The Graduates
Absolut Panushka, Jan-Apr 1997.
The Graduates
Judging by its alumni, California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles can boast the world’s most prestigious animation school. Since Jules Engel founded the animation program in 1969, Cal Arts animation graduates from all over the world — China to Brazil, Iran to New Zealand — have returned to their native lands to create animation programs. Others have taught animation in American schools, such as Amy Kravitz at the Rhode Island School of Design. Cal Arts has produced people who have been successful in the film industry, such as Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands), Henry Selick (Nightmare before Christmas) and John Lasseter (Toy Story). In addition, the bulk of Cal Arts animation grads have established themselves as independent creative artists.
The original class at Cal Arts consisted of 12 students (current enrollment is around 75). James Gore, a quiet eccentric, developed a style of straight-on animation — a form of surrealism with no pre-planning. Gore simply drew each image as a follow-up to the previous one, letting transformations occur at whim. The results in his first film Dream of the Sphinx are impressive for their vitality and imagination. The film was chosen for competition at the 1971 Annecy Festival, and although it did not receive a prize, it caused quite a controversy with the sphinx-like Gore looking on with bemusement.
Gore was quite influential on fellow students Adam Beckett and Kathy Rose. Beckett collaborated with Gore on Letter to a Friend, in which you can easily recognize the nervous lines of Gore’s drawing and the virtually perfect free-hand geometric drawing of Beckett. Beckett studied half-time with Engel on drawing and half-time with Pat O’Neill on an optical printer. That way he could amplify and extrapolate his drawings with elaborate optical effects, often reduplicating them in layers 10 and 20 times thick, and in Dear Janice matting a live-action image behind them. Beckett’s films usually build from simple beginnings to dazzingly complex, orgasmic conclusions, whether they are totally abstract (Heavy-Light), slightly representational (Evolution of the Red Star), or filled with suggestive erotic shapes (Kitsch in Synch). A workaholic, Beckett produced six films in four years and won several festival prizes for them. He then made special optical sequences for Star Wars which helped launch the special effects boom. He died tragically at age 29.
Kathy Rose also developed a very personal drawing style, with a great deal of free-flowing metamorphosis and expressive transformation. But in a film like her 1978 Pencil Booklings, she showed that she could also draw quite “realistic” images of herself interacting with her cartoon creations. Rose trained as a dancer, too, and has a successful career giving performances in which she (and a company of dancers) dance with animated dancers and effects that Rose designs and shoots on film for specific dance numbers.
Dennis Pies (now known as Sky-David) created several beautiful abstract films with pastel on black paper (Luma Nocturna) and paints and inks on white (Sonoma). He also gives dance performances with his animations: his Dissolve in Light uses a central film with a spiritual/mythological narration, while he, dancing, carries a screen reflecting other animated imagery.
Like Kathy Rose, Lisze Bechtold treats women’s issues in her films, but her drawing style has a more classic elegance. In Moon Breath Beat, she makes fine use of repeated incremental cycles to capture a sense of development.
Joyce Borenstein, after graduating from Cal Arts, went to work at the National Film Board of Canada, where she made exquisite animations such as Traveller’s Palm, as well as a documentary film, Colours of My Father, which was nominated for an Academy Award®.
Moritz, William. “History of Experimental Animation.” Website. Absolut Panushka, curated by Christine Panushka. (Jan-Apr 1997).