Chad VanGaalen - Flower Gardens

What this video is

Released in 2006 alongside the breakout album Skelliconnection on Sub Pop Records, 'Flower Gardens' arrived at a pivotal moment when YouTube (launched 2005) was rapidly democratizing music video distribution, enabling artist-animated clips to reach global audiences without broadcast gatekeepers. VanGaalen's wholly self-produced animation — created during an artist residency in Sackville, New Brunswick — exemplifies…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact of the artist-animated music video genre, 'Flower Gardens' demonstrates that a solo musician with no production budget could create internationally resonant visual work through sheer craft. As one of several self-animated videos VanGaalen produced for Skelliconnection, it…

The director

Chad VanGaalen (born 1977) is a Canadian musician, animator, and visual artist from Calgary, Alberta. He releases music on Sub Pop Records and Canadian label Flemish Eye, and is known for self-animating his own music videos using hand-drawn lino-cut-style…