Catalogues from Mary Blair Tokyo Exhibition

"The Colors of Mary Blair" was an exhibition at the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art held this past Summer. The exhibition closed just this month and, for those who were not lucky enough to see it, the exhibition catalogue will be available (if it is not already available) through the bookstore at the Museum of Cartoon Art in San Francisco. Contact Heather Plunkett at the bookstore for more information.

The catalogue text is mostly in Japanese, but there are a few preface essays - by Pete Doctor, John Canemaker, Charles Solomon, and some family relations - that are presented in English. This catalogue presents more of Mary's work more accurately reproduced to show original color than any previous publication of her work.

Michae Jackson's Life

A quote from an interview that Michael Jackson gave to RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH:

"I am going to say something I have never said before and this is the truth. I have no reason to lie to you and God knows I am telling the truth. I think all my success and fame, and I have wanted it, I have wanted it because I wanted to be loved. That's all. That's the real truth. I wanted people to love me, truly love me, because I never really felt loved. I said I know I have an ability. Maybe if I sharpened my craft, maybe people will love me more. I just wanted to be loved, because I think it is very important to be loved and to tell people that you love them and to look in their eyes and say it."

Go HERE for the whole article

Digital Illustration for my new children's book

I've been working on illustrations for a book recently, using photoshop in a realist style that is very challenging, and something of a departure for me. The end result reminds me of Northern Renaissance paintings where every hairy imperfection is rendered faithfully. The composition and lighting both have to be strong to save the viewer from "texture overload". The end result is very engaging, though and invites scrutiny. That's why I've included a closeup version below.

CalArts in the News!

Here's a glowing article from The Huffington Post about CalArts for those of you interested in Arts education. I have to say that CalArts opens many doors for those who get their animation education there. Click HERE for the article. Although the school is famous for turning out great animators and film makers, it also has schools for music, theater, fine art, and dance. APPLY today!

Mary Blair at Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art

The Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art will host "The Colors of Mary Blair", a retrospective exhibit which expands upon the popular "Art and Flair of Mary Blair", the Museum of Cartoon Art - San Francisco exhibit which was so popular in 2007-2008. The exhibit will run from mid-April through mid-July of 2009. This will be the largest collection of Mary Blair's original work ever shown. The exhibit will show work from her early days as a recent alumnus of Chouinard Art Institute and proceed through her career at Disney, her advertising art in New York, and her final psycho-surreal mixed media works completed during her retirement years in Central California.

If you are interested in joining a tour group in mid-June to see the exhibit in Tokyo, please let me know before the end of April. You can email me at: fcline@me.com