THE ANIMATION OF
HARRY SMITH

HARRY’S UNUSUAL LIFE
•Born 1923, Portland, Oregon
•Parents active in occultism
-Claimed to be son of Aleister Crowley
• Compiled dictionary of Puget Sound
Dialects
• A collector of Seminole textiles and
Ukrainian Easter Eggs
• Produced and recorded The Fugs

…Continued
• proficient in Kiowa sign-language and
Kwakiutl
• Compiled the Anthology of American
Folk Music.
• Lived with Native American Indians
• Recorded peyote songs of Kiowa
Indians.
• He was a friend of Allen Ginsberg

Anthology of
American Folk Music
• 84 tracks
• Inspired the folk revival of the 50’s and
60’s.
• 1997 reissue won 2 Grammys
• Inspired Bob Dylan
• Indian War Hoop is my favorite.

Harry Smith was also a fine artist.

ANIMATION
•Developed his own methods of animation, using stop motion collage techniques and, more uniquely, hand-painting directly on film.
• Often a single film required years of painstakingly precise labor.
•Fusion of color and sound are acknowledged as precursors of sixties psychedelia.
• His art explored synaethesia, a correspondence between color and sound and sound and movement.