Saturday, January 22, 2005
Creative Family
Just ran into an old painting I did about 15 years ago. It is based on some very nasty creatures from the earth`s core as told by Edgar Rice Burroughs. At the time I painted this painting I had just come back from a private screening of the restored Tarzan and His Mate.
Tom Yeates, the Tarzan illustrator and my best man; Danton Burroughs, the grandson of Edgar Rice; myself and a couple of other people headed up to MGM and completely enjoyed ourselves watching this movie with the nude scenes restored.
So what does this have to do with animation? I`m not sure that it has anything to do with animation, in another way it has everything. It sure has a lot to do with creativity and how the imagination of one person can capture the minds of generations.
How many artists have taken a crack at illustrating the works of Burroughs or Arthur Conan Doyle? For every Burroughs or Conan Doyle there are thousands and thousands of creative people that never create that one project that resonates down the ages. But they don`t stop trying.
So where am I going with this? I`m not sure but these people, all these people, in a very real sense are my family by the very act of committing to the creative process. It is a commitment, a leap of faith that makes us kin.
A few make it big, most of us hang on for years somehow making a living and trying to create because we have to. Some fall away and get square jobs and have benefits and big screen TV`s and late at night wonder if they could have been a contender. The ones that keep trying are my people.
This coming week the creative family called animation get together to honor our members that have left the ranks with their boots on. The ones that touched millions, the ones that were not really known outside the creative family, all of them my family because they have committed to the creative community called the animation family.
No RSVP needed to come hang out with your family
Just ran into an old painting I did about 15 years ago. It is based on some very nasty creatures from the earth`s core as told by Edgar Rice Burroughs. At the time I painted this painting I had just come back from a private screening of the restored Tarzan and His Mate.
Tom Yeates, the Tarzan illustrator and my best man; Danton Burroughs, the grandson of Edgar Rice; myself and a couple of other people headed up to MGM and completely enjoyed ourselves watching this movie with the nude scenes restored.
So what does this have to do with animation? I`m not sure that it has anything to do with animation, in another way it has everything. It sure has a lot to do with creativity and how the imagination of one person can capture the minds of generations.
How many artists have taken a crack at illustrating the works of Burroughs or Arthur Conan Doyle? For every Burroughs or Conan Doyle there are thousands and thousands of creative people that never create that one project that resonates down the ages. But they don`t stop trying.
So where am I going with this? I`m not sure but these people, all these people, in a very real sense are my family by the very act of committing to the creative process. It is a commitment, a leap of faith that makes us kin.
A few make it big, most of us hang on for years somehow making a living and trying to create because we have to. Some fall away and get square jobs and have benefits and big screen TV`s and late at night wonder if they could have been a contender. The ones that keep trying are my people.
This coming week the creative family called animation get together to honor our members that have left the ranks with their boots on. The ones that touched millions, the ones that were not really known outside the creative family, all of them my family because they have committed to the creative community called the animation family.
An Afternoon of Remembrance
Lasky-DeMille Barn
2100 N. Highland (At the Hollywood Bowl)
Hollywood
Saturday Jan. 29th
1 PM
No RSVP needed to come hang out with your family
