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Too Art for TV

The Animation Industry Escapes the Tube
Opening reception - Friday, January 13th 2006, 7pm-10pm

January 13th through February 13th 2006
Stay Gold Gallery, Brooklyn N

The Stay Gold Gallery rings in the new year shouting Too Art for TV, a visual declaration of self-rule from New York's animation industry. Presenting the animated and painted works of 24 artists from 10 different animation studios around the city, "Too Art for TV" is a multimedia peek into animated minds long repressed by television’s corporate demands.

Tremendous talent is consumed to produce a television cartoon series. Artists in the industry must be the best draftsmen and painters that art schools produce, yet their careers leave little time for individual creativity. "Too Art for TV!" pools together the toys, prints, drawings, paintings, and comics of a talented workforce breaking free.

Featuring the artists that bring to life beloved cartoons such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Fox Network), Code Name: Kids Next Door (Cartoon Network), Stanley (Disney TV), Venture Brothers (Adult Swim), Daria (MTV Animation), Blue's Clues (Nick JR), and more. Join Stay Gold and proclaim their first show of the year "Too Art for TV!"

Curator: Liz Artinian
Assistant Curator: Meredith Rogers

Contributing Artists :
	Liz Artinian graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1997 with a BFA in Illustration. She started in animation as a painter on the animated series Daria (1997) produced by MTV Animation. Liz has since supervised, painted, and/or designed for the following: MTV's Downtown (1998-99), Jumbo Pictures/Cartoon Pizza (Disney's Doug 1997, Pinky Dinky Doo 2005), 4Kids Entertainment (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2004), Scholastic Inc., (Clifford's Puppy Days2005), and Noodlesoup Productions (Venture Bros. 2005-06). In 1999, Liz moved to Armenia to live and paint in the country of her ethnic origin. She returned to New York in 2004 and exhibited her travel- inspired works as part of "Abakah", a group show at the Evan Gallery. Last year Liz took part in another group show called "8", a showcase for the talent behind the Stay Gold Gallery. Liz curated as well as contributed to Stay Gold Gallery's first exhibition of 2006, "Too Art for TV! The Animation Industry Escapes the Tube!, opening January 13th and running through February 13th, 2006. www.lizartinian.com

	Adrian Barrios is a designer and storyboard artist for Fox Network's animated series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", Produced by 4kids Entertainment. Adrian is co-founder of the Independent Animation Company Chickenscratch Animation, whose clients include Warner Bros., Cartoon Pizza, Funny Garbage, Disney Channel, and Scholastic Ent.

	Jennifer Batinich is a Seattle born New Yorker. In 2003, she got her BFA in animation from the School of Visual Arts and proceeded to enter the world of animation in New York. Jennifer's career started at New York based animation studio Noodlesoup Productions, where she was hired as an animation director on the first season of "The Venture Brothers", Cartoon Network's animated series for adults. Jennifer recently completed a season as a storyboard artist for Scholastic's animated series, "Clifford's Puppy Days", and will return to direction at Noodlesoup this fall. After moving to New York City from Seattle in 1999, Jennifer attended the School of Visual Arts, where she received her BFA in Animation in 2003. She has since gone on to work on such productions as Cartoon Network's "The Venture Brothers" as an animation director and Scholastic's "Clifford's Puppy Days" as a storyboard artist.

	Jannica Choi started her artistic career at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2003, after receiving her BFA in illustration, Jannica immediately started working pre-production internships at Cartoon Pizza and TapeHouse Toons. Now Jannica pilots the creative team at 4Kids Productions as the Production Manager on the popular T.V. animated series, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. Her professional energy is also directed toward commissioned paintings and freelance illustration. Outside of the animation and illustration industries, Jannica creates paintings in pursuit of her own artistic vision. Her aesthetic is intensely motivated by representations of her own sexuality, fetishizing, and fantasies, all of which come together in her most current painting series to debut at the Stay Gold Gallery in January of 2006. Jannica also paints subject matter that represents the diverse communities that have involved and inspired her throughout her life experiences.

	Jared works as a freelance animator/designer doing everthing from animated shorts to music videos since starting in the industry in ‘98. Previous clients include, MTV Neworks, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Curious Pictures, Spike TV, Funny Garbage and Augenblick Studios. Jared currently has two of his own cartoons in developement. The “Carneys” with Atomic Cartoons and “Flakes” with Studio B Productions.

	Marina grew up watching Pink Panther and Tom and Jerry cartoons, but her real love for animation came while working at Zagreb Film in Croatia. There her animation career began working on independent animated shorts. Having moved to the US in the 1990’s, Marina worked as a color artist/supervisor at Ink Tank, Curious Pictures, Magnet Pictures, and Disney Television Animation. She helped to establish Noodlesoup Productions, where she currently works as a creative director. She lives in the East Village with her fat cat Marko.

	Tom Eaton started his animation career in production and has remained in the industry for several years as an animator and writer, most recently writing for Cartoon Network’s Codename: Kids Next Door. Tom has animated the title trailer for the Hamptons International Film Festival for two consecutive years, and created animated versions of Brian Alfred’s paintings for an exhibition at Max Protetch Gallery in 2002. He also contributed a segment to Mo Willem’s award-winning jam-animated film, Life. In 2004, Tom wrote and animated his first animated short, Thinking Cap World, and screened it in several festivals. Tom also has trumpeted for indie rock favorites Brother Danielson and Sufjan Stevens, the latter of who contributed a voice to Thinking Cap World. Most recently, he’s animated a segment for a documentary about the Danielson Family. Currently, Tom is working as a script and casting coordinator for PBS’s Maya and Miguel, and is creating a new animated short to debut this winter.

	Jonathan Ehrenberg received an MFA from Yale University’s painting program in 1999. Jonathan had a solo exhibition of his work at the Earl McGrath Gallery in 2001 and was the creative director of "Head Trip", an animated show produced by MTV Animation. Jonathan is currently teaching drawing at the Parsons School of Design.

	Keith Gardner graduated New York’s School of Visual Arts with a BFA in illustration. He got his start in animation as a Production Assistant for Curious Pictures, where he worked on the animated series Sheep in the Big City. Keith moved on to Cartoon Pizza, where he worked again in production. It was there that Keith began doing prop design for animated cartoons such as Stanley, JoJo’s Circus, Pinky Dinky Doo, Hoop Dogz, and Moto-Warriors. Kieth currently is a prop designer for the animated series “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles“ produced by 4 Kids Productions and airing on Fox Network. Outside of animation, Keith is a children’s book illustrator. He has worked on coloring books for Dora the Explorer and Fairly Odd Parents and has completed illustrated projects for Leap Frog Interactive books.

	Christy Karacas is a New York based animator and artist. He studied film and animation at the Rhode Island School of Design. His student film “Space War“ has been featured in numerous festivals and screenings around the world and also on MTV’s “Cartoon Sushi”. It has won several awards including “Best Student Film“ from both MTV Animation and the Nashville Independent Film Festival in 1997. His animated work has been included in numerous screenings and events around the city including P.S.1’s Marvelous Creatures program, Deitch Projects Tedious Limbs (“a collection of the most cutting edge, underground video art being produced today“) and recently in Brooklyn Based Rooftop Films Unspeakable Animation and Walk the Plank screenings. His short films “Space War“ and “Barfight“ are part of the compilation DVD “Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 2: Best of NYC Independent Animation“ which has been part of many festivals and events including the Annecy and Ottawa International Animation Festivals. Christy is currently developing a show for Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim“ block called “Superjail“, making artwork, and playing guitar in the rock band “Cheeseburger“.

	Rick Lacy has worked extensively as part of New York’s animation community. Rick started his career as a character design artist on the first season of "The Venture Brothers". He later became a storyboard artist for various projects at Curious Pictures, and became a storyboard artist for Disney’s Katbot (RIP) as well. Rick has currently returned to the second season of Venture Brothers as a storyboard artist and revisionist. Rick has begun down the long and dark road to professional comic book artistry. Rick’s first professional penciling and inking work will appear in the forthcoming issue of Dark Horse's highly successful Clone Wars Adventures. He has two comic projects currently on the burners. One, a massive adaptation of the Odyssey for Action Classic Comics to be published by Sterling Publications to which he hopes to bring a blend of mythical accuracy and a no holds barred graphicalflair. Two, Rick’s passion project, Labor Days, a series he co-created with long time collaborator and notorious curmudgeon Philip Gelatt. Labor Days takes its influences from an array of sources not least of which is Rick’s overactive imagination. Labor Days is on exhibit at the Stay Gold Gallery through February 13th, 2006.

	David Levy was an Animation Director for the hit preschool show "Blue's Clues", at Nickelodeon Animation Studio in New York. His award winning independent films, "Snow Business" (1998) , "Hortonhow" (2000), and "The Way The Twig Is Bent" (2002), have been seen in festivals in New York and broadcast in Austrailia, Norway, Finland, Belgium and Poland. Levy's latest film, "Stand Clear" (2005), has just begun to make the festival circuit. In addition to writing, creating and producing his own films, Levy has animated for HBO, Scholastic, and NBC's Saturday Night Live. David Levy has been President of the New York chapter of Asifa International since September 2000. He teaches animation classes at New York's Parsons School of Design and The School Of Visual Arts. In the Spring of 2006, Levy will be the published author of "Careers In Animation: How To Survive And Thrive" (Allworth Press). Levy is currently working at Cartoon Pizza in New York, directing an upcoming Flash animated series for MTV Networks.

	Miguel Martinez-Joffre is part of the permanent supervising team at Noodlesoup Productions and has directed animation on all their major projects, including the current “The Venture Bros.”. Prior to Noodlesoup, Miguel worked as an animation director at MTV Animation on “Beavis and Butthead”, “Beavis and Butthead do America”, and “The Maxx”. He was also a design supervisor at Disney Television Animation on “PB&J Otter”, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”, “Doug’s First Movie,” “Doug”, and “101 Dalmatians”. Miguel is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts.

	In 2004, Jessica Milazzo received a Postgraduate Degree in Character Animation from Central St. Martins College in London, part of the recently renamed University of the Arts in London. She adds this to a BFA in painting and an AA in Graphic Design. Jessica co-created and illustrated Patchouli, an online and later printed comic series, distributed worldwide through Diamond Distributing. She recently finished working for Cartoon Pizza as an animator on the flash animation series “Pinky Dinky Doo”, airing on Noggin and the BBC this year. Jessica is currently working on The Fabulous Adventure of the Box Kitten, a mini-comic project inspired by true friends.

	Joe Minkiewicz received his BFA degree in Communications Design from Pratt Institute in (what year?). While a student, Joe had the opportunity to study under Dave Passalacqua and Ronnie Lawlor, two of Pratt's most influential figures in the world of art and design. Joe, in part due to their careful tutelage, had the honor of being chosen as a finalist in the annual Society of Illustrators student competition.

	Adam Moser graduated New York's School of Visual Arts in May of 2004 with a BFA in Animation. While an SVA student, Adam interned at 4kids Productions for over a year. After graduating SVA, Adam was hired onto the 4Kids team as a timing assistant for the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" the animated television series. Adam is now a design coordinator for TMNT. After hours Adam maintains his artistic sanity by developing his own drawing, painting and animation projects. He is also developing a live-action feature film screenplay about an actor’s desperation to salvage both a Hollywood career and a relationship with his daughter.

	On her way to law school, Abigail took a slight detour, and wandered into the world of animation. She quickly began work as a stop-motion animator at Curious Pictures Inc. There she worked on shows and commercials for HBO, AT&T, Filemaker and Disney. Soon after, she moved to 2D series animation where she joined the storyboard department of “Sheep in the Big City” for Cartoon Network. Abigail has since done storyboards for Disney’s “Stanley”, Mattel’s “Barbie Movie” and Cartoon Network’s “Codename: Kids Next Door”, where she is currently employed. She still finds herself wondering about the more structured life of law, but is then comforted in the knowledge that no amount of formal schooling could prepare her for the fact that Dr. Doom and Mr. Fantastic were actually college roommates. Abigail’s pieces are childhood memories of her father, Murray B. Nesbitt, whom she lost last year to cancer. It was his love for living that inspires her every day.

	Phil Rynda studied traditional animation at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Even before graduating in 2003 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, his clients included Altoids, Kraft Foods, Nintendo, and AT&T. He studied under illustrator James McMullan and soon was guest lecturing and teaching classes at SVA. His passion for animation has brought him to Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Cartoon Network, Disney, King Features, Miramax Films, and Adult Swim. His work can be seen on Cartoon Network's, "The Venture Bros." He is currently character designer on "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" and is a faculty member of The Entertainment Art Academy in Pasedena California. Phil's work has brought him numerous rewards for "Wade Hixton's Counterpunch" on Nintendo's Gameboy Advance, and a 2004 Addy Award. Outside of his proffessional work, Phil has a great interest in classic cartooning on an international scale. His collection dates as early as 1906 and includes work from South America, Asia, Europe, and the US. His animation background and studies of cartooning have affected his current work exponentially, and much is inspired by popculture of the 30s through 50s.

	John Schnall was born Jan. 13, 1961 (yes, it was a Friday...) Director/producer: 13 independent animated short films: recipient of over 60 Film Festival awards and honors. Four films screened theatrically in feature film compilations throughout the US. Rex Reed once called one of his films “terri-” (He was going to say terrific, but Bill Harris cut him off...) Upon seeing one of his films, Henny Youngman approached him about making a film of his “doctor” jokes (“Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” “Then don’t do that.”) (The project never happened...) Minute long film “NYC:9/11” led the special programming on Cinemax on 9/11/02. Director: “JoJo’s Circus” for Disney Channel, 31 animated projects for “Sesame Street” (including “Global Thingy”, a series of minute long shorts produced by Cartoon Pizza), several music videos. Animator on lots of commercials, tv show openings and other projects (including several Honda commercials in Keith Haring style, two seconds of animation for “Oprah”...). Producer: Midnight Matinee on WFMU fm: weekly radio collage of music, movie sounds and annoying loops. Also: The Phone Jam, where listeners would call up and play music into their telephones, jamming with other listeners in an hour-long conference call. Producer: soundtracks for several MTV projects, commercial reels and sundry. Magician/ventriloquist for children’s birthday parties.

	PeeDee Shindell paints representations of imaginative biology, alien physiognomy and speculative zoology. Strange subjects and dark mindscapes are his long time obsessions, as are pencil drawings of all kinds that are high in detail. PeeDee’s desire is to visually externalize the internal. PeeDee’s inspiration begins in old alchemy textbooks and can span may sources, including modern yoga catalogues. As his subject takes shape, his pencil sketches are slowly built upon with watercolor. In this way PeeDee searches for a translucent, otherworldly feeling to appear on his paper. His pieces are all brought to completion on 300 ply watercolor paper.

	Chris Siemasko is a New York based Cartoonist, Animator, and Director from Connecticut. After Graduating the Art Institute of Philadelphia, he joined Heavy.com, directing 20 episodes of the web cartoon, "Behind the Music that Sucks" and "The 125th Annual Maxim Awards" special. He later became Xeth Feinberg's assistant on the second season of "Queer Duck" and is now an animator on Cartoon Pizza's "Pinky Dinky Doo". His first short film, "The best girlfriend ever" was selected for the 2005 Nashville Film Festival. In 2004, he co-directed a Toyota Tacoma commercial through Buck of Los Angeles. Chris is also represented by Noodlesoup Productions as a commercial director.

	Justin was born and raised in western Massachusetts where he took an early liking to art, which he expressed by drawing all over the walls of his parents’ house. He pursued his love of art further by studying at the University of Massachusetts, followed by Vancouver Film School, where he honed his animation skills. Following his travels abroad, Justin settled in Boston MA working on shows for Cartoon Network and B.E.T. He then got the opportunity to live and work in New York City and has no intention of leaving any time soon. Being in NYC has allowed him to work on projects for Nickelodeon, Noggin, and MTV networks, doing everything from storyboarding, layout, character design, creating animatics, to finished animation. Today Justin continues to create short films and make his way around the Festival circuit. Long term plans include getting a show of his own picked up by a network, finishing a children’s book or two, and finding more time in the day to work on pieces to exhibit.

	Kathleen Tyler graduated Pratt institute in 2004 with a BFA in illustration. She quickly started her career in animation at Cartoon Pizza, the New York based animation studio responsible for “Disney’s Doug”, and “JoJo’s Circus”. It is there that Kathleen headed the prop and character color department for the animated series "Pinky Dinky Doo", a show for preschoolers due to air internationally this year. Kathleen is an artist fascinated by color, drama, and movement. She is currently developing a series of paintings inspired by the Russian-American ballet choreographer George Balanchine. This work will debut as part of the Stay Gold Gallery's Animation Exhibition in January of 2006

	Vanessa Van Der Baan is a New York based animator and fine artist. Curious Pictures, an animation studio in the city, has been her professional home for the last seven years. Currently Vanessa works as a background painter for their series "Code Name: Kids Next Door" airing on Cartoon Network. Outside of animation Vanessa is a children’s book illustrator and an avid photographer.

*These images represent the artists. They are not necessarily the works that were exhibited in the show.