Kathy Rose

The bizarre adventures of the cartoon character Foska, drawn by 22 animators working in collaboration. Each animator worked on his or her own sequence only and did not know what action preceded or followed his or her sequence, except that the first drawing of a sequence is the last drawing from the previous sequence. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

This piece represents a kind of autobiographical vision. I use myself to create all the figures, sometimes employing masks from the Noh theater to vary my persona. A sea of richly colored figures floating and flying are accompanied by eerie sounds. The animated figures are constructed in the manner of puppetry and collage. The imagery continues until the artist's involvement with her "canvases" is revealed, with her performative self finally emerging.

As the eye awakens and brings forth consciousness, prepare to enter the world of the interior.

Floating apparitions predominate in this music-video interpretation of the poetic Greg Boyer ballad.

A hybrid dance-animation piece in which Kathy Rose performs against her own projected imagery, creating a ritualistic, dreamlike fusion of movement, film, and sound.

Animation and bizarre creative imagery

Early black and white live action portrait film by Kathy Rose.

Part Fantastic Voyage, part celebration of my younger self, this is a finely crafted jewel in which I am looking for those who are not immune to splendor. Reality is both harsh and wondrous. I am trying to circumvent it all.

"In a charming fantasy about the art of aimation, each character has a unique personality. Kathy is even invited to join her characters in ther cartoon world, thus adding another playful dimension to the theme of the relationship of an artist to her materials." - WorldCat

In this film, the viewer is taken to a beautiful landscape of tress that gradually becomes more psychedelic and dreamlike. At the end the dreamers dream, and the sleepers sleep.

As the rain falls backwards, a golden queen rises up. As the gold drips out of her body, we enter her mind into a metaphysical kingdom.

Miss Nose and her class engage in drawings in an absurdist animation.

To a sound-track of fun-house screams and cackles, Mirror People, a tribe of Halloween hallucinations, fuse into each other and get absorbed into their reflections and their environments in a universe where all is flux and nothing is stable, except for the constant delights of metamorphosis. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.

Directed by Kathy Rose.

A delightfully and cleverly animated film similar in style to Kathy Rose's other films

Live action and animation combination by Kathy Rose

A collection of recorded excerpts of some of Kathy Rose's celebrated live performances, including The Cathedral of Emptiness, Oriental Interplay, and Syncopations.

An insectoid fantasy with an indio/arachnid soundtrack by C.P. Roth. The film reflects Rose's fascination with butoh dance theatre.

Rose’s mesmerizing encounter with a variety of orchid beings and her own unstoppable imagination.

A vividly colorful film in which weird beings emerge from the screen to cavort.