Joan C. Gratz

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Joan Carol Gratz (born April 6, 1941 in Los Angeles ) is an American artist, animator and film director, who is known for her lavish works in "clay painting".

Life

Gratz studied architecture around 1966 and was already working as a classic animator during this time. She switched from color to modeling clay while working at Will Vinton Studios from 1976 to 1987 . During this time, she was involved as a clay animator in advertising and short films, for example in 1980 on Dinosaurs , on which she worked with chalk, among other things. She was involved in the animation process for the two Oscar-nominated short films in clay animation Rip Van Winkle and The Creation and designed scenes and effects. For The Creation , she first used her animation technique “clay painting”, in which colored modeling clay is treated like oil paint and shapes and colors seem to merge. The modeling clay is applied piece by piece until it forms a surface and then photographed as a "picture"; the animation is done in stop motion . Every motif created in clay painting has to be changed for a new setting and thus destroyed. “In the end there is only one picture while the process was recorded on film. The process is the product, ”said Gratz in an interview.

Gratz founded her own production studio Gratz-Film in 1987 and has since worked regularly on advertising and short films in clay animation. In 1994 Gratz received a Clio Award for her Coca-Cola commercial Heartland . Clay animation sequences by Gratz can also be found in Peter Gabriel's music video for Diggin in the Dirt , which won a Grammy in 1992 , and in the video for John Fogerty's Vanz Can't Dance .

Her greatest success was the short animation film Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase , made in clay painting , in which Gratz merged 35 masterpieces of art. The film received an Oscar in 1993 for best animated short film. "In this short film [...] Gratz explores the human face in painting of the 20th century and manages that her 'visual onomatopoeia' conveys the drawing style and the emotional content of the work of 35 great artists", says Animation Now! It was only in the Puffer Girl created in 2009 that Gratz combined clay painting with digital art forms and used Photoshop and After Effects for animation, among other things.

Gratz lives in Portland , Oregon .

Filmography

  • 1978: Rip Van Winkle - animation only
  • 1979: The Little Prince - animation only
  • 1979: Legacy: A Very Short History of Natural Resources - animation only
  • 1980: The Creation - animation only
  • 1980: A Christmas Gift - animation only
  • 1980: Dinosaurs - A Fun Filled Trip Back in Time - animation only
  • 1988: Candyjam (with Joanna Priestley )
  • 1992: Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase
  • 1993: Pro and Con
  • 1996: Dowager's Feast
  • 2000: Innerplay
  • 2001: Dowager's Idyll
  • 2009: Puffer Girl
  • 2011: Kubla Khan

Publications

  • 2002: Downward-Facing Frog: Yoga Practices and Etiquette in the Animal Kingdom

Awards

literature

  • Gratz, Joan C. In: Jeff Lenburg: Who's who in animated cartoons . Applause, New York 2006, pp. 113-114.
  • Joan Gratz . In: Anima Mundi (Ed.), Julius Wiedemann (Ed.): Animation Now! Taschen, Cologne u. a. 2004, pp. 230-239.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See animest.ro
  2. ↑ "In the end, there is one painting, with the process recorded on film; the product is the process. "Cf. Lenburg, p. 114.
  3. ↑ Joan Gratz . In: Anima Mundi (Ed.), Julius Wiedemann (Ed.): Animation Now! Taschen, Cologne u. a. 2004, p. 230.
personal data
SURNAME Gratz, Joan C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gratz, Joan Carol (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist, animator, and film director
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles