
She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1976. Her films included TAXONOMY (2011) TWIST OF FATE (2009), ROSWELL: NOT JUST ALIENS (2008), SENSORIUM (2007), ANDALUZ (2004), GROUND ZERO/SACRED GROUND (1997), PERPETUAL MOTION (1992), KAKANIA (1989), NINE LIVES (1988) and VIS-À-VIS (1982). Starting in 1990, she produced, directed and animated a total of 22 segments for SESAME STREET. Aqua also brought her unique style to the collaboration film CANDYJAM (1988). Her work was highly influenced by symbols, mythology and prehistoric and tribal cultures.
She was awarded grants from the American Film Institute, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, New England Film/Video Fellowship Program, New Forms Regional Initiative, Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Puffin Foundation.
Throughout her career she served as an artist-in-residence at The MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Foundation, Millay Colony, Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain). Addtionally, she was an animation lecturer at Boston College from 1984 to 1991, and an animation instructor at Emerson College in 1987.
Her films have screened at Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), California Institute of the Arts, Dartmouth College, and University of Oregon.
