Today we’d like to introduce you to Lily Berg.
Hi Lily, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My animation journey began like a lot of people’s — with a love of drawing and storytelling. Starting around 6th grade — and fueled with encouragement from my teacher — I started watching videos on YouTube to develop my skills more. I used art and writing to let out my emotions and process what I was experiencing in my life. I kept working to get better through middle and high school. I finally got a chance to push the narratives I had been creating together with my art in my high school computer science class. I watched Youtube animators and filmmakers growing up so I decided to take a gamble and go to MCAD for the one thing I felt like I was good at — art. I worked hard to expand my skills and try to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. My teachers mentors and friends there were so amazing and supportive of everything I did. They believed in me and that was exactly what I needed.
In my last two years of college, I began experimenting with how I could communicate longer stories with a strong emotional throughline and have an impact on people. I got it to work with my senior project Water. After graduating college in 2021 that film took me on an amazing, multi-year-long journey of going to festivals, making friends, and meeting new people. I was able to pursue freelance opportunities until I found a stable job that could help fund my creative endeavors.
I love making short films, so now I’m trying to figure out how to create outside of a school environment, while working full-time, spending time with people I care about, and enjoying myself. I’ve also been trying to figure out how to build and engage with the community. I attend what events I can and try to stay in contact — even make friends — with people. I feel like the creative community I’ve dived into has gotten so much bigger since graduating college and I am ecstatic to be part of this world. I even got to start a festival at Bryant Lake Bowl called Grotesque Fest with my friend Derek. All of this hard work I’ve done over the years is finally starting to come together and I feel this sense of satisfaction that I wish I had known about when people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’m lucky that the road has leaned on the smoother side. I’ve had my share of mental health struggles that have informed my work. The biggest struggle came during the pandemic and the isolation of doing my senior year online. My teachers and peers were all amazing. My friends and I found ways to bond without needing to be in the same room. But the dynamic of having to work retail and see people come in for no reason other than to get out of the house, and then have a slideshow graduation was interesting, to say the least. My boyfriend, Otis, was incredibly supportive, but ultimately it was too much time alone with my thoughts.
I created some of my most interesting work during that year because I had endless time to do it. It opened up so many doors. But on the flip side, the amount I worked escalated whatever chronic pain I’m going to develop later in life. After graduating, everything was still in limbo so finding a job was complicated. I wrote clickbait and found some freelance animation opportunities to pay the bills. Now that I have a job, I can focus on animating without needing to worry about how to pay my bills. The goal now is to find the time to work on my films in between everything else while still taking care of my body. Animation takes time, and there’s only so much of it available in a week. I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that projects are going to take longer to get done than they would have in college.
I also feel like I began to figure myself out as I developed my artistic skills more. I realized I was nonbinary (they/she/he pronouns) around 12 years old when my body started changing — though I couldn’t find the word for it until late middle school or early high school. I used my art to connect the dots and understand my sexuality more. Creating and finding creative communities online helped me discover I was pansexual and nonbinary. Being able to embrace my queerness and learn more about who I am through art has helped me be myself. I’m always learning new things about myself as I create, and I am creating more things that deal with what it means to be me. My body has changed a lot as I’ve gotten older. Every time it changes, my relationship with it evolves.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a 2D Animator who focuses on making short films. I love working in different styles and trying new things, so whenever I begin a new project I like to try making it look different than the one before it. Many of my films begin with a thought, emotion, or experience that I want to share with the world. One of the first films I ever made that felt like mine was a short piece about how it felt to get a period for the first time. The weirdness, the grossness, the dysphoria of it all. When I showed it to people I loved hearing them talk about how much they connected with the film. As I’ve developed my work more, I’ve started to lean into the weirder, darker aesthetic that my traditional art has but I was struggling to translate into animation. Now that I have more experience creating I can cater to my aesthetics while still maintaining a connection with my audience.
I think of my most recent work, I’m proudest of my short film Boots. I’ve been working with a more painterly, experimental style of animation and I feel like I finally made it work with that film. It won Scream It Off Screen at the Parkway Theatre in September, which was the first award I’ve ever gotten for my animation (shout out to my friends who are great at screaming and cheering). I got to hear people tell me stories about objects they loved but eventually had to give away due to age. I even had someone hug me in the bathroom because she loved it so much. I think I’ll remember that experience for the rest of my life.
I feel like I have a unique visual style that draws from my history as a fine artist and helps set me apart from other people. I want what I create to feel drawn, to feel human. But I also want people to get lost in my work — in a good way. I am in love with the process of creating and I hope I get to do it for a long time. I’m so inspired by the community around me and the other artists I interact with. I love making things that cause people to feel and give me a sense of satisfaction every time one of them is complete. I just try to bring to life what I want to see with the tools I have.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Target makes these $5 felt birds for each holiday or season. I’ve been collecting them for a few years now and I have almost 100 of them. Mostly for the winter seasons and Halloween. The Halloween ones are my favorite.
One year I wasn’t able to find one of the Halloween birds I wanted because people would scalp them. Otis got it for me for my birthday and I started crying. Best $15 he ever spent. If I had the space I would have a cabinet just to display those birds.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lilyberg25.wixsite.com/lilyberg
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avianbean/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNF5AP3Cn1pT2CkTxFGoMGA
- Other: https://www.redbubble.com/people/avianbean/shop?asc=u
