Olive Branch

James McIntosh

Making this animation was a great leap of faith for me. My first dabbles in writing personal poetry began in late 2016 when I decided to try and write something for an upcoming poetry slam in 2016. I’d decided to write about a tragedy that had occurred in my life, and through writing had I found a kind of catharsis and resolution that I wasn’t able to get in any way else. For me it’s a creative outlet I’ve found to be very helpfully therapeutic. Since then, after a short few years hiatus until 2018, I’ve been writing about different hardships in my life, covering everything from love and heartbreak to hatred, depression, forgiveness and self-love. I’ve kept my poetry exclusive to those closest to me, with only just beginning to perform them at open-mic gigs just before the pandemic affected the world. This movie is my attempt at immortalising one of them, called Olive Branch. It’s scary; the idea that people will be able to see this intimate side of my thoughts and feelings. But it’s something I feel I want to do. I write my poetry for myself first or foremost, but I’ve always found much solace through the work of other artists, especially in poetry, performance and music. If just by chance I was able to do the same for anyone else with my work, that would be plenty enough for me.

james.mcintosh012@gmail.com
instagram.com/maccamuffin.art/