North of Blue is an exploration of the non-objective idiom that that plays with shifting focal points, suspension and tension of two dimensional patterning and trance, North of Blue was inspired by the winter landscape of the far north. It is grounded in landscape and surrounded with elements of whimsy and shapes that spark a sense of shared history and connectedness.
North of Blue began in February 2012 when Priestley was invited to be filmmaker-in-residence at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon, near the Arctic Circle. As she explored the town and nearby forests and hiked along the frozen Klondike and Yukon Rivers, she began animating snow, ice, braided rivers, spindly trees and crows. She also experimented with layering photographic environmental images in long, horizontal pans beneath the hand drawn animation. Priestley fell under the spell of the far north when her host, filmmaker Dan Sokolowski, drove her up the Dempster Highway, into a vast mountain wilderness filled with turquoise ice and jagged peaks.
After that influential experience, Priestley spent six months struggling with the narrative animation. In frustration, she began deconstructing the animation, extracting elements and combining them into new abstract compositions. She limited the palette to blue, white and black and pared down scenes to abstract lines and shapes. By chance she was introduced to the abstract paintings of Hilma af Klint (1862 - 1944, Sweden) at a lecture at Reed College. Af Klint's work influenced the trance and mystical elements of North of Blue. Priestley revisited the abstract paintings of a life long favorite artist, Piet Mondrian (1872 - 1944, Holland), whose work influenced the compositional structure and palette. Other influences include the pioneer abstract animator Mary Ellen Bute (1906 - 1983, USA) and the blue and white hues of Delft ceramics.
