Karen Aqua (February 2, 1954-May 30, 2011) was an American filmmaker and animator.

Early life

Aqua was born in 1954 in

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the s ...

and grew up in the nearby town of Forty Fort. She graduated in 1972 from

Wyoming Valley West Senior High School Wyoming Valley West High School is a public high school in Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. It is the only public high school in the Wyoming Valley West School District. The current building was completed in 1978. Students and faculty ...

Plymouth, Pennsylvania Plymouth is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located west of Wilkes-Barre, along the Susquehanna River. The population was 5,763 as of the 2020 census. History Plymouth was first settled in 1769 by the Susquehann ...

. She graduated from RISD in 1976 with a bachelor of fine arts degree.

Career

Over the course of her career, Aqua completed 12 animated films and one collaborative animation/live action video. Her films explore "the themes of ritual, journeys, transformation, and the human spirit. Much of her work reflects an interest in symbols, mythology, and prehistoric and tribal cultures, and include elements of rhythm, dance, and music." She wrote the lyrics and melody for the majority of her animations. She frequently collaborated with her husband, Ken Field, on the melody for some pieces, as well as chords and arrangements for the majority of them. In 1990, she began producing animated shorts for ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) ...

''. In total, she produced, directed, and animated 22 segments for the show. Aqua taught workshops at Emerson College and Boston College. She received grants and commissions from such organizations as the American Film Institute,

The MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowell ...

, Millay Colony for the Arts, Fundación Valparaíso (Spain), New England Film/Video Fellowship Program, Berkshire Taconic Trust, LEF Foundation,

Puffin Foundation The Puffin Foundation, established in 1983, is a non-profit organization that aims to amplify the voices of minorities who may underrepresented due to their race, gender, social philosophy, etc. The foundation achieves this mission of fostering ...

, and the

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. She has served as a juror for film festivals in Japan, Canada, and the US, and has presented numerous one-person screenings of her work. Aqua died in May 2011 of

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...

, after battling the illness for a decade. Upon her death, over 300 of her film and video works were donated to the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Personal life

She married her husband Ken Field in 1984.

Films

* '' Penetralia'' (1976) * '' Heavenly Bodies'' (1980) * '' Vis-á-Vis'' (1982) * '' Yours for the Taking'' (1984) * '' Nine Lives'' (1987) * '' Kakania'' (1989; title sequence) * '' Animals on Parade'' (1990) * '' Perpetual Motion'' (1992) * '' Dance to the Rhythm'' (1993) * '' Ground Zero/Sacred Ground'' (1997) * '' Building a Rhythm'' (1998) * '' Andaluz'' (2004) * ''

Sensorium A sensorium (/sɛnˈsɔːrɪəm/) (plural: sensoria) is the apparatus of an organism's perception considered as a whole, the "seat of sensation" where it experiences, perceives and interprets the environments within which it lives. The term origi ...

'' (2007) * '' Twist of Fate'' (2009) * ''

Taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

'' (2011)

References

External links

*http://karenaqua.com/index.html *https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0032586/ *https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SEgcyLTWYUc {{DEFAULTSORT:Aqua, Karen Sesame Street crew Rhode Island School of Design alumni 1954 births 2011 deaths Art & Language American animators American women animators Deaths from ovarian cancer