Corrie Parks
Assistant Professor
Animation & Interactive Media
410-455-6524 FA 337
cfparks@umbc.edu
Corrie Francis Parks specializes in sand animation and other esoteric animation techniques. Her work maintains an organic connection to natural materials and traditional production methods while fully integrating digital technology. She began her career at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School, where she raised some eyebrows by announcing to the class she wanted to be an animator. After making her first short film at a CalArts animation summer camp, she pursued her independent filmmaking proclivities at Dartmouth College and honed them further at the University of Southern California where she received her MFA.
Before returning to the halls of academia, Parks spent 7 years as a freelance animator, working on creative projects for a wide range of clients, including World Vision, RelayHealth, Estée Lauder and the Walt Disney Co. Pedagogically inclined, she also continued teaching workshops in such exotic places as Cameroon, New Zealand, Spain and South Dakota.
Parks has been artist in residence at the MacDowell Colony, Fundacion Valparaiso and Klondike Goldrush International Historic Park, a Fulbright Fellow to New Zealand, and a grant recipient from the Montana Film Office and Sierra Arts Foundation. Her award-winning animated shorts have screened at major festivals on every continent except Antarctica. She looks forward to the day when she can count penguins among her biggest fans.