Studio Visit with Patrick Smith...

This was part of the show "Art or Something Like It", a television series that focuses on NYC artists, filmmakers, actors, etc. I apoligize for saying "beat the crap" twice, in two different contexts. whatev's. This aired last fall. It's a cool show that also featured Lloyd Kaufman and Gregory Barsamian.

New Plympton Feature "Idiots and Angels"...

I'm not just talking smack when i say that this is the best plympton feature ever. actually, i believe he was chillin' at my pad in Montauk when he made the earliest sketches for this film. Bill was very insistent on sharing his storyboards with our nyc clique, welcoming comments early on (a great method that i have totally adopted. feedback in the early stages is key). "Idiots and Angels" will be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, a few blocks from my studio. it takes place April 23-May 4. Bill Plympton's "Idiots and Angels" is a dark comedy about a morally bankrupt man struggling to hide the good side of himself, which manifests itself in a pair of angel wings that just won't go away. If you can't see it in Tribeca, it's also in competition at Annecy this june in france.photo above, Bill Plympton, Patrick Smith, Sarah Phelps, PES, Amid Amidi, and CC Edwards, at my last gallery show in feb., bill had just finished his rough cut for "idiots and angels".

Nearest I ever got to the legend....

From Left: Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston at the Disney lot, and Patrick Smith with Randy Haycock same location, decades later. I'd say my hand is about the same place as Ollies. The official press release has been posted all over now.

Ollie Johnston 1912-2008

I'm speechless, and incredibly sad. The 9 old men are now gone, truly an end of an era. Ollie Johnston was a great man, an inspiration to me personally. This was sent via Cartoon Brew from Roy Disney....

“Ollie was part of an amazing generation of artists, one of the real pioneers of our art, one of the major participants in the blossoming of animation into the art form we know today. One of Ollie’s strongest beliefs was that his characters should think first, then act…and they all did. He brought warmth and wit and sly humor and a wonderful gentleness to every character he animated. He brought all those same qualities to his life, and to all of our lives who knew him. We will miss him greatly, but we were all enormously enriched by him.”

Ted Kierscey's pencils for "Firebird"...

I ripped this extra off of the Fantasia DVD anthology, a set that every animator should own (buy it! worth every penny). This is possibly the greatest extra on any DVD i know of (the glen keane stuff on tarzan comes close), it is simply stunning the amount of detail and dedication to timing and mood that Ted Kierscey was able to put into this sequence. It puzzles me that Ted Kierscey is not a household name, which he clearly should be. I show this sequence to my students every year, just to remind them(and myself) what this medium is capable of accomplishing. In particular, what the pencil on a piece of paper can accomplish; texture, tangibility, and an overall essence that only a hand carved line can create. I've watched this so many times, and it never fails to invigorate me to animate!

Rant: Escape the Echo Chamber...

I was reminded about this idea when "pierce sisters" wasn't nominated for an oscar. Everyone was so shocked, since it had won every major animation festival. A similar thing happened with Joanna quinns "dreams and desires" (another fav of mine) which wasn't even nominated! Instead of blaming the academy (which people LOVE to do), i think you need to realize that animation is often an echo chamber, and what you may think is common knowledge, happens to be only common to animation people (an incredibly small, often lame, bubble). I believe in the effectiveness of finding other crowds, and "crossing over" to them, diversitize. Most people, even artists, don't know what Aardman is, or Plympton, or glen keane. That's just a fact. and actually, there's even echo chambers within the industry, for example, i could not tell you a single creator of any cartoon network show, they don't cross over to my independent world. As an animator, most of us are qualified to dabble into many fields. ie, I'm not a huge fan of Gary Basemans art, but he excels at being diverse, working in many facets of the art world.