John Summerson – https://www.johnsummerson.com

John Summerson is an award-winning animation director and storyteller.

John holds a Master’s Degree in Documentary Animation from the Royal College of Art in London, UK, and earned his BFA in Animated Arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He specializes in creative nonfiction in animation, and happily conflates animation and essays, interviews with bread dough, and fake holidays with real performances.

In addition to making his own films, he works commercially as an interdisciplinary media artist. He uses stop motion, 2D and 3D animation, and regularly provides his services as an editor, sound designer, videographer, and illustrator. He also has several years experience as a glassblower and ceramicist.

John is a passionate educator, having taught animation in youth programs, inside a detention facility, and at the undergraduate and master levels. Most recently, he served as an assistant professor in the Animated Arts department at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2021 and is looking forward to teaching at Penn State University in 2022.

His accolades include the Grand Prize at the LG Art of the Pixel competition, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educator’s Forum Scholarship, and the Princess Grace Undergraduate Film Scholarship. His work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in Budapest, Madrid, Berlin, and London, and in Times Square in New York City.

He currently lives in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania where he continues his freelance practice and his role as the Director of Animation for the upcoming feature animated documentary film Pour the Water As I Leave. He is also an enthusiastic pinball player, has a great recipe for fried chicken popcorn, and is really good at making lists that have three things in them.

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