Stefani Martin sent me this photo a few months ago.
She bought the painting from Fred Mogubgub in the mid-80s. It reminded her of her daughter.
This is more a straight portrait than most of what I've seen from Mogubgub. In her face there is a hint of the otherworldly seen in his Spirit Paintings, but her posture and her clothing mark her a very real.
At the Ottawa Festival last year, I mentally prepared myself to accept an award on behalf of Nina Paley much as I had been asked to represent PES on the podium previously.
Turned out a spell of anxiety and a football game coincided with the award ceremony keeping me in the hotel, and another picture won anyway.
What could I have said? Sita Sings The Blues speaks for itself. It is one the most remarkable pieces of work in this young century.
Channel 13/WNET will be broadcasting the film tomorrow night at 9 PM (although it'll probably be later -"Reel 13" starts with a "classic" before the "indie").
Much of chatter around the film has centered on the music rights issue. The underlying point of the arguement is legitimate -that copyrights extending 75 years from the death of the creator go on far too long, effectively eliminating public domain.
When she discusses this issue, Nina takes it too an extreme. She conflates her crusade against copyrights with her stoic worldview -a singular perspective that disdains reproduction, Christmas, and any number of other middle class staples. When she talks about copyright, I can't help but think she's taking shots at "breeders".
That tenacity can backfire, as it does in her film The Stork.
That same tenacity created Sita Sings the Blues.
It's a remarkable piece of work. Everyone in New York should be watching tomorrow.
We received this amazing celebrity endorsement yesterday.
It would be foolish not to share.
Waltz with Bashir, for instance, is as much a "documentary" as Au Revoir Les Enfants, or Fanny and Alexander, or Cinema Paradiso, or even Hoosiers.
The word "documentary" is used as a catch phrase: "oooh animated documentary! That's hawt!" without care for the ontology of either phrase.
Animation is a process. Specifically, the process of moving pictures one frame at a time.
Documentary is a genre. It is a method of storytelling which presents historical or scientific matter in a factual manner.
Yes, yeah, yes -documentaries can have bias. That goes without saying. The bias, though, is intrinsic in personal perception of any object. "One man's garbage is another's treasure."
When we opened for business, roughly one million years ago, we asked Maurice Vellekoop to illustrate an announcement post card.
Maurice is one illustrator that we'd love to work with. There are few times we developed some longer form projects together (and one on contract for a VERY BIG MEDIA CONGLOMERATE that I'll post about in the future), but nothing's come to fruition.
We even did an animatic together for Grey Advertising, a million and one years ago. The product freshened the air while flushing your toilet. If that's not amazing enough (and, really, its more gross than amazing) Maurice's illustrated woman cleaned the bathroom in 6 inch wedge heels.
I'd buy that.
Finally got around to packing up the ol' Naked Campaign art.
Uncovered a bunch of great drawings by Brodner that never made it into films (that happens in live action).
Obama as an asterisk!
NASCAR Obama.
Don't remember what this was for. Is Hillary Caesar? Barack's running late for commencement.
Some notes.
Obama body sketches. (with a Hillary ghosting through)
This was for a piece on the economy. Notice how the arrow keeps going down.
And below was an idea that involved Rorschrach blots.
One would form E. T. (I don't think this was a Kucinich reference).
And ultimately:
Barack Obama as Eustace Tilly.
