Its an incredible moment when you are showing with the artists you grew up respecting. Granted, I’m 34, but for a lot of us striving for art success in the realm of studio animation fine art, 34 is pretty young.
I’m grateful for this.
Last week I was flown to Las Vegas for the Chuck Jones Gallery opening at Circus Circus on the Strip. Because I had just relatively started with them and wanted to show with them, I threw my entire world upside down to understand the fundamentals of Looney Tunes characters, .. which is kind of hard if your style is about patterning around without altering the characters form what so ever.
But, I did it. Even after TSA smeared it from putting it back in the box wrong at the airport… An artist with bad luck always carries a bottle of black ink and two brushes with them when in mid transport. I ended up cutting a plastic cup in the hotel room they provided me, poured in ink, repainted it, dried it with the wall hair dryer in the bathroom, rushed down to the promenade 2nd floor to the gallery manager and viola. .. it worked out in time for the press walkthrough.
But the most incredible part was showing with James Coleman, Mike Kungl, James Mulligan, and Mike Peraza Jr. I’ve been walking the halls at Disney admiring their work, and there are I was showing with them… Its just kind of hard to wrap my head around it. Granted I’ve shown at reputable places and had a bit of success in low brow street level works pre Disney, but to be asked to exhibit at studio level with these guys is a god shot.
