FACE TO FACE
JULY.AUG | 2022 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 5
BY JENNIFER BRACKETT
PHOTOGRAPHS BY RASE LITTLEFIELD
MEET ALEK LAVIGNE
ART WITH FUNCTION AND PURPOSE – THE ROAD TO PRACTICAL EFFECTS Our future lies with the young and hungry. As we get older, we learn this. We do not always take the time to stop and think about this as we trudge on with our day-to-day lives. Their journeys are treacherous. They navigate their way through a world we have created for them and carve out a place for their future. In their own humble and timid way, they will find a means to make us see they are the keepers of our tomorrow. When I first approached Alek Lavigne, he had no idea why I would want to interview him. He said, “I feel like I’m a relatively normal person.” That kind of humility, in a nutshell, is why I wanted to interview Alek. As we talked about his experiences in becoming a practical effects artist, it became apparent to me that his story is anything but ordinary. Everything happened so naturally. It is easy to see why he never saw it any other way. As a door opened, he merely walked through it. When an opportunity presented itself suddenly, there was no time to debate the pros and cons. Sometimes, you just have to live in the moment and life will make itself. Alek revealed to me when he was in middle school that he struggled socially and academically. His focus seemed to always drift to movies and art. He was always creating, and his mother took notice. “She knew I was different, not in a bad way,” he laughed, “but my
mother understood better than I did.” She chose to pull him out of traditional school and enrolled him in an art school. He remembered having to interview to get into Arts West. He brought in his creations and showed off his skills. Not only was he accepted, but he was also placed into a high school, advanced art class. Alek Lavigne thrived at Arts West. He was in an environment made up of like-minded children. “Everyone there was very supportive. All my friends were artists in one way or another, so it was like we were feeding off of each other.” As a child, his life seemed very normal to him. Being able to only experience life through his own eyes, he had no other basis for comparison. When Alek was 15 years old, he knew he wanted to work in the effects industry. He always had a love of movies, and one, in particular, was Jurassic Park. He was in awe of the effects of the dinosaurs. To see dinosaurs stand next to people would be almost unimaginable without the magic of movies. He wanted to learn more about how the movie had done this. Eventually, he stumbled onto a behind-the-scenes video of how the dinosaurs were built. “That was my first exposure to that line of work. I thought, ‘That’s a job somebody has and I could do that.’” He became inspired to build more props and costumes.
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