Emily Schaneman

Emily Schaneman has lived in Laramie her entire life. She hopes to one day be an illustrator or animator. Her dream is to create wonderful stories and enhance the world’s imagination. 

Artist Statement

Oh Snap explores a fictitious world that is manipulated through government interference. The fictional world in Oh Snap! is intended to create a doorway into the very real issues of childhood trauma and stress in the world today. The characters are drawn in a charming style that is in opposition to the darker narrative world these characters inhabit. The animation draws the viewer in using a bright color palette and simple child-like drawings, combined with a narrative that serves as a metaphor for very real and traumatic events in the world. Tragedy in spite of cuteness, darkness within light, and truth within fiction are what I most want to convey with this story.   

While the art serves as metaphor for corruption, the body of work also represents my personal fear. I have a constant anxiety that I am an inconvenience to those around me: “Am I the cause of everyone’s problems?” “Did I disappoint them?” These questions are constant thoughts that play on a loop in my mind. I feel that any small move I make will explode my world as I know it. Even though the thought that a snap will cause so much destruction is irrational, in a world of unknowns it feels so possible. The narrative in the art is symbolic of my fear that any innocent gesture on my part will harm those I love most.