It’s Alive! A Century of Animation from the Collectionmoma.org
In 2013 we were honored to be included in MoMA’s Film Archive to preserve and archive the art and films from Buzzco Associates, Buzzco Productions and Perpetual Motion Pictures along with Vincent Cafarelli’s extensive collection of classic animation art from NYC studios like Famous and Fleischer Studios. But we never expected that they would ever be exhibited! Yet...it's happening!!
I couldn’t be prouder to be exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art! And for work done over 40 years ago!
And here's an interview by People Magazine about our contribution.
When Warner Amex approached my boss Buzz Potamkin to create a Top of the Hour spot for a brand new cable station, MTV, I was enlisted. Maybe because I was the youngest animator on staff (and cheapest!), or because he knew I would work my tail off with an impossible 1-week deadline and that I knew the technical intricacies of in-camera and lab testing. Whatever it was— it took off!
Then when Dale Pon started the “I Want My MTV” campaign, he came to us- and thanks to him, support from Buzz, and clients like Fred Seibert and Tom Freston— I had complete artistic control. Something completely uncommon at the time— and boy, did I have fun!
Along with being present at all the shoots in NYC, watching out for potential camera issues —allowing for room for the animated MTV logo — the real pleasure was playing with the images.
But I didn’t do it alone!
At Buzzco Associates, my partners Vincent Cafarelli and Marilyn Kraemer were invaluable. When there had to be more sophisticated animation, I had help from veteran animators like Jan Svochak and background artists like Linda Daurio to work on the animated cuckoo clock shown here. And Cotty Kilbanks and Lisa Geng followed through with the potchke needed on each cel. Not to mention the ink and paint department who xeroxed and painted the animated MTV logo. Always crunched deadlines. Always slim budgets. But massive artistic freedom!
At the same time I was working on my own personal films.
In 1980 I finished “Audition” an 8-minute film describing the dilemma of a 20-something woman deciding between a career and a family—when it really had to be a choice. I thought I was a stand-in for my generation, but quickly learned that people thought it was an exposé of my personal life. And
I was embarrassed and didn’t show it again until the past few years where time has made it no longer about me, but about young women who could identify with it today. Six drawings are on the wall along with the entire film playing on an individual screen with the viewer able to hear the soundtrack on their phone!
The best thing about this is the company I’m keeping— not only are there my heroes of an earlier age (Winsor McCay, Lotte Reiniger, John and Faith Hubley) but folks I grew up with in the indy movement of the 70s and 80s-George Griffin, Mary Beams, Michael Sporn, John Canemaker, Kathy Rose, Jane Aaron, Emily Hubley, David Ehrlich, Sara Petty, Jeff Sherr, Sally Cruikshank) - and some surprises of folks I didn’t know.
They even hung a collage of my late partner, Vincent Cafarelli! And showed a frame from his 26-page Popeye storyboard!
So go see the show! It’s elegantly designed. Well worth the visit. And who knows - it may encourage the Museum to do it again!