Faith Butterfield

There is so much potential for this article. Perhaps drilling down with the David Mehnert references could yield some supportive information. My concern is that the savant information is currently lacking that bugaboo descriptor "determined" (as savantism isn't diagnosed, but determined). A little more about that information would help. A cursory search for the subject's name (and that of Mehnert) was woefully lacking.174.23.149.96 (talk) 13:01, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

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Faith Butterfield (Born, December 18, 1996)is an American animator, actress, writer, artist, and activist who is best known for illustrating Mouse in the Penthouse and My Heart Flies. She is part of an animation department at Spectrum Laboratory which partners with Danimation Entertainment.

In 2017, she published her first children's book Mouse in the Penthouse by Workshop 2.0 and Butterfield's short film My Heart Flies won the Academy of Dream Awards at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2018.

Early Life

Early Life (1996-2015)

Butterfield was born on December 18, 1996 in Glendora, California to parents Tammie Butterfield (nee: Camou), a former Flight attendant at American Airlines and David Butterfield a former prisoner of war in the 1980s who learned film editing while her grandfather James Butterfield worked at Paramount Pictures in the 1960s. In 1999, her parents took her to see a doctor when they diagnosed her with autism which she couldn't talk til age 5. In 2000, Butterfield was drawing a Father's Day card for her father til her mother told her to draw on the card which she developed her drawing skills at age 3 which she would watch cartoons on TV that later inspired her art style which she watched Blue's Clues, The New Batman/Superman Adventures, Looney Tunes, The Powerpuff Girls, and Disney movies which made her happy. Then in July 23, 1998, her mother Tammie gave birth to her daughter named Judith Moria Grace who was her sister. When Butterfield got to preschool at Gladstone Elementary School, experts tested her which she retarted and then she was placed in a special ed classroom full of congitivly delayed children which her parents filed a complanit against Bonita Unified School District which was the beginning of inclusion into a neurotypical world which she was finally included in 3rd grade at Vista Del Vile Elementary School in Claremont, California which she was going to the Autism Project at Claremont McKenna College in 2001, at age 4 which was run by a psychology professor named Marjorie Charlop who took care of her and learned theory of mind with the psychology students which she used her imagination as a way to think of others which children with autism didn't had in their early childhood. Butterfield’s education has been unconventional at times. Tammy Butterfield, Faith’s mother, said that before her daughter entered kindergarten, she knew the alphabet, numbers, could read one or two sentences at a time, and was pretty advanced for her age. Butterfield is bilingual in English and Spanish and says she has plans to learn French.However, the school she was placed in decided that even though she was on track with the educational standards, her autism mandated that she was placed in the cognitively delayed classroom with other autistic students.

Butterfield said this “autistic child” label given by teachers and having to be separated from her peers really bothered her. She said from that point she remembers feeling excluded and in some ways, ostracized. However, the Butterfield family continued to fight for her inclusion and they filed a state complaint in order to have her integrated with the rest of the students, which took a couple years before she was finally able to join the traditional classroom for third grade.She said the other students would help her learn how to interact and play together, while she would teach them things that made her happy, like the “sound of smell,” which occurs when stimulation of a sense leads to a connection to another sense or cognitive pathway. Butterfield is always accompanied by either her mother or father, who come to classes with her for a variety of reasons. By then during recess, she was isolated from the rest of her friends which tricked her which was bullying to her. It made Butterfield real sad that she didn't socialize at a young age which she played by herself with video games, and plush toys that represents her favorite cartoon characters. By then her parents attended IEP meetings til 12th grade. After she graduated from 6th grade, Butterfield went to El Roble Intermediate School for 7th grade which she was forced to sit in the disabled quad during lunch which the school staff refused to have her perform her poem A Thousand Faces which was based on her own experiences of discrimaintion which she later became an activist at age 13 while studying hard for good grades like she performed a monolgoue about driving in her Drama class which they rejected her to take advanced drama class which she started her first acting performance. In 2011, at age 14. Butterfield attended School of Arts and Enterprise for high school which she had the first two years without discrimination which she took art classes that developed her art skills until she was not allowed to go to art camp in 2013, which was discrimination that her parents and Butterfield settled with her former school to include people with disabilities to attend art camp the following year. Her parents took her to Exceptional Minds in Sherman Oaks, CA that was an animation studio for people with autism to hone their animation skills but she was declined due to being too autistic which they were doing a power of attorney for her when she graduates from high school. At age 18, Butterfield graduated from high school and planned to go to a community college first, then university which her career began.

Faith Butterfield
File:Faith butterfield headshot.png faith butterfield headshot.png
Born	(1996-12-18) December 18, 1996 Glendora, CA, US
🏫 Education	School of Arts and Enterprise
💼 Occupation	Animator, writer, storyboard artist, actress, voice actress, director, cartoonist, activist
📆 Years active	2016-present
🏅 Awards	Academy of Dreams Award

Career

Early Career

While attending Citrus College she developed her skills in art which she learned figure drawing and in 2016 Butterfield attended Spec Fest a film and music festival held by Spectrum Laboratory which was refereed by Joey Travolta to meet Dani Bowman who gave her first animation job animating a short film which is on hiatus. That following fall, Butterfield animated her first animated short Keleth the Dragon Phoenix which was about inclusion and the Perfect Circle.

Working at Spectrum Laboratory, Danimation Entertainment, and Workshop 2.0

In the summer of 2016, Joey Travolta who is the brother John Travolta and founder of Inclusion Films which he recommend to attend Spec Fest which was organized by Spectrum Laboratory, a non profit organization whose message was to empower artists on the autism spectrum. They prepare our students for the entertainment industry and create original works of film, music and animation that helps actors, and musicians with autism make music videos and short films for the autism community which Dani Bowman an animator who is the founder of Danimation Entertainment announced that they will be starting the animation department that will produce it's first animated short Cholie: An Orphan Story but she decided to work with Bowman by learning how to animate on Toon Boom which her assignments developed into an animated short called The Perfect Circle which she developed a professional relationship with Jake Tashjian. She joined Workshop 2.0 in the summer of 2016 which was a non profit organization founded by Janet Tashjian which she illustrated her first book Mouse in the Penthouse in April 2017. Later on she had the chance to animate on their first animated music video Be a Friend for Spectrum Laboratory along with other animators with Bowman in 2017. Shortly, after she was hired by Steve Belgard along with Bowman, Jake Tashjian, and Shane Mccaskle to do animated segments for a documentary about the life of the sideshow performer Schltize which she did character designs of Schtlize and story boarded the animated segments which is currently in production. Later on she animated an short film called My Heart Flies which won the Academy of Dream Awards where it was screened at the Palm Springs International Animation Festival in Palm Springs, California. In 2018, she played the role of artist in a Public service announcement for the Special Olympics which marked her acting debut. But she auditioned for the role of Laura in the ABC pilot but she was turned down and also auditioned for Violet in TV pilots but she did not get a callback.

Future Projects

Currently, Butterfield is working on a comic book based on the life of Justinian I which started in 2017 and she is animating on a Live-action animated short film with Spectrum Laboratory called Boys Don't Wear Dresses. Butterfield will illustrate and write the next book in the Mouse in the House series that is a follow up to Penthouse with Workshop 2.0 In, 2020 Butterfield is currently one of the artists working on Schlitze One of Us an documentary about the life of the sideshow performer Schlitzie.

Influences

Butterfield cited Bruce Timm, Genndy Tartakovsky, Bryan Konietzko, Chuck Jones, Butch Hartman, Glen Murakami as inspirations for her career and Mouse in the Penthouse was influenced by Looney Tunes and Fairly Odd Parents based on the character design she saw growing up.

Filmography

Commercial

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2018	Special Olympics PSA: Revolution is Inclusion	Artist	Actress

Music Video

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	Use Your Imagination	Extra	Cameo role
2017	What Makes a Better World	Extra	Music video for Spectrum Laboratory

Internet

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2019	Autism Live	Herself	Guest appearance

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	Keleth the Dragon Phoenix	Keleth, Dully, Drago, Mr. Fuego, Bully, Ms.Bottichelli, Mrs. Brimbsby (voice)	Voice role
2017	The Perfect Circle	Eli, Shaman, Hyperbolie 1, Hyperbolie 2, Triangle, Narrator (voice)	Animated short
2018	My Heart Flies	Kira, Stinky, Yucky, Fairy Queen Flutterby, Monster Bully, Unicorn,	Short film
2019	The Indiana Cheese Muncher	Minion Mouse	Voice role
2019	The Perfect Circle (remake)	Eli, Hyperbolie 1, Hyperbolie 2, Triangle, Narrator 2	Short Film
2020	Schtlize One of Us	character designer, storyboard artist	In production

Theater

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	Spectrum Laboratory Improv Comedy Show	Various roles	Variety Show
2018	Spectrum Laboratory Year End Improv Show	Various roles	Live Comedy performance
2019	Spectrum Laboratory Improv Show	Various roles	Variety Improv Comedy Show

References

This article "Faith Butterfield" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Faith Butterfield. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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