How Long Is “Lake Valley”?

Lake Valley is a cel animated film set in an imagined suburb. Each frame is a composite of elements from 19th-20th century children’s book illustrations cut, layered, and re-mapped for the present-day. The suburban places encountered in the video—the house, the parking lot, the park—are familiar and not. The story of Lake Valley follows an imagined pet as it seeks attention on one particularly lonely day. The pet leaves its family in search of connection in the nearby green. The narrative is rooted in the theme of abandonment that permeates childhood in children’s literature. Abandonment, like a suburban house, is relatively ordinary experience sustained by everyday routines and anxieties.