Chuck Redux

Chuck Jones Incognito

"Sunbathers" original watercolor by Chuck Jones

Although Chuck Jones’ film credits identified him for more than six decades as a director of Warner Bros. animated pictures, his stature as a graphic artist is little recognized by the public.  In addition to the trying requirements of any director unifying story, layouts, animation, music, dialogue, etc. into a finished film, he was also personally instrumental in the graphic styling of his pictures. 

"Manhattan Beach" original oil on canvas by Chuck Jones

Dedicated as he was to animation as the new graphic medium of his time, Jones had never forgotten that drawing the land and people around him was imperative to assure new ideas as to shape and color and design.  For many years, he drew and painted the human figure and the landscape in search for new gesture and new expression.  This study is reflected in the freshness of his professional work.

 

"Pigtails & Red Ribbons" original watercolor by Chuck Jones

Steeped in an awareness of the importance of dramatics, humor, action and rhythm in telling an animated story, he managed to instill into his still drawings and paintings these same qualities.

 

 

"Bus Queue-London" original watercolor by Chuck Jones

Although many artists skilled in making still drawings have enriched animation, seldom has an expert in animation contributed so much to the great tradition of the still drawing.  Here, caricature, an essential factor in all great art, has been exploited on a high level.  Penetrating observation reveals new and daring aspects of ordinary people and their actions.  Each drawing is a  statement of an experience and a venture into new graphic structure.  Here, content and form are balanced to insure the intrinsic value of each drawing and painting as a work of art.

Chuck Jones’ letters to his daughter, Linda

 

# 11 Post: (Part Two)

Knowing this I want you to try your best to make a go of this school.  I want you to give it an honest, fair try.  I believe you are doing just this.  I do not believe I am telling you anything you are not already doing.  

Frankly, I know you are disappointed, I know that we all expected too much.  It was pretty naïve to expect perfection.  It was fairy-tale-like not to know that [a magazine article] would accentuate the positive.  

Frankly, I know that you are homesick, as I am homesick for you.  

Frankly I know that you are lonely and that you will remain so until your acquaintanceships solidify.  It is even possible (but not probable) that all the tings that seem so strange now will gradually become the familiar, even that fantastic schedule will lose much of its sting as you settle into it.

You know, I hope, that there is nothing in the foregoing that indicates any need for you to put up with the unbearable.  You are not sentenced to anything.  

I am soliciting your confidence, reasonable or unreasonable.  I am assuring you that you have my perfect confidence, my undeviating respect and of course my deep and untroubled love.  There is no situation, this or any other, that cannot be changed by simply telling me that, in your considered opinion, it should be changed.  You don’t have to explain.  Believe me too, darling, nothing is worth bearing up under just because it cost a lot of money.  That’s like stuffing down a large unpleasant dinner just because it was expensive and because you’ve already paid for it.

[to be continued in Part 3]

Celebrate Arbor Day with Audubon New Mexico & Chuck Jones Gallery

 

Chuck Jones: One Side of the Paper, Please!

By Craig Kausen

I was asked recently about the lore that Chuck only drew on one side of a piece of paper.

The short answer is that, yes, he rarely drew on both sides.

I think from a purely practical point of view having images on both sides of the paper often created a difficulty to view or reference both drawings.  He used to jest that it certainly would have been troublesome if da Vinci had painted the Mona Lisa on one side of a canvas and the Last Supper on the other.

The entire practice of using only one side of a piece of paper actually started for him and his siblings when they were very young.  As Chuck would tell the story, my great-grandfather, Charles Adams Jones, started a new business venture quite often.  Each time he created a new company, he bought reams of new paper and boxes and boxes of new pencils, each complete with the new company name and letterhead.  And, invariably, the new venture would find its demise sooner than later.

He notes in the documentary Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood, “We were forbidden—actually forbidden—to draw on both sides of the paper.  Because, of course, Father wanted to get rid of the stationery from a defunct business as soon as possible, and he brought logic to bear in sustaining his viewpoint: ‘You never know when you’re going to make a good drawing.’”

On a rare occasion, we would find the beginnings of a sketch on one side of a page and a completely different portrayal on the reverse.  I never knew if this was just an abandonment or an oversight as the paper flowed easily through his home studio.

I include here a few sketches from different times of his life as a memory of his creative endeavors on paper…

Chuck Jones’ letters to his daughter, Linda

# 11 Post: (Part One)

Thursday, Oct. 2, 1952

My very very dearest Linda;

This leap-frogging letter routine makes it a little diffi-cult to answer any current problems.  We received your two letters yesterday—one here at the studio, one at home—but in the meantime I had written at least three and possibly four to you.  You will have read and maybe answered some of these by the time you receive this, and so it goes, ad in-finitum.  Which reminds me of a poem that has no bearing on the subject at all:

Dogs have fleas, and fleas have fleas
Upon their back to bite ‘em.
Those fleas have fleas and they have fleas
So on..ad in-fin-i-tum.

Doesn’t scan too well, but it is a lovely thought, isn’t it? 

Now back to the subject:  As I told you in the letter I wrote on Tuesday, there are serious and very real difficul-ties to adjusting to a new environment: in simple terms, it’s tough leaving home. 

I miss you more than I can say and I’m in the same old sur-rounds, everything is the same, except you are missing and it is damned painful and requires some powerful philoso-phizing to make it bearable. 

You, on the other hand, are the only familiar thing in com-pletely alien surroundings.  You are being subjected to a severe, a very severe to you, routine.  Your life at home has been an almost completely relaxed one.  You have come and gone pretty much as you pleased.  You have done almost no chores beyond the simple ones of keeping yourself rela-tively clean.  This has been the pattern of your life and it has been pleasant and fruitful.  Within that pattern you have grown to a fine, relaxed and intelligent girl. 

Eventually, however, you would have had to come up against what you are now encountering.  Sooner or later every per-son who hopes to become a mature adult must subject himself (herself) to discipline.  Not because it is good, particu-larly, but because that is the kind of a life one must live in our society.  For you it is coming early.  Perhaps, if we had known that it was going to be anything like this, we would not have sent you there and you would not have wanted to go.  Then we would have postponed for a while the neces-sity of coming to grips with this thing. 

But if we had, it would simply have been a matter of post-poning the inevitable.  Someday, somehow you would have had to face this situation if you wanted to grow up. 

And let me say now there are many, many people who do not want to grow up.  Among women, particularly, there are too many who simply solve their problems by remaining children. Among your friends here you can probably name several who will undoubtedly do so. 

This is an easy out for a woman because she can generally marry and continue as a kind of housekeeper-daughter to the man she marries.  The man is, as a rule, forced to face the trials and exigencies of life, often in a brutal and terri-fying way if he has been babied by a child type mother.  He is, for instance, often inducted into the Army when he is not much older than you are now and his adoring mother is replaced by a meaty not-so-adoring-sergeant and a pimply bullying corporal, neither very versed in child-psychology.

He is pushed, punched, gouged, driven and snarled at, sneered at and snooped about.  He goes to the toilet in an open john with a long line of toilets side by side with nary a partition.  He almost decides to give up going to the toilet, but finds that nature won’t cooperate.  I do not believe in the military life for most people, but in some cases it has been helpful.  The truth of the matter though, is that this is what a young man must expect in our society, not whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

All right, my dearest darling, my dearest daughter, I love you, I love you, I love you, indeed I love you more than kisses can express or words convey.  When you are unhappy or disillusioned or when things fail to meet your expecta-tions I want to rise up immediately, to buckle on my rusty armour, to fly forth and destroy whatever is bothering you, to set things in apple pie order, to hold you in my arms, to comfort and warm you and indeed these are the things that my heart is doing to you right now.  There are no ‘buts’ connected with this.  This is how I feel, this is how I shall always feel about you.

[…to be continued next time]

Fun Facts About Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are two of the world’s most beloved cartoon foes. This dueling duet made their cinematic debut in Fast and Furry-ous on September 16, 1949. It was almost three years before the next Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner film, Beep, Beep would appear. 

Over a span of fourteen years, their creator Chuck Jones, would direct a total of twenty three short films (1949 – 1963), showing that the food chain isn’t what it’s cracked up to be…at least not for this bewildered coyote. The cartoon Beep Prepared was nominated for an Academy Award(tm) in 1961.

Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese created Fast and Furry-ous as a parody of chase movies that  were popular at the time. Unwittingly, their chase parody was better than the rest and they became the chase films of the 20^th century.  

In his book Chuck Amuck, Jones writes: “I first became interested in the coyote while devouring Mark Twain’s Roughing It at the age of seven. I had heard of the coyote only in passing references from passing adults and thought of it – if I thought of it at all – as a sort of dissolute collie.  As it turns out, that is just about what a coyote is; and no one saw it more clearly than Mark Twain.

Jones also writes: “The author’s (Mark Twain) description of a coyote went like this: 'The coyote is a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton with a grey wolf skin stretched over it…he is a living, breathing allegory of want. Who could resist such an enchanting creature?’"

As for the Road Runner’s trademark sound, “it came from a background artist named Paul Julian,” says Chuck. “One day he was coming down the hall carrying a lot of background paintings and couldn’t see where he was going, so he just went ‘Beep, Beep’. When I heard it, I realized that’s the sound the Road Runner should make."

In animation, it’s important to maintain a consistency with each character. For the Coyote-Road Runner series, Jones and his staff were always cognizant of the following rules:

RULE 1.  The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going “Beep-Beep!”

RULE 2.  No outside force can harm the Coyote - only his own ineptitude or the failure of ACME products.

  RULE 3.  The Coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic. “A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim” – George Santayana.

RULE 4.  No dialog ever except “Beep-Beep!”

RULE 5.  The Road Runner must stay on the road – otherwise, logically, he would not be called a Road Runner.

RULE 6.  All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters – the Southwest American desert.

RULE 7.  All materials, tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the ACME Corporation.

RULE 8.  Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote’s greatest enemy.

RULE 9.  The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures. 

Chuck Jones’ letters to his daughter, Linda

# 10 Post:

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1952

Dearest Linda;

Good old payday!  Your little red radio is on the table behind me, playing “Syncopated Clock”.  I brought it down because the World Series starts today.  However, this is just coming over:  “Mrs. C.F. of Atlanta, Georgia complains of haggard lines around her chin and her skin hangs in folds when she tries to reduce.”  She’s also a “harsh laxative addict”.  Bright kid.

Just turned it off.  From the shape of the last paragraph I don’t have your skill at writing and listening to the radio at the same time.  I find it extremely distracting.

As I look around the room I see four pictures of you and two pictures by you.  The ones you drew for me are both horse pictures (surprise! Surprise!), one an ink drawing and the other one of your early watercolors of two stallions fighting by a cliff edge.  Both surprisingly good, both have always afforded me lots of pleasure. 

The photographs of you start with a two-year-old you  by the fire place at 904 Strand and then the oil sketch I did of you at the drawing board at the big house on Passmore, then the sweet pictures of you when at Valley View (I’d forgotten there were two, that makes five of you in the room) and last the colored one taken, at about eleven I guess, when we were last living at the beach.  In that one you have the first dress, a Lantz that I bought for you with my own little hands.  I need a nice current photo of you; if you get a good one, send it to me, will you?  Or get somebody to shoot one for me.  Tell ‘em I’ll trade a drawing for a good picture.  Nothing like a little bribery.

I’m working on a new Daffy Duck right now.  One in which he again plays the role of Dripalong Daffy, the Masked Avenger.  I love Daffy dearly, he is so completely and foolishly human.  I think he serves to accent all the human frailties and vanities and conceits and is funny doing it.  He’s a pleasure to work on, as oddly enough, is old Porky, who plays a sort of Gabby Hayes part in this film.  Comedy relief for Daffy.

How is it going?  Branded any cattle yet?  Found any heads on the bureau lately?  Friend I used to have when at medical school used to slip a human ear into his girl’s purse when out on a date.

Dammit, I hate to use the same word twice in one sentence, and “used” is such an awkward word at that.

Ione, Donn, Ken, Benny, Mike and of course Dottie send their very, very love.

As do I

Chuck Jones' letters to his daughter, Linda

# 9 Post: 

Tuesday, Sept 30, 1952

Dearest Linda,

Feast or famine!  We feasted last night:  two Linda-letters at one time!  And nice fat juicy ones, too.  We pored over them, read between the lines and enjoyed them fully.

Well, Hell, Linda, I can’t tell whether you’re enjoying yourself or not. No matter how well a letter is written--and yours are superb--it’s a little hard to set your soul down with an Underwood.  My opinion is that you are going through the difficult and often painful readjustment to a new environment and that some of it is fun and more of it is not.  The unfamiliar is usually troublesome at first, until it becomes the familiar.  What appears to be cliquishness at first, often resolves itself into the veterans in a given group of people--like the school--naturally banding together, for the same reason that people who know each other always tend to band together in a crowd.  The newcomer finds himself automatically alone; even another newcomer is not much comfort, as he too is wondering how to break into the golden circle.  I’m not dealing in high philosophy here, Linda, I’m just rattling along about what has been my experience.

If ever I can be of help in any way, please don’t hesitate to write and ask.  Write to the studio if you want to discuss anything quiet and mouse-like.  Great discretion guaranteed.

Interesting sounding animal you have.  Are you partnered with him permanently or can you graduate to something more horse like—say a giraffe?  If it gets unbearable and you can’t get any action, we’ll see what can be done.  We’ll talk about it when we come visiting.  Will it be all right to do so, about the first of November?

Saw two fires on Sunset Boulevard yesterday, one a large refuse truck that apparently was burning from the bottom of its load because the firemen were having one helluva time probing their fire fighting instruments to the bottom without doing the obvious: scattering the stuff all over the pavement and stamping it out.  One of the most useless looking instruments there was a ladder truck. 

The second fire was at Sunset and Gower, the haberdashery just south of Sunset, next to Columbia studios.  I had gone to get a haircut from the good Gus and arrived just in time to see the final embers polished off.  That shop was really gutted.  I’d never known what the word meant before.  It was black and charred inside, like an incinerator.  There were singed sport jackets all over the pavement outside and piles of sport shirts burned neatly up the side of the pile.  A melancholy sight.  Water and sopping burnt clothing and charred wood and broken glass.  What a truly frightful thing fire on the loose can be and what a generous and lovely thing it is when under control.

I love you and enclose a large and slightly damp bundle of kisses….

Thine father,

The Gathering: The Artist's Perspective

Over the past week or so, we have seen quite a bit of attention brought to the Glen Tarnowski painting entitled 'The Gathering.'  I am including the image here again even though it is posted below with the original Tribune article.

What the article did not state as clearly or in as much detail as I would have like is the real inspiration that Glen Tarnowski had when he chose to paint this work of art.

Knowing the true deeper meaning of what Glen intended with the painting along with his passion for Chuck and his work, I know it’s even more important to communicate the intention of the artist.  He did not reconsider his aim after controversy. Instead, he was incredibly thoughtful before he decided to approach this rendition.

Glen is one of the most devout Christians I’ve ever met.  He communicates that his entire purpose for creating his artwork is to raise the human spirit and to inspire the human heart. 

His short answer about his motivation, as stated in the article, is that if we all lived in a world of cartoon characters, God would find a way to communicate to us, to Gather us to Him,” hence, the name of the work, ‘The Gathering”. He added, “God loves us that much, that he would find a way to bring us to Him no matter what or who we are.”

He went on to say:

“God wants to have a relationship with us and wants to Gather us to him.”

“It is so important to recognize that the whole of faith cannot be wrapped up in a painting.  It is so important to realize again what the symbols in a painting are pointing to.”

“We often get so conditioned to see a painting over and over and lose its original meaning.  Perhaps this is an opportunity to revisit what the meaning beyond a painting is.”

“Chuck Jones was the absolute master in using cartoon characters to communicate the issues we deal with in life.  We all resonate with these characters.”

I can guarantee that Chuck would be thrilled with the quality and respect that Glen provides these characters.  Additionally, Glen can, as Chuck would say, “paint his ass off.”  A very tough combination to find: someone who loves Chuck and his cartoons and who can paint that masterfully.

And I’ve been asked why have anyone attempt painting the characters.  Because Chuck is gone from this earth, but his characters are as alive as they’ve ever been.  If I could ask Da Vinci to paint the characters, I would. And I guess that he would have fun doing it.

Just yesterday Glen sent me a note, part of which I am including here. 

Hello Craig:

I hope that all can recognize the eternal Love message of : Philippians 2:⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men (why not a cartoon if necessary). ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man (or in this instance a cartoon character), He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. ⁹ Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

This message of Love is for all with NO STRINGS ATTACHED!

I am both proud to have done the work and proud to be associated with a class organization such as yourself!

Sincerely,

Glen Tarnowski

Glen's short self defined bio:

Age	47
Gender	Male
Status	Married
Children	2
Religion	Walking with Jesus
Education	Graduate Work
Hobbies / Interests	Faith, Family and Friends.
Favorite Artistic Medium	Painting Oil
Favorite Arthistory Movement	Baroque - (1600 - 1750)
Favorite Visual Artist	Rembrandt, Rubens, Dali & Margritte
Favorite Work of Art	Each painting I am currently working on
Biggest Artistic Inspiration	Creation
Why Did You Become An Artist	To create art that encourages, motivates, uplifts, makes one smile, brings purpose, and fills one heart with faith.

Chuck Jones' letters to his daughter, Linda

# 8 Post:

Monday, Sept 29, 1952

Hi!

Pretty bright greeting for a Monday morning, isn’t it?  I feel very – well — peppy this morning.  For one thing, the diet has begun to take hold.  After losing six pounds the first few days, there was a kind of dormant period in which nothing seemed to happen.  It lowered my spirit to go without so many nice things to eat and then seemingly not get results.  But this morning the scales registered 184 ½, just ten pounds from what it said one week ago.  I suppose the body has to readjust itself to the new condition.  Anyway, I am high this morning, both mentally and physically.

We spent yesterday at the [friends’] mountain cabin at Idyllwild, a mountain resort some forty miles beyond Riverside in a branch of the coast range I’ve never encountered before.  It is interesting and beautiful country, a large six or eight mile valley, bowl-shaped, heavily wooded with pine and spruce, no undergrowth to speak of, a good place to ride horse-back.  Very little water in the valley, something I miss after Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.  About five thousand feet, clean sweet air and blue, blue sky, I miss that, too, but I sure don’t know what to do about it.  Send me a small vial of it, will you?

The cabin is just that: a mountain cabin.  No furbelows.  It is rough shakes outside and plywood inside.  Two rooms really, plus kitchen and bath.  The living room has the usual big fireplace complete with moth-eaten, sad-faced deer head.  Lots of old comfortable chairs and sofas, sort of cast-offish.  Skis, bows and arrows, a bunch of paperback mysteries, ski posters from Switzerland around the walls; old beat up rugs on the floors.  Very comfortable, very pleasant, not a bit swank or pretentious, a place to sit in any old clothes, a happy informal gently rundown mountain cabin.  We thought it was swell.

Three of us went for a short ride, got horses from the local stable.  They know the proprietress so we got pretty good horses.  Mine was an odd animal in away because he had a dual personality.  He was a white horse on one side and a pinto horse on the other.  None of his markings passed across from his left to his right side.  It’s really true, Linda, if two people approached this animal from opposite sides each could truthfully sign a statement that would drive a district attorney mad.  “The bank robber was riding a white horse.”  “The man who robbed the bank was riding a pinto horse, dark head, huge brown spot extending up his front leg, from fetlock to withers, dappled tan spots on his flanks.”  Even his tail had some dark hairs on his right side.  Otherwise he was a nice animal with a gentle jog and a lovely canter.  [Our friends] thought I was a pretty good rider, and I knew they were.   He is really a fine horseman.  A good all around athlete, I guess.  Won his letter at USC in water polo, is president of the California Ski Association and also played football.  Versatile, hm? 
 

Doesn’t look like I have much more room on this sheet or much more time before noon.  Dottie is going to try quitting smoking again.  I hope to hell she makes it.

I love you and miss you.  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx