Michael Larnell, artist

September 21, 11:13 PMChicago Everyday People ExaminerJerome Davis

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Michael Larnell - The Artist as a happy soul

The name Michael Larnell is one you may not currently know, but the chances are extremely good that you will know it soon.   Larnell is an artist, the "driven" sort; the kind that only knows one direction, forward, and one speed, full.  It's a trait that has served him well, for it has propelled him to academic achievement, vocational accomplishment, peer recognition, artistic proficiency, creative excellence and praise by/from those who have experienced his art.  His art is visual.  His mode of expression is the moving picture/film/video.  His tool is the camera, specifically, the HD (high-definition) camera.  We can call Michael Larnell a “filmmaker”, but we can't allow that (or any other title) to define or limit him, for what Michael Larnell really is, is “The Future."

Larnell was born 30 years ago in St. Louis, Missouri.  He was also raised there, doing the things kids and teenagers did in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s.  One of the things young Larnell did was attend the cinema and that’s where it first hit him.  Every filmmaker has that one film that, after viewing, brings him/her to an awareness whereupon they realize filmmaking will be their calling.  For Michael Larnell it was “Menace II Society”, directed by twin brothers Allen and Albert Hughes.  And any doubt he may have had that he was pursuing the “right” vocation, disappeared after he saw the critically acclaimed “La Haine (“The Hate”)”, a 1995 French film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz.  These 2 films (along with music videos directed by Hype Williams) provided the inspiration that would fuel Larnell’s passion.   His appetite for filmmaking was further whetted when he started working with a local video editor, making videos for various music artists throughout St. Louis.

Presently, Larnell is pursuing a master’s degree in digital cinema at De Paul University.  The road to De Paul took a long time for him to travel.  The first school to which he applied, a film school in Los Angeles, rejected him.  Instead of being demoralized or defeated, Larnell used the rejection as inspiration.  In St. Louis he worked a series of jobs he didn’t necessarily like, but he never strayed from his personal plan.  Seven years after the Los Angeles film school said “no,” De Paul University said “yes”, and a better decision they’ll never make.  Larnell has “attacked” the master’s program with all the fury of one who is, well, “driven.”  Proof of his need to create lies in the fact that he has extended his graduation in order to have access to equipment that will allow him to complete his latest project.             

That latest project has Michael Larnell expanding a theme with which he’s had previous success, the already-acclaimed, “It Soothes My Soul.”  As a short film, “It Soothes My Soul” was the winner of the Audience Award for Best Short at the 2008 Black Harvest International Festival of Video and Film.  A feature-length version should be ready for audiences sometime in the spring of 2010.  Larnell may take this same approach with another of his short films, “For Your Safety,” a tense and terse offering that touches upon police harassment and absentee fathers.   He’ll also be developing screenplays and maintaining his website http://circa1978.net/.  Another of Larnell’s many skills/talents is website design and http://circa1978.net/ is where he showcases his work(s), interacts with moviegoers, and posts comments, reviews and interviews.  The website is also further evidence of how “on top of it” Larnell truly is, deftly and adroitly exploiting various media toward the furtherance of his own personal “art.”  He epitomizes the redefinition of what it means to be an artist at the dawn of the 21st century.      
 

It will be interesting and entertaining to watch the continued development of this most promising artist. Michael Larnell appears to be inhabited by the pure essence of artistic spirit.  His is not an “appreciation” developed within the halls of academia, nor is it some “pseudo-altruistic” endeavor borne of a privileged existence.  I suspect creation comes to Larnell in a more “organic” manner.  Perhaps it is better stated thusly: when most of us are watching or looking, Larnell is observing.  And while we are merely listening, he is feeling.  Of course, the rather reticent Larnell would never say such things about himself.  That’s what his art is for.