Movies about artists carry a certain appeal; if done right they offer the viewer glimpses of the mysterious inspiration behind a genius' work. But therein lies the rub for the filmmaker - how does one photograph "inspiration"? In general, how does a visual medium like cinema capture and give physical form to the intangible - to abstract concepts like creativity or the idea of ideas? Hitchcock spent his career devising various camera tricks to reveal the inner workings of his pantheon of characters, and the struggle continues to this day in films such as Inception.

Director Karen Stanton acknowledged this issue throughout the making of her first feature, A Not So Still Life, which visits the Tacoma Art Museum Sunday, Feb. 6, for a one-time screening. The 82-minute profile of world-renowned artist and Seattle resident Ginny Ruffner forced Stanton to carefully reflect on methods of representing her subject through the artwork itself.

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