Behind the Scenes With Wisconsin Life: Have You Seen a Flower Grow?

February 26, 2018 Jonna Mayberry Leave a Comment

Rodney Lambright II is a Television Artist, Animator and Producer in the Scenic and Animation department at Wisconsin Public Television. Lambright’s original project, Something About a Flower, has been featured on WisconsinLife.org and on the Wisconsin Life series.

Lambright recently created his final Something About a Flower comic for Wisconsin Life. As this chapter of Wisconsin Life draws to a close, Lambright reflects on the inspiration behind the project.

Continue reading below to learn more about the project and read Lambright’s final Something About a Flower comic for Wisconsin Life.

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There’s just something about it.  The title, Something About a Flower, ignites the sensation that I originally had when I first created this story. It’s a feeling that can only be described as “beautifully incomprehensible,” or so I thought. Something About a Flower drove me to work on a genre of comics that tapped into raw emotion; however, where was this sudden change in style coming from?

Well, when I was originally asked to create a comic strip for Wisconsin Life‘s newsletter, I decided to take on a story that was more family oriented.  I looked to my own inner circle for inspiration. The one thing that seemed to have a heavy impact on me was this emotional experience of becoming an uncle for the first time. Seeing my niece, Amelia Trudo, brought forth a level of love that felt indescribable at the moment. There was just something so fascinating about the way she was able to bring so much joy and excitement to the smallest situations. It triggered a new-found appreciation for life and the joys of living that can be lost as we get older.

With that concept in mind, I wanted to write about an unrepresented perspective that was rarely explored in comics: a relationship between a single father and his daughter. While making the comic strip, I was offered another amazing opportunity to take my comic into the world of animation. This brought a whole new life to the project, thus taking on another level of significance for myself and others that I hadn’t anticipated. Being able to add to the African American representation in cartoons was a huge milestone for me in such a small project. 

Something About a Flower has been an unbelievable experience overall, and it saddens me to say that this will be my last new comic strip for the Wisconsin Life project. I just personally felt it was time to move on to focus on other stories and projects. If you’d like to explore other projects I am currently working on, you can find them here.

It has been a pleasure writing for Wisconsin Life, and I want to send a huge thank you to everyone who supported and followed Something About a Flower.  I hope you enjoyed all that encompassed its existence.

The love for art is where passion starts,

Rodney Lambright II

Something About a Flower
Is dedicated to
Amelia Trudo

Wisconsin Life Something About a Flower