Mélanie Duault, an artist from Vaureal, France, approached us last December with an interest in creating a stop-motion video for the ReBuilding Center. She spent hundreds of hours physically manipulating each shot and then compiling and editing it into a playful three minute piece on how the ReBuilding Center works.
Mélanie went to school for photography four years which led to a photo assistant internship with her video teacher in Germany. This experience spurred a move to New York where she attended the International Center for Photography and explored her passion for food photography and color studies. Now she’s happy to be living in Portland, doing lots of freelance work and living life!
Mélanie was inspired to volunteer for the ReBuilding Center because back in New York there was a similar organization called Build It Green where she used to spend lots of time getting inspired and picking up repurposed materials for shoots. She was pleased to find us in Portland and was interested in the deconstruction element we provide – repurposing materials that would otherwise be put into the landfill. Her favorite part of the stop-animation process is writing and drawing out her ideas and then realizing the images in her head. This project started with Mélanie wandering around the ReBuilding Center warehouse with a notebook in hand, looking for interesting shapes and colors. For instance, when she found the sink you see in the end of the video, she knew that she wanted to work it into the credits as a little visual surprise.
Color is a reoccurring theme in her work. She loves creating vibrant environments and exploring what color means to individuals and loves how different people read meaning into different colors. Mélanie was happy to find us to put materials to good use and contribute to a more sustainable environment and community. Her work will be on display on media kiosks for the Commons launch this summer. You can follow her on social media and check out some of her other colorful projects here:
i: @maaad.ly | t: @maaad_ly | f: maaadly| melanieduault.com
We are so grateful to be a part of an organization that spurs these acts of creative kindness!