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I grew up on eastern Long Island, amidst a landscape of field, forest, marsh and water. My father is a research scientist, and he instilled in me an insatiable curiosity about the world; my grandmother, a painter and poet, taught me to value my inner experience, and reflect it back through art. From the earliest age, my unique response to the world has reached wide to grasp both science and art: my tireless investigation drives always toward creative synthesis and expression.
Growing up, I was deeply involved in both art and science, always juggling projects in the visual arts, dance, music, and theater; science experiments were de rigueur at home, along with mechanical, chemical and electrical tinkering projects; I began programming in the third grade on the high school mainframe, and summers found me learning marine biology aboard the school's research vessel.
A highly educational figure in the landscape of my childhood was a nuclear power plant, hunkering menacingly upon the shoreline of my hometown. The plant's property taxes funded our award-winning school programs, but stood as a constant threat to the community in those latter days of the Cold War. The plant's Mafia-controlled construction was predictably fraught with corruption and shoddy workmanship, and we were stuck on an island, with our only escape through New York City-- to which morning commutes averaged two hours in normal traffic. A combination of undercover, Investigative reporting and a series of damning federal investigations had brought the Plant to its knees, but community organization efforts, built upon years of local demonstrations, were the killing blow. As I entered adulthood, the lessons continued, as the fallout from this (otherwise inspiring) 'people's triumph' left a gutted school system, unemployment, and a hideous, rusting behemoth that haunts the shore to this day. It was a fascinating introduction to the true complexity of real-world problem solving, showing both power and weakness in government, the public, and the press, and the way that good and bad can shift radically according to perspective.
At sixteen, I continued this pursuit of shifting perspectives, heading out alone to live in France for a year as an exchange student. The cultural immersion was intense, exciting, and endlessly eye-opening. I wrote poetry in great cathedral caverns, learned trick riding at a brick castle in Normandy, ate endless wonderful cheese, and had some serious revelations in a monastery in the South of France. I still love to speak French, and savor every foray into a new world, be it near or far from home. My travels have since taken me from Ireland to Istanbul, include a solo foray into Central America, and all across the United States.
I believe that the common, living nature in each of us draws us together, and gives us a fulcrum-point for mutual understanding. In my work, I hunt for the spark of life, and offer it as a connecting point; I seek to bridge the gap between the self and other, to pierce the veil, to share a vision.
This abiding interest in the perspective of the other led me to study non-human minds as an undergraduate at Brown University, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Cognitive Science and Linguistics. During my time at Brown, I discovered cooperation amongst bullfrogs in a series of field studies (my thesis advisors scoffed at my findings then, sure that I was anthropomorphizing, but would notably publish on the subject some years later). I also trained bats as part of ongoing echolocation research-- one of my favorite jobs ever. The intense challenge of communicating with creatures who live in such an alien world was glorious. While we constantly, passively perceive our world as long as our eyes are open, bats only 'look' when they feel like it; my initial task was to convince them to even observe what I wanted to show them. It took a lot of meal worms and cuddling, but in the end, I had two furry friends who ardently flew obstacle courses and caught prey in front of high-speed cameras. My favorite moments were when they'd done their work, and would fly excitedly around my head, buzzing to inspect my face. [more on bat training] I had some other interesting summer jobs, too; I studied the mechanics of bacterial motility and various neuronal processes at Woods Hole, having rather rude interactions with squid and operating an electron microscope, and investigated the potential of creating ozone-hole-healing algae blooms from sunken ships at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
After all that science, I found that the arts were still calling, and I sought a way to blend my interests. At the beginning of the internet boom, I became a web designer, which drew upon both my techie, programmer side and my artistic skill-- I continue to make at least part of my living at it, to this day. I quickly got into computer graphics, and I spent two years in graduate school at the Savannah College of Art and Design, studying visual storytelling and character design through the media of animation, filmmaking and special effects. It was during this time that the vision of Trillium Bramble, whose stories and characters you find on this website, began to take shape.
I spent several years in Trillium Bramble, selling my work online and on the art show circuit, but was eventually humbled by the enormous task of running a small business alone, and in fatal competition with cheap Chinese imports. Financial realities called, and I turned my management skills to substantially growing the IT support business that had evolved from my web design company. I did it well, but I needed a life that brought more inspiration.
After a six-month stint in a zen monastery and a rejuvenating trip to Burning Man, I joined the crew of a veggie-oil-burning bus, travelling the country with my cameras in 2007. As I connected with the lives of so many individuals encountered along the way --and learned to love America again in the process-- I began to seek the telling of human stories, and dove into the world of independent filmmaking. Since then, I've worked mostly as a cinematographer, joining my technical and artistic skills in lighting design and camera work, as well as in writing, producing, editing, prop-making, audio, and acting too. I find it a powerful medium to communicate story and illuminate the interior world, and I've worked to help tell all manner of tales, in documentary, narrative and commercial arenas. I recently took up a film project of my own, which is incredibly challenging and probably ill-advised...but I suppose that's what all good adventures are made of.
Today, I pursue my work in filmmaking, photography, sculpture, writing, painting, illustration, acting, and the endless pursuit of wonder. I am still seeking.
Peace to you, fellow traveller.
--CAT : )
May, 2012Addendum, 2016: After several years working in commercial and independent filmmaking, I created a short film to highlight some of my father's work in cancer research. Seeing the help he needed at his laboratory, I pitched in wherever they needed me, mainly with marketing and helping to organize that long slog towards FDA approval that is therapeutics research. I still help there, but this year have returned part-time to my creatures: I'm working on a novel that expands upon the world of Trillium Bramble. Creativity breeds creativity-- and so also I'm hard at work on a children's book, which I'm finding tremendous joy in illustrating.
Godspeed, and God bless.
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