Ordinary Magic: A Sunday in the Cuyahoga Valley is comprised of four animations visually translating British composer Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes (1945) into familiar scenes from Northeast Ohio. Created in collaboration with Red Point Digital (Akron, OH), Ordinary Magic blends traditional hand-drawn and contemporary computer animation, building on the tradition of playfully merging classical music and animation by assigning characters to musical instruments. An imaginative interpretation of a decades old piece of music, Ordinary Magic’s narrative arc was inspired by Ohio’s landscape and industrial history. Images of fleeting moments, such as a Luna moth drawn to a kitchen light, the Goodyear blimp lumbering across the sky, a summer storm, bring attention to the “ordinary magic” of the Cuyahoga Valley. Ordinary Magic premiered with live accompaniment by the Akron Symphony Orchestra at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall in October 2022.

Creation of Ordinary Magic

To view a selection of the hundreds of drawings that make-up Ordinary Magic, click on images below.

Funding for Ordinary Magic

In September of 2019, Amber was one of 16 artists/arts organizations selected to receive a Knight Arts Challenge Akron grant. She was awarded $54,000 to fund the creation and performance of, Ordinary Magic. The Knight Arts Challenge is a matching grant, in order to receive these funds, Amber raised an additional $50,000 to complete the project. She is extremely grateful for the generous support from Akron’s GAR Foundation, Kempthorn Motors, Fox Charitable Foundation, Hiram Community Trust, Akron Community Foundation, and Peg’s Foundation.

Amber would also like to express her deepest thanks to the Akron Symphony Orchestra for their partnership. Many thanks to the individual donors, for believing in this project, without their financial support the creation of Ordinary Magic would not have been possible.

Additional thanks to her creative partners at Red Point Digital: Dave Hayward, Tony Samangy, Eric Vaughan, Jacob Keeton, and Lauren Moore. Their knowledge, continued enthusiasm, and patience, enabled Amber to make an artwork she could imagine, but didn’t have the skills to make.

A debt of gratitude to her production team, Davey Pauli, Sallie Lux, and Kitty McManus Zurko for bringing their expertise to the project at the very moments she needed them, to Anne Kohn for being her biggest cheerleader from the absolute start and to Morgan Hughes, her right hand, thank you for always being there. Special thanks to Jehan Mullin, for her time, care, and support of the project in its earliest stage.