One year he recycled a medicine bottle and made it into a whimsical pig another year a Pringles container was transformed into a dachshund complete with pipe cleaner glasses and a peanut shell for a nose. Growing up, we benefited from his rich imagination and creativity- from his design of our family’s home and garden to the handmade holiday gifts he created for us even when he was in his 90s. Below, they share their thoughts on their father’s legacy and the Doodle: Special thanks to the family of Tyrus Wong, particularly his daughters Kim, Tai-Ling, and Kay for their partnership on this project. Now that the project is over, I’ll miss being immersed in his world, but I hope to carry forward the inspiration I found. I feel like I really got to know him from all the videos and interviews in which he lit up when talking about his creative process. The more research I did on his life, the more impressed I was by the playful and curious way he lived. I tried to imbue the Doodle with this dreamy feeling too. They feel like distant memories that have been committed to paper. Today’s Doodle was heavily inspired by Tyrus’ paintings of forests, which are atmospheric, blurry, and magical. I specifically love how he infused Western illustration with Eastern painting sensibilities it motivates me to think about ways to channel my own Chinese heritage in the stories and artwork I make. Tyrus Wong’s work has inspired me since I first learned about him as a first-year animation student at CalArts. The artist’s contributions to Hollywood went largely unrecognized until 2001, when he was named a “Disney Legend.” Twelve years later, the Walt Disney Family Museum also staged a career retrospective “Water to Paper, Paint to Sky.”Ī message from the creator of today’s Doodle, Sophie Diao: Wong went on to work for Warner Brothers, drawing and painting storyboards that shaped the look of other landmark Hollywood films like The Wild Bunch, Sands of Iwo Jima, and Rebel Without A Cause -all of which earned Academy Award nominations. Unfortunately, when Bambi hit theaters in 1942, Wong was only credited as one of many “background artists,” leading his major contributions to go unrecognized for years. His most notable work was on the Disney film Bambi, where he served as a lead illustrator, profoundly influencing the art of the beloved classic. In 1938, Wong was hired by Walt Disney Studios as an "inbetweener" intern (illustrators who create the sketches between key animator sketches, forming the movement of a character or object), drawi ng thousands of illustrations that were photographed to make animated films. In 1932, Wong’s work was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago along with works by Picasso, Matisse, and Paul Klee. He and fellow artists like Benji Okubo and Hideo Date formed the Oriental Artists’ Group of Los Angeles, organizing shows of their work. In junior high school, Wong earned a scholarship to the Otis Art institute, supporting himself as a waiter in Chinatown. There, he was introduced to his favorite paintings, the spare landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD). After living a short time in Sacramento, they eventually settled in Los Angeles.Īlthough Wong’s father recognized his love of art from an early age, he could only afford for Wong to practice calligraphy using water and newspapers as well as study Chinese art at the Los Angeles Central Library. Drawing inspiration from Chinese artists of the Song Dynasty, Wong applied his unique vision to paintings, prints, and even the Walt Disney film Bambi.īorn on this day in 1910 in a village in southern China’s Guangdong Province, ten-year-old Wong and his father traveled to America seeking a better life. Today’s Doodle honors the life and legacy of Tyrus Wong ( born Wong Gen Yeo) the Chinese-American artist responsible for some of the best-known images in American popular culture. The panda bears, butterflies, and centipedes floating in the breeze were of his own design. Along the beach in Santa Monica, California, on the fourth Saturday of every month, an elderly gentleman could be found flying kites with his wife and three daughters.
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