Leave it to Ian By: Cindy Lamb

Ian Timothy, 16, videotapes episodes of Beaver Creek in an attic studio set up at his family’s home. (Photo: brianbohannon.com)

You can almost smell the clay. A putty-like beaver leaps into the thick, blue waves of a stream. Other malleable creatures – a baritone, wide-mouth bass and a sidekick duck – look on, while a banjo plunks along in the background. My olfactory senses take me far from my old canisters of Play-Doh and into a forest floor of pine needles, tooth-marked limbs, cascading water, and mud … not to mention singing animals who buy home improvement products online. Where am I? Beaver Creek.

What a fantastic introduction to our old friend Ian Timothy of Kentucky whose now all of 16. This article is better press than most of us will get in our lifetime, and you can tell its just the beginning for this rising star who loves nature and has a persistent patience that must be awesome to behold. It apparently hooked the author of the article, who will be appearing as the voice of Twig’s ‘mom’ in the next episode.

Upon visiting the attic, I see that the whole set for Beaver Creek is just sitting there on … a door? “It was the door to this room,” Joel confesses, “And we were about to get rid of it when Ian thought it would be a great work table.” So, a door on top of two sawhorses opened itself to a world it never thought possible. Across its 50-year-old frame is the lay of the land for Twigs and friends. Blue water, green trees, brown critters … Ian approaches with the four-inch Twigs character and delivers him into my sweaty, fanatical palm. Soon, a display case of dentures and lips are presented. “This shape is a vowel, this one a consonant,” Ian points out from the array of individual mouth parts.

How entirely appropriate that Ian’s work station is a door. Clearly his clay photographs are magical portals that open up “doors” to as many new realms as he can imagine. And he can imagine a lot. I love seeing the space where ‘Twig’ comes to life and I love that a charismatic young man in Kentucky (I won’t say ‘of all places’ because we have never had a ‘who’s killing beavers now’ entry from the state) champions beavers as the heroes of his epic tale (tail?).

Ian works with dad Joel Timothy in Joel’s basement recording studio, where voices, music and sound effects are added to the production of Beaver Creek. (Photo: brianbohannon.com)

“Ian has always loved nature and animals. For a few years he would ask to go to the zoo almost every day,” Joel {his Dad} recalls. “On many occasions he would go directly to a certain animal, observe it in detail and then say, ‘Okay, we can go home now.’”

A few years later, requests for a video camera were granted on Christmas. “He learned very quickly that the camera could shoot video one frame at a time,” Joel continues. “First, there were amusing little animations of a clay ball rolling across the floor; then there was a piece he called ‘Chuck The Worm,’ in which a clay worm crawls toward a clay apple, chews a hole in the apple and then comes out on the other side. From there, the evolution gets a bit hazy to me. It seems like I blinked and Ian was building a set and starting to create Beaver Creek.”

What a great kid! What a great Dad! What a great description! ‘Blink’ is a fantastic way to describe the necessary and mysterious development that happens with leaps and bounds just beyond the parent’s loving field of vision. Ian grew (and is still growing) into his art. It’s exciting to see it unfold and is obviously exciting to observe up close.

Videotaping Beaver Creek is labor intensive and tedious, and on an average school day, Ian is able to produce only two to four seconds of animation, with each episode taking three to four months to produce. “I usually try to work a few hours after school,” he says. (Photo: brianbohannon.com)

I can’t really remember how I met Ian. I think he sent the first episode of Beaver Creek what seems to be a million years ago. I know I heard from him again when he won the science award for the beaver film. Last year he made a special compilation of all his episodes for the silent auction which was a hit. This year he whispered that Twig might get some new characters and I am excited to see what comes next.

Before the winter thaw, Beaver Creek Episode Six will be released into the mainstream. It is the story of Twigs and Drake going to help Twigs’ parents. Twigs’ dad is played by Will Cary, Twigs’ brother is played by Max Harrington, and the storekeeper is played by Mike Cook. The part of Twigs’ mother is played by yours truly, Cindy Lamb. My entire three lines will provide me with the opportunity to add “castor canadensis” to my studio resume.

Go read the whole article for an uplifting New Years Eve. One more piece of good news: last years bridge tile project was listed in the Tiimes as one of the ‘bright spots’ of 2010. As I recall we were the best ‘Citywide rebranding effort’ of 2009, the best ‘Urban wildlife viewing of 2008’ and the ‘most Unexpected news story’ of 2007. Nice work.