Stefan Gruber (born December 8, 1975) is an American experimental animator and performance artist from Seattle, Washington. They create hand-drawn, digitally finished experimental animation shorts and are Animation Department founder and teacher at The Nova Animation Project and the founder of Seattle Experimental Animation Team (SEAT).
Biography
Gruber was born into a creative environment and was exposed to animation from an early age. Raised by an inventor father and a mother involved in modern dance, Gruber is also the grandchild and partial namesake of William Gruber, inventor of the ViewMaster Stereoscopic photography technology. At the age of thirteen, they spent the summer in Portland, Oregon to study at the Saturday Academy, under the tutelage of Sharon Niemczyk. They attended high school in Seattle at The Nova Project. While at Nova, they pursued a combination of acting, electronic music (with an Ensoniq ASR10) and illustration, which would cultivate their interest in animation as performance art.
Gruber moved to Los Angeles and pursued a BFA in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts under Jules Engel. During this time, they met many of their mentors, including Christine Panushka, Maureen Selwood, Raimund Krumme, Kathy Rose and Suzan Pitt. By their graduation in 1999, Gruber had completed their first few short films, including Leashlessness and Jewels.
Career
Following college, Gruber returned to Seattle to act as ambassador for the concept of Experimental Animation. In 2001, they returned to Nova High School to found their animation program and the Nova Animation Portal, an annual benefit to fund the department. Gruber continues to teach today as head of the Animation Department. Gruber is also founder of the Seattle Experimental Animation Team (SEAT), a collective of animators and filmmakers who make independent, non-commercial animated work to raise awareness surrounding the independent animation scene in Seattle.
Today, Gruber creates one hand-drawn, digitally finished experimental animation short per year and spends their summers touring North America with their work—in addition to their work with Nova and SEAT.
Cartoons
Edible Rocks (2012) Charcoal, colored pencils, gel pens. This animation recounts the time when the animator convinced their little brother that there were some rocks you could eat.
Both Worlds part 1 (2010) Hand drawn, digitally finished animation. This animation is accompanied by a live score and improvised dialogue, so every performance is different. Both Worlds part 2 is slated for 2013. The piece features two peaceful creatures in talks with each other about how to maintain the flora and fauna on the mountains they each live on top of.
Petting Zoo 2 (2009) Hand drawn, digitally finished animation. This animation concludes Petting Zoo's premise of liberating trapped animals as symbols of contained human emotions.
Petting Zoo (2008) Hand drawn, digitally finished animation. The main character is either the voyeur or liberator of animals trapped in a haunted abandoned zoo.
Anaelle (2006) Hand drawn, digitally transferred, finished as 35mm film print. This animation follows Gruber's account of a magical encounter involving resurrecting drowned ladybugs.
Fantasy Pleasure Complex (2001–2010) This project is the collective title of a giant collection of short digital animation experiments by Stefan and guests and updated bi-yearly.
Thought City (2000) Hand drawn punched paper animated film shot on Oxberry 16mm. Armies of commuters go about their routine, abstract and near-nonsensical business, within an ever-shifting cement block world. Occasionally, they get literally consumed by their own news, and they wage war against small, not entirely defenseless birds.
Leashlessness (1999) Hand drawn flipbook animated film shot on Oxberry 16mm. In this animated clip, two dogs go into sensory overload, and it's up to a good Samaritan to liberate the four-legged friends from their oppressive leash-holders.
Comics
Scentagons (2021) 16-page, full color comic published by Neoglyphic Media. The story revolves around the intrusion of empty bottle-headed beings into a pantheon of deities, aliens, cryptids, and animal characters recurring in Gruber's work.
Viking Eggling (2008) This twelve-page, full color comic is part of the SOS comic anthology. In this comic, a Birdman rises up in ranks in some unusual outer space jobs.
Duck Lessons (2003) Twelve-page mini comic about a person trying to get wisdom from a duck who never talks to him.
Kometes (2002) Twelve-page mini comic about two people trying to start a radical garden.