Seth Moore: Storytelling Through His Art

What started you on this artistic path?

Great teachers, starting with my parents. Both of my folks are architects and artists (illustrators and musicians) so I grew up in a household that not only encouraged creativity but taught me to respect it and admire those who could harness it.

Your work is so eclectic, what does your work aim to say? 

I’ve always been drawn to variety. I work in a lot of different mediums (illustration, film, writing, music, and acting) and have always felt that my real strength as an artist lies in the intersection between them. It’s why I was drawn to theater from an early age and why I’ve ended up making films and new media with my company, Sheep Eats Wolf.

Ultimately, though, I’m a storyteller.

A lot of my pieces are about loneliness and the realities people construct within it. In the scripts I write, I often have characters who have been alone for a long period of time, being forced to step out into the harsh light of the world, usually by means of an outside force they can’t ignore- or a calling. In my drawings, I tend to have lone figures peering in through “windows” (sometimes literally, View From The Box). Sometimes I cast the audience in this role and give them a lonely window to look through (like in my piece, End of the Night). It reminds the viewer that they exist in a separate reality, one that they observe from afar. There is a tension and hesitation to leaving this reality that contradicts the viewer’s desire to explore new worlds.

To me, it’s a very modern condition. We live in a world of constructed realities, fed by our technologies and media. In a lot of ways, the eclecticism of my art is also a reflection of this condition – this feeling of being approached on all sides by stimuli that fight for your attention.

Hopefully, the pieces that I make challenge that existence just enough to disarm. If this pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that, given the time to think, people re-evaluate. They attend to their beliefs and question their paths. They make more soulful choices. But without the interruption, without the removal of their day to day perspective, would that have ever happened? I want my art to pull people out of their daily reality, so they can process their world more deeply, be it somber or joyful, even if just for a moment.

What is your biggest inspiration? 

I’m very inspired when I see someone doing something really well. I’m always watching pottery videos or master pastry chefs or iron smiths on YouTube. There’s something about expertly done craftwork that is incredibly satisfying.

What’s been a real high-point in your career or life?

In a way, right now is the high point. I’ve been blessed with an extremely diverse career wearing a lot of different hats. Much of my early life was spent trying to get as much experience as I could, throwing myself into as many kinds of art forms as I could… without stopping to ask myself why. Even though I had some successes in my 20s, they weren’t as satisfying because the work was built on aesthetics instead of truth.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m older or because I’ve worked on enough projects to have this perspective; but these days there’s a clarity to my work that I’ve never had before, combined with a few big projects to pour it into. It’s an exciting time.

What makes you laugh?

Dogs, my wife, and my wife’s reaction to dogs.

What’s next?

I have two main projects at the moment. Firstly, I’m writing a feature film about faith systems, trauma, and UFO’s.

I’m also developing, designing, and contributing animations to a docu-series that my company has been shooting for the past six years, called Sanctuary of Butterflies. It’s a five part exploration of pre-Colombian music rituals in Mexico and the communities that are fighting to keep them alive in the face of modernization.

Pie, Cake or Ice Cream?

Ice cream. It’s always been ice cream.