Saturday, December 31, 2005

here we go...

I have started to go through my about 50.000
slides ( that is before the digital era ) and it
took me a while to find the fastest way to scan
the important ones. the results will be posted soon.
it's not the most incredible quality, but - it is only
about 1/30 of a sec. per slide compared to 2 min.
of a big scanner. now you know what year I will be
finished!
for me this is not just scanning, it is going back in
time, remembering what happend around that
moment. and connecting all the strings from
the past to now. it is very emotional. you don't
look at your past that close all the time.
anyway - if you enjoy to participate, or if you
were even part of it - have fun, and a thoughtful
moment once in a while.
whenever there is enough time I will continue
this journey through my 'animated' years, so -
please be patient.

it will be a very mixed basket of memories.
from the beginnings with ALFRED J.KWAK,
ROGER RABBIT, BEAUTY + BEAST to
LIONKING, then via AMBLIMATION with
CATS and BALTO to DISNEY in the nineties.
and some other events inbetween.


this is where it all started - in ESSEN WERDEN in
germany, sept.1969. FOLKWANG SCHOOL, - a very well
known artschool, follow-up-school of the BAUHAUS
in dessau before the war. I even had a few teachers
they had started in dessau. and the education-
program was pure BAUHAUS. it was the best time in
my life, being able to draw all day together with
others crazy like me. and the school was something,
it had been a monastery in the 14th century, very
old buildings, with that old smell. the mensa looked
like AUERBACH's CELLAR in THE TALES OF HOFFMAN. and
the whole village of WERDEN in the suburbs of ESSEN
was very charming, with very old pubs and traditional
old houses. we had lots of fun - some of the parties
took place in a house, built in 1377, only 2.50m
wide but 3 stories tall. a lot of the older semesters
met during events like that, from all the other
faculties as well. very similar to the CAL-ARTS school
in valencia/L.A. we had MUSIC, THEATER, DANCE and of
course DESIGN. that included GRAPHIC DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY,
SCULPTURE, PRINTING, TEXTILE DESIGN, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
and PAINTING.
because I had so many friends in all the other faculties
I had a chance to get some 2nd hand education in all
those directions, especially PHOTOGRAPHY, TEXTILE-
and INDUSTRIAL DESIGN. it was a very good school and
a lot of the photography students at that time are
today world famous photographers with MAGNUM and
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. the illustration class was very
well known as well. anyway, at that time we had a lot
of different things than study in our minds.
funny is, that a few years later I started to teach
there myself, part time, animation and comic strip
illustration. and I became very good friends with a
lot of my former teachers.
the school had been integrated into the university of
essen and the old charme was gone.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

d a r k

limbolo's prague pictures were the inspiration
for these 'golem'-mood sceneries.
hope you like them, neil








Friday, December 16, 2005

d r e i

we say in german 'aller guten dinge sind drei',
well, this is blog nr.3 and I hope it will be a good one!
I will start soon with the posting, just arrived back
from L.A. here in manila.