A6


Westchester County Business Journal • ARTSWNEWS


An Interview with Chris Wedge: Blue Sky Studios artist interviews


THE ART OF ANIMATION by Rick Meaney


In a rare collaboration, Katonah Museum of Art (KMA) and Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) are celebrating the Greenwich, CT-based animation studio Blue Sky Productions. Ice Age to the Digital Age: The 3D Animation of Blue Sky Studios at KMA features storyboard drawings and behind-the- scenes looks at the intricate production process. In conjunction with this artwork, JBFC is screening a variety of Blue Sky movies with accompanying panel discussions, workshops and events. The exhibition will be on display until January 20.


The company behind such major animated movies as Ice Age and Robots has its roots in Westchester – its jack-of-all trades co-creator, Chris Wedge, lives in Katonah with his family. He is a Blue Sky movie director as well as the voice of the iconic primordial acorn-hungry Ice Age character, Scrat. “I get a special thrill about having it all on display in my home town,” he says. “[At the opening reception], I had a George Bailey moment. I felt like I was part of something.”


Chris Wedge, Co-Creater, Blue Sky Studios


Aside from being able to share this experience with family and friends, Chris has other aspirations for the exhibition. He hopes that it will serve not only as a showcase of Blue Sky’s accomplishments over the past decade, but also as a way to educate people on the intricate process of creating animated


movies. “We’re going to break it down [so visitors will] understand that before that scene was made, someone had to write it and draw storyboards for it, and an animator had to model it and move it around.”


It is his hope that this exhibition will help audiences to understand the army of artists and technicians working tirelessly to craft every square inch of the Computer Graphics (CG) world. “Hopefully they will see that [animation] is a process that includes many disciplines… Almost anything that you might learn on your way to being an artist or a technician of any kind is something that could apply to these movies. If you’re a storyteller or a puppeteer, a manager, or a producer there is a job for you working on these movies."


Educational activities abound in the offerings of the two organizations: Katonah Museum of Art features Saturday animation workshops and Jacob Burns Film Center includes classes for voice acting, storyboarding, workshops for children from grades Pre-K to 8 and an October 18 Evening with Chris Wedge event at Jacob Burns Film Center.


For more information on the art exhibition and its related workshops, events and discussions, visit Katonah Museum of Art at: www.katonahmuseum.org and Jacob Burns Film Center at: www.burnsfilmcenter.org.


OCTOBER 2012


CURATOR'S CORNER: 'CELEBRITIES' EXPLORES THE ART OF MEMORY


Celebrities: We Remember Them Well is currently on view at ArtsWestchester's Arts Exchange build- ing on 31 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains. The exhibition, which runs through November 10, follows a successful opening in September that drew a large crowd of art lovers, artists and photographers to view the striking portraits of famed figures. The exhibition transports visitors to past eras, offering a glance at both posed and candid moments of triumph, extravagance, strife and contemplation. This show is not to be missed, featuring such notable figures as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Barack Obama and many more.


Susan Sarandon, photo by Allan Tannenbaum


The show’s curator, Milton J. Ellenbogen, reflecting on what is drawing people to this particular exhibi- tion, says that “there are two main reasons for pre- serving photography. One is family and the other is to re-examine a life lived. Celebrities help us look back at specific time periods.”


Ellenbogen also recognizes the element of fandom that plays into this show’s appeal. “It’s also a subject matter of great human interest,” Ellenbogen said, “We dote on celebrities.”


Celebrities: We Remember Them Well invokes a certain stroll down memory lane, with different moments of poignancy in each photo, unique to the life and experiences of the individual viewer. “Images evoke memories. Sometimes good, some- times bad, but there is usually a special pleasure one feels in remembering,” Ellenbogen said. Join ArtsWestchester in remembering some of the great- est figures of the last half-century while they are featured on our gallery walls. For more informa- tion on Celebrities: We Remember Them Well, visit: www.artsw.org/celebrities


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17