Nov 242009
Nov 232009
Friday, November 20 6:30 reception
A selection of delicious hors d’oeuvres from some of Lynchburg’s finest restaurants, and wine and beer.
8:00 Program
The opening night program will include a montage of clips highlighting Tuck Tucker’s work, followed by a screening of a short, original documentary on the making of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Prior to the screening, Mr. Tucker will take the stage for an in-depth interview and a Q&A session with Jennifer Gauthier (Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Randolph College) and the audience.
Mr. Tucker will be introduced by Andrew Edmunds of the Virginia Film Office.
9:45 Post Program Event
Animate yourself on the dance floor at our Music Video Dance Party. (Free to Gala Attendees and open to the public for $5.00) 21 and older only.
Nov 212009
Drawing SpongeBob with Tuck Tucker
Sat., Nov. 21, 2009 10am.
Tuck will lead a simple lesson in how to draw SpongeBob and Patrick using basic principles of character construction. Crayons, pencils, and paper will be provided.
Drawing for Animation with Tuck Tucker.
Sat., Nov. 21 1pm.
Participants will be shown an animatic (a series of still images displayed in sequence) The animatic will be stopped at a crucial point. Then Tuck will ask everyone to storyboard a sequence that finishes a thought. It would be like a game of pictionary. People would share their work, and Tuck will pitch some of their work to the group to give participants them a feel for how Nickelodeon.
Tuck will bring bring storyboard templates for the participants to draw on. Pencils/erasers/sharpies & paper will be provided. This is for novices and advanced animators alike.
Nov 142009
In 2009, Jennifer Gauthier, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Randolph College interviewed the 2009 Cineviews special guest, Tuck Tucker, supervising storyboard director for SpongeBob Square Pants
JG: What are some of your favorite cartoons? What did you grow up watching?
TT: I loved old MGM, Warner Brothers, and Disney Cartoons as a child. Sometimes, my dad would actually sit down and watch a couple with us on Saturday mornings. I think, however, the first character that I tried to draw was AstroBoy. Later I started getting more into Disney features. I loved the craft that they showed. When Don Bluth came along with The Secret of NIMH (1982), I had just finished high school. I thought, now there’s somebody I could work for. That was not to be, and I was later glad. When I moved to LA in ‘84, I started transitioning away from my interest in features and started to work in television. It was far more vibrant and clever than any features being done at the time. The Simpsons and Ren and Stimpy were showing the world what animation could do for entertainment, and the talent started migrating towards these shows. In the last ten years or so, I’ve become a fan of Miyazaki’s feature films. I loved every one of them that I’ve seen
JG: What training did you have for getting into the animation field? How did you get started in the business?
TT: I was taking classes at VCU in the early 80s with two guys who had a studio in Richmond. They had a small studio called Candy Apple, and I worked there in the summer between semesters. The head of the studio was Steve Segal. As it just so happened, he decided to go to LA when I graduated and went with him. In spite of having my student films and portfolio stolen from our car the day we arrived in Hollywood, we were both able to get work easily. He eventually ended up at Pixar before going back to teaching.
JG: What was your first big break?
TT: There were a lot of first big breaks. I think the very first one was working for Segal, before I ever went to LA.
JG: SpongeBob is reminiscent of the the Looney Tunes cartoons – why is this do you think? How is the animation process for SpongeBob different from other contemporary animated television shows?
TT: It’s true we do owe a lot to what was being done in the 30s and 40s, namely that content is decided by people who draw, not by writers in the usual sense of the word. No two ways about it. Animation by animators is better. It’s physical, funny, and springs from a far less hackneyed braintrust than animation from scripts.
JG: Who is your favorite character on the show? Why?
TT: I like the characters that channel adult feelings and insecurities. Mr Krabs, Plankton, and Squidward spring to mind. Also, there are people writing for the show who do a better job of getting into character for SpongeBob and Patrick than I do.
JG: Do you have any reminiscences of Lynchburg that have influenced you in your career?
TT: It’s funny, I’ve always enjoyed the reputation of farm boy on whatever show I’m on. Even by 1979 Lynchburg standards I was considered a bit of a hick. Probably because my closest friends were either involved with farming or hunting and fishing. Getting back to your question, I’ve been given assignments because of my familiarity with things “country” or “southern”. I think that these things influence my work honestly and in the very best sense. Take for instance the character Stinky on Hey Arnold. He was a rube from top to bottom. There are definitely aspects of growing up in the ‘burg that informed Stinky’s behavior. On another occasion, I was given the gas station hicks in the SpongeBob Movie for the same reason. Steve Hillenberg thought I would do a better job on that sort of thing and he was right. I don’t flinch from these sorts of assignments, I court them. If there’s anything from my past that might help inform a character or joke, I jump at the chance to let those influences inform the work
November 6 – December 20, 2009
The pieces selected by juror Robin Nicholson, Deputy Director of Exhibitions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts represented the breadth of work in this region. Featuring 28 artists from within a 150 mile radius of Lynchburg, the show consists of painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, live art, dance, and video.
Awards
1st Place: Thistle by Tamra Harrison-Kirschnik
2nd Place: Vive La France by Cameron Ayres
3rd Place: Unicycle by julio uchimura
Sep 042009
September 4 – October 25, 2009
Barbara Bernstein is an installation artist who has shown extensively throughout the world and served as a guest Professor at Yale University School of Art. She currently lives and works at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Her room-size installations feature furniture, walls, floors, and all the trappings of daily life. These objects are covered inside and out with her drawings. Every inch of these spaces begs exploration from the inside of a shoe lying on the floor to the lining of a dresser drawer or underside of a chair. Meticulous to an incredible extent, Bernstein creates thousands of intricately drawn leaves and other natural objects to cover her rooms. The result is a room that is at once familiar and whimsical.
Bernstein’s exhibition at Riverviews included a free-standing room, in which every object was covered inside and out with meticulous drawings and another large-scale drawing created directly on the windows of the gallery. Bernstein’s goal is to create beauty and encourage wonderment in her viewers. In order to create a strong sense of the imaginary, Bernstein makes use of the familiar. She combines easily recognizable elements such as plants and architecture, but draws and depicts them in quirky, skewed, or make believe way.
July 3 – August 23, 2009
Richard Nickel is a painter and ceramic artist whose work addresses themes of love, power and absurdity through folk-art inspired imagery. Bright, fun, and colorful slab constructions mimic traditional ceramic vessels and sculptural wall platters use figuration and pattern to draw narratives dealing with family dynamics and power structures. Born in Rochester, New York, Richard Nickel received a BS in Art Education from SUNY in 1996, and then received an MFA in Ceramics from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2000. In 2002 he began teaching at Old Dominion University where he now serves as the Program Director for the Ceramics and Art Education Departments. As an artist, Nickel has participated in numerous national solo and group shows including recent exhibitions at the Virginia Beach Contemporary Arts Center, the Kellogg Gallery (CA), and Art Santa Fe.
May 012009
May 1 - June 21, 2009
Patricia Gould: and Jean McLaughlin Cowie are passionate about their medium and the way it can used to express emotion. For Gould and McLaughlin, contemporary art quilts are an important realm of the art world in that it is a medium which has transcended traditional ideas about fine art versus craft and painting versus sculpture.
Patricia Gould: With a BA in Fine Arts/Art History, and sewing since the age of eight, it’s no surprise that I chose fiber art as my passion in life. A true fabric addict, many different types of fabrics find their way into my quilts and wearable art and I never met a color I didn’t like. Travel was a very important part of my upbringing and my family visited almost all the National Parks in the US and Canada before I was out of school which gave me a deep appreciation for our precious Mother Earth and her creatures. Since 1993, I have been making landscape art quilts, drawing inspiration from trips to China, East Africa, Russia, Antarctica, and extensive travel throughout North America and Europe.
Jean McLaughlin Cowie has lived most of her life in the west where the bold landscapes and stunning, expansive topographies have heavily influenced her work. Largely self taught, Jean has perfected the necessary technical skills to construct any design, enabling her to break from more traditional methods to create pieces that are out of the o rdinary. She holds a degree in Apparel Design from Montana State University. Jean began her life-long love of fiber arts in the early seventies, where her early works in traditional quilt patterns emerged as clothing, handbags and household items as well as quilts. Through experimentation with very non-traditional designs, Jean fashioned one-of-a-kind wearable art for many years. The three dimensional quality of clothing challenged her to develop the technical expertise and artistic skill with asymmetry and balance that are signature qualities of her current work. Jean has returned to the quilt format, as wall art, as it has proven to be the best showcase for her distinctive contemporary fine art.
For more about the artists: http://www.angelfiredesigns.com/index.html
http://www.paintedrockquiltdesign.com/
Mar 062009
March 6 – April 19, 2009
Julia Morrisroe received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Washington and is currently teaching at the University of Florida. Morrisroe describes her work as art that focuses on the environment around me. I look critically at the ‘stuff’ that fills our space, that arrives in our mailbox, that is targeted to us in catalogs and pop-up windows and imagine the metaphysical impact on our society. The interplays between technology and the handmade and between beauty and popular culture are fundamental components of my studio practice.
First and foremost , Morrisroe defines herself as an artist. Exploring issues of consumerism and corporate ownership, Morrisroe has exhibited her work throughout the United States and abroad. Her work was included in the national traveling exhibition Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for the New Generation which originated at Carnegie Mellon University, (PA). Morrisroe’s installations have been included in exhibitions at SPACES (OH), University of Arkansas, Acme Art Company (OH), and South Bend Museum of Art (IN). Morrisroe’s work has been reviewed in The Plain Dealer, Pittsburgh News, Free Times, Pittsburgh Pulp, FIBERARTS Magazine, American Craft Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. She has received numerous grants including Faculty Research grants, and grants from the state of Michigan and City of Chicago. Her work is represented in public collections at the Bellevue Art Museum, Appalachian State University and private collections.
For this exhibition Simultaneity and the Long Sweetness, Morrisroe will display existing pieces as well as some new work created specifically with the Craddock-Terry Gallery in mind. The show features prints and paintings by the artist and will be on display through April 19th.
Jan 022009
January 2 – February 15, 2009
The show consists of 7 works by Claire Watkins. The work articulates the sculptural form of magnetic fields, explores the subtlety of touch, imagines systems found in the body and reflects forms found outside of it. Watkins interest lies in the transference of energy, how when talking on the telephone, the sound of your voice turns into light and then back to sound.
For this exhibition, Watkins traveled from NY to create 7 unique installations in the Craddock-Terry Gallery. The pieces feature magnets, motors, and pins that rotate and squirm, creating work that is literally always moving. Small motors power lights, magnets pull pins up from the floor, and iron shavings dance around on a canvas made of graphite. The entire gallery is alive with electricity.
