Now Hare This!

Celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday with the Grinch and a roomful of first graders

On March 1, Pamela Marsden (the Center for Creativity's Program Director) and Cheryl Posner (Executive Director) visited Arica Dowd's first-grade class at Orange County Educational Arts Academy in Santa Ana to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday.

After telling the pajama-clad students about Chuck Jones' friendship with Dr. Seuss--and how that friendship led to the creation of the 1966 animated holiday classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, based on Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's book--Pam read the book out loud, much to everyone's enjoyment.  And then, we all watched the cartoon together.

What a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday!

  

Dr. Seuss characters, names, and all related indicia are trademarks of the 1984 Ted Geisel Trust and Turner Entertainment Inc. copyright 2010.  Please don't steal this image.  No animation directors or storytellers were harmed to create this blog entry.

Our Heartfelt Gratitude

Tempe Center for the Arts: "Chuck Amuck: A Legacy of Laughter" exhibit

Late in his life, Chuck Jones began to receive long overdue accolades for his prolific body of work.  These included a film retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of the Moving Image, London (for which he created, on-site, a multi-story mural of his much-loved Warner Bros. characters,) and an interactive art exhibition at the Capitol Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C.   And of course, there have been multiple film festival tributes world-wide honoring the man who brought you such classic animated fare as “What’s Opera, Doc?” and “The Dot and the Line.” 

But, for the first time, his art (drawings, paintings, writings) and his life (photos and ephemera) along with his film work have been the focus of an exciting triple-site retrospective, lovingly constructed and executed by the amazing curatorial staffs of the Tempe Center for the Arts (Chuck Amuck:  A Legacy of Laughter), Tempe Public Libraries (The Books of Chuck Jones:  Black and White and Read All Over), and Sky Harbor Airport Museum, Phoenix (Chuck Jones:  An Animated Life).  Their obvious love for Jones’ work, along with their creative energy and professionalism, has made these exhibitions a must-see event for Chuck Jones fans around the globe.

 

Sky Harbor Airport Museum: "Chuck Jones: An Animated Life" exhibit

The Board of Trustees of Chuck Jones Center for Creativity would like to particularly thank,

Michelle Dock: Gallery Coordinator of Tempe Center for the Arts;

Lennée Eller: Museum Program Manager of Sky Harbor Airport

These two made these three exhibits exciting, exuberant and exceptional.  Thank you.

Tempe Public Library, "The Books of Chuck Jones:  Black and White and Read All Over" exhibit

The Center for Creativity would like to thank the Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe Cultural Services/Community Services, Tempe Public Library, and Tempe Parks and Recreations for their assistance in bringing Chuck Amuck, A Legacy of Laughter to the valley of the sun.  Of course, there were so many people involved at all three locations: art handlers, registrars, graphic designers, and docents; each and everyone an important facet of the final product.   Here is a list of those who worked so hard to make these exhibitions so beautiful and so successful.

Adrienne Richwine, Cultural Services Deputy Manager

Don Fassinger, Facility Manager, TCA

Mary Fowler, PR/Management Assistant

Kathleen Dooner, Production Coordinator

Sally Garrsion, Front of House Coordinator

Kara Osburn, Box Office Manager

Marilyn Gliddon, Facility Maintenance

Cameo Wall, Administrative Assistant

Suzanne Durkin-Bighorn, Business Development Coordinator

Gail Fisher, Mel Kessler, Diane Cripe: Friends of TCA

Sherry Warren, Tempe Public Library

Clay Workman, Tempe Public Library

Marco Albarran, Gallery

Laura Hukill, Gallery

James Sulak, Gallery

Carrie Meyer, Gallery

Donna Smith, Gallery

Jennifer Campbell, Gallery

Chris Vialpando, Gallery

Sam Carrera, Gallery

Karen Drazek, Intern, Gallery

Christy Brown, Gallery

David Uhley, ASU volunteer

Mary Erickson, ASU/Curriculum Consultant

Kathy David, Tempe High School/Curriculum Consultant

TCA Docent Volunteers

TCA Front of House staff and volunteers

TCA Production Crew

And, yes--all three exhibitions are still open to the public!

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: The Whole Truth

"Johnson demonstrated with such vivid certainty the whole truth of the matter: it is the individual, the oddity, the peculiarity that counts."

-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 Parkerish D' Artagan."

--Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: The Bizarre

"Eschew the ordinary, disdain the commonplace. If you have a single minded need for something, let it be the unusual, the esoteric, the bizarre, the unexpected, such as a cat hooked on grapefruit."

--Chuck Jones

 

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Love Great Comedians

"Why do we love great comedians? Not for what they look like, but for what they do. They are mirrors of what we do, or, in the case of the comic hero, what we would like to be able to do."

--Chuck Jones

Tempe Center for the Arts opens long-awaited Chuck Jones exhibition: "Chuck Amuck: A Legacy of Laughter"

For Immediate Release Mary E. Fowler City of Tempe Management Assistant (480) 350-2880 mary_fowler@tempe.gov TCA gallery features work of Warner Bros. cartoonist CONTACT: Michelle Dock  TELEPHONE: 480-350-2867  TEMPE , Ariz. – The life and work of Chuck Jones, who brought to life the animated characters Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Elmer Fudd and Pepe lePew, will be featured in the exhibition, “Chuck Amuck: A Legacy of Laughter” from Feb. 26 through June 18 at the Gallery at Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway. The public opening will be from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 26 with a free, ticketed film night starting at 7:30 p.m. Craig Kausen, Jones’ grandson and representative of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, will introduce short films created by Jones and share personal stories about his grandfather. Tickets will be available at the door. A Family Creativity Day featuring free hands-on projects for children is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Feb. 27 in the TCA Gallery and Sculpture Garden. The day is presented by the Gallery at TCA, Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and Childsplay Theater of Tempe. ABOUT JONES   In a career spanning more than 60 years, Jones made more than 300 animated films, winning three Oscars as director and in 1996 an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. Among the many awards and recognitions, one of those most valued was the honorary life membership from the Directors Guild of America. During the Golden Age of animation Jones helped bring to life many of Warner Bros. most famous characters—Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. The list of characters he created himself includes Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Pepe le Pew and Michigan J. Frog. He also produced, directed and wrote the screenplays for "Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas," a television classic, as well as the feature-length film "The Phantom Tollbooth." In addition, Jones was a prolific artist whose work has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. OTHER EVENTS   “The Books of Chuck Jones: Black and White and Read All Over” is on display through June 18 at the Tempe Public Library’s newly renovated Youth Library at 3500 S. Rural Road. "Chuck Jones: An Animated Life" is on display at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Museum (Terminal 4, Level 3) at Sky Harbor through May 16. All exhibitions are being presented by the city of Tempe, the city of Phoenix, the Friends of the Tempe Center for the Arts and the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity in Tustin, Calif. INFORMATION  Chuck Jones - www.chuckjonescenter.org  Related Events - www.tempe.gov/TCA/chuckjones.htm Tempe Public Library exhibition - www.tempe.gov/arts/exhibitions/library.htm Phoenix Airport Museum at Sky Harbor - www.phoenix.gov/skyharborairport/community/art-museum.html GALLERY HOURS   10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday Admission is free.

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Haplessly and Hopelessly Hopeful

"We are all haplessly and hopelessly hopeful. We are all to some extent avaricious, mean, traitorous, envious, jealous, but most of these charming characteristics we manage to keep fairly well buried and under control. If one breaks out, we become tragedians. If we keep it under control, we remain comedians. If we are not all of us incipient comedians, why do we laugh at comedy?"

--Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Bringing it to the Surface

"I never had to leave home to develop any character I ever developed or helped to develop. All I had to do was read down inside my own self and there lurking was the essence of Daffy Duck, the Coyote, or Elmer, or the Martian. It was simply a matter of bringing it to the surface."

--Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones Quote of the Day: Not Noted for Triumph

"Most of our characters are not noted for triumph. Inept contenders with the problems of life, all mistake prone, low men on a short and poorly carved totem pole. We recognize their simple ambitions, their public mistakes, I think, help compensate for or at least make understandable our own private mistakes. "

--Chuck Jones