Contact: lynn@lynntomlinson.com
Bio:
Lynn Tomlinson is an internationally renowned animator known for her uniquely metamorphic clay on glass films, which transform and shift perspectives and explore environmental themes, reflecting her life-long interest in biology and ecology. Her award-winning short films include Ten Degrees of Strange (2021), The Elephant’s Song (2018), and The Ballad of Holland Island House (2014). Her work has screened at important venues including Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery, and The Pompidou Center and has been broadcast on ARTE in France and Germany, and theatrically released in the U.S. through The Animation Show of Shows. In addition, Tomlinson’s films have screened at prestigious international film festivals including Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, TIFF Kids, Cinekid Festival, Environmental Film Festival at Yale, The Environmental Film Festival in the Nations Capital, Chesapeake Film Festival, Ajyal Youth Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, and many others. During her career, she has received several independent artist awards from the state arts councils of Maryland, Florida, and Pennsylvania and awards for her work include the Baker Art Award for Film/Video (2022), the Edison Innovation Award from the Thomas Edison Film Festival (2021), and First Prize for Greenpeace’s Postcards from Climate Change (2014).
Tomlinson’s emerging media projects include Reverie de Giverny, a VR and dome film, and Kendra’s Bay (2016), an animated digital puppetry performance. Her work aired on ARTE and is in MoMA’s collection. Curatorial projects include Sister Cities Animated (2019) and Cross-Pollinated: Hybrid Art Abuzz (2015). Her writing has appeared in Animation Journal; Animation Practice, Process, and Production; Con a De Animación and HyperRhiz: New Media Cultures.
Lynn Tomlinson is Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of the Electronic Media and Film department at Towson University. Before joining the EMF faculty in 2014, Tomlinson taught at Maryland Institute College of Art, Cornell University, and the University of the Arts, among other universities and colleges. She has received a prestigious teaching award from the University Film and Video Association, and two Innovation in Teaching awards from Towson University. She regularly serves as a mentor for students interested in animation and the hand-crafted, magical side of media creation, research, and scholarship.
In the fall of 2024, Tomlinson will be Artist in Residence at Green Box Arts in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado.
Ten Degrees of Strange
Tomlinson directed and animated the music video Ten Degrees of Strange (2021) to accompany the lead single from Lost in the Cedar Wood, an album by British musician/actor Johnny Flynn and writer Robert Macfarlane. Accolades include: Vimeo Staff Pick, Official Selection Annecy International Animation Festival, Best Commissioned Film 2022 Ottawa International Animation Festival, Best Commercial Film at ASIFA East Festival.
The Elephant's Song
The Elephant’s Song (2018), the true story of Old Bet, the first circus elephant in America, set to a rollicking tune by Sam Saper and performed by the band Trucker Talk with vocals by Deletta Gillespie and Brooks Long, has screened in over thirty festivals around the globe, from Hollywood to Hiroshima, Ann Arbor to Athens, receiving 18 awards, including: Global Insights Stellar Award from Black Maria Film Festival, Short of the Week, Vimeo Staff Pick, and broadcast on the ARTÉ channel.
The Ballad of Holland Island House
The Ballad of Holland Island House (2014), the true story of the last house on a Chesapeake Bay island slowly sinking into the rising seas, is set to a ballad with Tomlinson’s lyrics performed by the folk duo Anna & Elizabeth. First Prize Winner of Greenpeace’s “Postcards from Climate Change,” included in the Museum of Modern Art’s education department’s permanent collection, and released theatrically as part of the Animation Show of Shows.
Some articles and publications citing Tomlinson's work:
The Ballad of Holland Island House: An Animated Short Created by Painting with Clay on Glass, Colossal, by Christopher Jobson
A Unique Voice in Animation by Cameron Meier
The Animation Bible by Maureen Furniss
The Girls of the World in the Orlando Sentinel
Wish You Were Here in the Orlando Sentinel
Memory Tricks in the Baltimore Sun
Memory Tricks in the Baltimore Brew
The Travellers in the Baltimore City Paper
