Terrence Robertson-Fall – Thousand Oaks, CA
As a Visual Effects Artist for over a decade, Terrence Robertson-Fall has developed characters for Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation starring in films including The Amazing Spiderman 2, Oz The Great and Powerful, The Smurfs, and Alice in Wonderland.
As a young aspiring artist, Star Wars made him so excited about the possibility of creating special effects in a film. But in 1977 it was a fledgling field and without much opportunity. Another new field, personal computers, sparked another passion, and he followed the family tradition of becoming an engineer. Working in the automotive field, yet another new passion, he was instrumental in winning the 1994 Indianapolis 500, developing patents for vehicle based satellite tracking systems, and building internationally exhibited show cars. Still, he retained his interest for special effects in film and the desire to be an artist. When Toy Story was released in 1995, he pursued his long held dream and studied character animation and character rigging in his spare time. He discovered that computer based animation was the perfect match to his artistic and engineering skills. Currently he is a Lead Character Setup/Sr. Technical Animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks. He has developed highly technical rigs like the photo-real wings for the flying monkey in Oz, The Great and Powerful, sculpting hundreds of poses for the bodies and clothes for the Smurfs so they look real as they move through their antics, and many more characters for a number of popular films. After spending years sculpting digital horses, smurfs, dogs, cats, wings and people, Terrence found that he needed to express his own ideas and thoughts in sculptures that could live outside of the big screen, off of the paper, bronzes that could occupy the world with us.
Terrence has taken his creativity and combined it with his love of animals and thrown in a healthy dose of humor and play. Different perspectives help us see ideas in a different way, much the way animated movies do, so the animals in his sculptures often express human emotions and characteristics. Each one is telling a story, just as rich and animated as the characters he created for film. They illustrate positive ideas, adding some magic to our lives.
Speaking of magic, Terrence’s photography is a means of remembering some of his more magical experiences in nature. There are so many wonderful places in the great outdoors to escape from the concrete and steel world we live in day to day. He has been blessed to experience many of them and have managed to capture some of them, ones that created a story in his mind. Stories and characters can be found in trees, rock formations, waterfalls and animals. Sharing these stories and characters with others can uplift and inspire them, creating a greater appreciation for our wild places, and also add beauty to their homes and places of work.
His various passions, which covers sculpting, drawing, painting, photography, wood-carving, as well as technology and engineering – has kept him busy and going in many different directions. But they all have that common thread – creativity and creating positive stories.
Medium: Photography
Size: 20×16
Medium: Photography
Size: 16×20
Medium: Photography
Size: 30×20
Rebecca Weed – Cody, WY
When I work I am thinking about permanence and impermanence, I am thinking about time and the way we measure it, and I am thinking about what is beautiful.
The beauty is in what we do measure, what we can’t measure and what we forget to measure.
I was raised in a landscape that has been described as bleak, harsh, empty, even ugly*. From the time I was small I took the horizon for granted. A difinitive line where the land overlapped the sky was always in view. When I travel to locations that are filled with trees, buildings, or people that obscure our sense of space and direction I feel claustrophobic.
In this place I grew up an occurance bacame a story: A plane overhead the only thing to briefly break the emptiness and silence. Sitting on the ground next to a pile of sagebrush I felt everything; longing, lonliness, excitement, adventure, the smug security that I was in a place that only one person could occupy at any given time. There was the story. A girl, dirt, and an airplane. This story goes on and on and on.
WIthin this landscape, within America, within an ever-accelerating world, I sense a lack of heroism. There is a lack of signposts that mark our individual time. There is a lack of the archetype, the myth, the importance of prescence. These are human constructs and they may be evolving into other manifestations. They may be no longer useful. They may be right in front of me. Wherever or whatever they are I feel the necessity to mark my time; to celebrate a bit, or mourn, to fall in love.
Medium: Oil on Parchment
Size: 27×38
Medium: Oil and Graphite on Parchment
Size: 27×15
Medium: Oil and Graphite on Parchment
Size: 27×38
Kelly Johnston – Seattle, WA
“The act of painting is like life. It is a journey. Each brush stroke informs the next. Each decision made leads us to the next. I’m often surprised by where I end up and that is the best part.
My paintings are about color and space. I am interested in how color and line can be used to create depth of space and movement. I am always on a quest to find tension in a painting and the balance needed to sustain it.
People are all unique and yet also ultimately similar. It is only when we are contrasted with each other that our individuality shines. I believe color acts in a parallel way – it is the interaction of colors that creates their vibrancy. My paintings highlight this vibrancy and the path I take to find it.”
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 24″ x 24″
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 22″ x 22
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 30″ x 40″
Yay Kelly Johnston !!! Mind you, I hope there are other subjects … but these three water paintings are ACE !