I am Paola Caramanna, a Canadian, Mexican-Italian stop-motion animator, director, fabricator, and puppeteer based in Toronto, with a bachelor's degree in Experimental Animation, with a minor in Integrated Media, from OCAD University. I have had the opportunity to work on stop-motion and puppet productions, including directing, writing and puppeteering my own show Psock-Op, and have been very involved with my animation community, being the collective lead of WIA OCADU Collective. My practice explores the narrative connection between material and storytelling, exploring how I can use surreal and magical worldmaking to dissect aspects of my identity that feel larger-than-life. I find inspiration in texture and sensation, and translate them to my characters and scenes I construct. I find myself inspired by the performance and storytelling traditions within my cultures and in North America. Puppet shows and theatres, cultural traditions, storybooks and widely understood methods of storytelling are sources of information, and translating them into methods of animated storytelling is where I find my best work emerges.Much of my work stems from self-reflection, exploring everything from identity to family, social structures and intersections of culture. I use stop motion and puppets to dissect how movement and performance can be used to evoke human life and emotions, without being completely human. I enjoy the uncanny world between abiotic objects and their relationships to people. My work exists as an ongoing exploration in my relationship between material, movement, performance and the human emotional experience.