I worked on the animation for award winning singer and performer, Mairi Campbell’s stage show about her own journey and the song.

“…beautiful mix of song, fiddle, intricate animation…” (The wee review)

Another fabulous Mairi Campbell stage show in which I did the animation effects and the trailer

“Wild, primal… honest” (The Herald)

The Manipulate Festival is an exciting combination of visual theatre, puppets and animation. For me it’s lovely to see my work in the context of ‘puppets’ in addition to its more usual placement in a film world, after all what I do is manipulate puppets… just painfully slowly!

In 2015 I was delighted to curate and present a programme of animations (including my own) around the theme of power and politics.

An exciting collaboration between myself and artists Alan Grieve (lead artist) and Andrew Lennie to create a travelling space (complete with animated fire) in the spirit of a Highland walkers’ bothy which travels around unexpected locations in Fife (with plans for beyond), gathering stories from people who pass through to create artwork and animations.

The culmination of my time as animator in residence at National Mining Museum Scotland was an exhibition of the process involved in making the film and the schools workshops. This was lovely. There’s so many people involved and stages of work in making even a modest short film like ‘Seams and Embers’ and there’s not often the chance to showcase it like this.

In 2013 I had the incredibly exciting opportunity of travelling to the North Slope of Alaska working with Martin Ayres of Caged Beastie as part of Living Earth Foundation’s Polar Pairs project. This project provides a teacher exchange of schools from Aberdeenshire and Alaska, both communities affected by the oil industry.

In our time there, Martin and me learnt some Inupiaq (the language of the Inuit peoples of the area), taught some Scots, exchanged music and folklore and made films.

It was an incredible experience.

When you make your first animation you feel like a wizard! Actually, that feeling never goes. I have loved sharing and developing this experience through animation workshops.

Having years of community work experience before I became an animator, I have enjoyed working with all types of groups and have made films in schools, with groups with additional support needs, public workshops, film festivals, in the Scottish Parliament, prisons and even with communities in the very north of Alaska.

“Claire certainly lived up to her job description as Animator! I was amazed at how much she managed to squeeze into the day, from explaining to planning to creating. She was really great working with the pupils too – always positive but always in control.“

Dr Bill Malcolm, Keith Grammar School

Some examples of films produced in my workshops are here.