Chuck Redux

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Learning a Little Bit

"I concentrated on learning a little bit about everything that interested me and a lot about drawing until my hand would respond to what my mind dictated and my brain became a treasure house of pertinent trivia.

Chuck Jones, page 10, Stroke of Genius, A Collection of Paintings and Musings on Life, Love and Art

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Small Triumphs

"Childhood is only a series of painful mistakes and small triumphs; I hope that there are others who remember these pains and triumphs with affection."

--Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: I Would Like to Be

"Bugs Bunny is what I would like to be: debonair, quick-witted, very fast on the comeback, a sort of male Dorthy Parker-ish D' Artagnan."

--Chuck Jones

Celebrate Bugs Bunny's 70th at Morgan Hill Exhibition Opening Friday!

The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and the Morgan Hill Downtown Association are joining forces again to bring a new presentation of Chuck Jones artwork to Morgan Hill.

This Friday, August 13th from 7pm to 9pm, celebrate Bugs Bunny's 70th Birthday with Craig Kausen (Chuck's Grandson) at the Mayor's Reception in downtown Morgan Hill.

The event showcases over 100 works of art ranging from original oil paintings to vintage production materials to newly released editions and more...

The Exhibition is located at 17380 Monterey Rd. in the heart of Morgan Hill.

If you're anywhere in Northern California, you'll want to check out this exhibition which runs through September 5th.

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Cringing Little Creature

"Well, it turns out that man, for instance, is not quite the helpless cringing little creature he likes to think he is:  of all the living creatures in the world, from amoeba to sulphur-bottomed whales, man belongs in the top two percent in size and probably in the top half of one percent in ferocity, blood lust and sheer muscle."

Chuck Jones, page 12, Stroke of Genius, A Collection of Paintings and Musings on Life, Love and Art

Video of the Day: How to Talk to Children

Chuck Jones writes in Chuck Reducks how he learned from his Uncle Lynn the best way to talk to children: as you would anyone you encountered, with grace, humility, interest and understanding. 

He writes, "Never in all the years I knew him did Uncle Lynn ever muss my hair or thump my head.  If he had something to say to me when I was half his height, he would sit casually down in a chair, to be level with me.  He never squatted to communicate with me or any child--a demeaning gesture defining the difference in relative statuses.  He never talked down, physically or philosophically, to any human being, any dog, cat, or housefly.  He is the only person I ever knew who would talk to caterpillars, reassuring them of their thrilling future as butterflies.

Another problem with Uncle Lynn was that he made you think.  Most other adults told you what to think, which of course wasn't thinking at all."  

In the video below, Chris Scardino, one of our volunteer Teaching Artists at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, discusses how he integrates Chuck's philosophies into the classes he leads at the Center.  (Video courtesy Nicholas W. Snyder of Chapman University, Orange, California.) 

Exercise no. 4: Monologue Verite from Nicholas W. Snyder on Vimeo.

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: The Geography of Humor

"There is no way to teach anyone how to be funny, write funny or draw funny. There are ways to describe the geography of humor. Where it is likely to be found and more helpfully where it is likely not to be found"

-Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Marvelous Confidence

"I have come to know Bugs so well that I no longer have to think about what he is doing in any situation. I let the part of me that is Bugs come to the surface, knowing, with regret, that I can never match his marvelous confidence."

--Chuck Jones, page 26, Stoke of Genius, A Collection of Paintings and Musings on Life, Love and Art

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Made Us Laugh

"We never stopped to analyze what made our cartoons funny. If they made us laugh, then we hoped the audience would follow."

--Chuck Jones, page 58, Stroke of Genius, A Collection of Paintings and Musings on Life, Love and Art

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Good Drawing

"The whole essence of drawing--and of good thinking, perhaps--is to work a subject down to the simplest from possible and still have it believable for what it is meant to be." 

--Chuck Jones, page 6, Stroke of Genius, A Collection of Paintings and Musings on Life, Love and Art