Toby Cato
I'm a self-taught animator living in South East London and working freelance. I'm fascinated by the magic of animation and started to teach myself from a book by Richard Williams when I was 18. My main interests are experimenting with physical media in order to create the illusion of life and movement. My first love is drawing, but I work with photography, paint and digital animation to find new and interesting styles. I also make music and infuse my animation work with experimental hip-hop and funk soundtracks.
My dad is of Jamaican heritage and me and my sisters find that history to be a huge source of inspiration in our work. I am influenced by Jamaican cinema and the work of experimental animation artists such as Frank Lebon, Lotte Reiniger and Ralph Bakshi. I’m particularly interested in creating dream-like realities where I can live in the world of imagination - my only nation. My recent animations deal with finding my own identity as a young black man and with challenging the roles that black and female characters play in film and animation.