March/April Monday Afternoon Classes at the Center

Join us on Mondays from 3:30-5:00 at the center.  Students (7-15) will learn drawing techniques inspired by  Chuck Jones to be used in character development and  visual storytelling. No experience necessary.

March   5: Shapes and gesture

March 12: Character development

March 19: Comic panels and storyboard

March 26: Preparing characters and props

April 9: Background painting

April 16: Filming

April 23: Filming

April 30: Filming and upload

$120 pre-registration for the 8 weeks ($15 per class)

$17 per class pre-registration (single class)

$20 drop-in (as space allows)

Red Dot Auction VIII--Call for Artists!

Dear Artists and Friends of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity,Preparations are underway for the Eighth Annual Red Dot Auction benefiting the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, scheduled for Friday, May 11, 2018.

Today we’re writing to ask you to donate a work of art to this year’s Red Dot Auction.  We’re changing up the overall theme from the Life & Times of Chuck Jones to his Golden Age Decade, the 1950s. Any of the over 90 cartoons Chuck Jones directed during the years 1950 – 1959 are fodder for your imagination. A list of the cartoons is available online at the link at the bottom of this post.  

There will be five categories this year:

Landscape – predominant theme in landscape, seascape, urban-scape; may include cartoon character(s)

Portrait – may be a self-portrait or the portrait of another person or cartoon character

Homage – to an art genre, specific artist, or live action film

Assemblage – collage using unconventional materials—take something and make something new out of it or its parts

3D – we’ll provide an 8” 3D “Cre8ive Peeple” (see below) to be painted and enhanced as you envision

There are only 30 spaces available in each of the five different sections, all requests for a specific section will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Go to this webpage to submit your request: Red Dot Auction 2018. 

The canvas provided for the first four sections will be a 12” square and as last year, we ask that you sign the artwork on the reverse.  For the 3D object, please sign the bottom of the object. HOWEVER, new this year, you may choose to work in any size canvas or other substrate you'd like to provide yourself. 

You may prefer to work on paper or another substrate and that’s fine, as long as we can mount it to the 12” square canvas for presentation the night of the event. The artwork should be signed on the reverse so that bidders at this silent auction will not know who has created which work of art.

Won't you share your gifts with us and with the Center's supporters and patrons?  If you will, please submit your information and section request by clicking here. 

Canvases are due back no later than Monday, March 27, 2018! Again this year we will bring the Red Dot Auction online for pre-bidding only. This online auction will go live mid-April 2018 and end the evening of Tuesday, May 8, 2018 In order to be included in it, your artwork must arrive no later than March 27, 2018.  

And again this year a commemorative poster, similar to the one shown, will be printed; 30 canvases will be selected to represent this year’s Red Dot Auction. Two of the posters will be produced and sold the evening of the event. To be considered for inclusion, your artwork must arrive no later than March 15, 2017.

Thank you in advance for your generosity, time, and commitment to the vision of the Center.

Exercise Your Genius!

All the best, Robert

Robert@ChuckJonesCenter.org

Chuck Jones Filmography by year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Jones_filmography.

Submit your section and substrate requests here, Red Dot Auction 2018.

Be a Junior Animator! 8 Week Course Announced for 2018!

The Chuck jones Center for Creativity is excited to offer "Junior Animator--Bringing Characters to Life with Motion!" at their Costa Mesa classroom this January and February 2018. This after-school class will meet from 3:30 PM to 5 PM every Monday in January and February 2018 beginning with January 8. Led by one of the Center's remarkable and experienced teaching artists, "Junior Animator" will be a hands-on learning experience for students ages 7 to 14. Space is limited to just 12 students, so sign up by clicking HERE today! The full 8-week program is only $120 ($15 per class) or $17 per individual class when you pre-;pay. Drop-in fee is $20 per class if space allows. An excellent stock-stuffer for that hard-to-buy-for animation artist in your family. Click HERE to reserve their space at "Junior Animator"!

Let Me Tell You About Todd...

Dear Supporter of the Chuck Jones Center,Today, I want to share a special story that demonstrates how the Center for Creativity can enhance the lives of children on the autism spectrum, after which I’d like to ask for your help to expand this type of impact in our community.

Let me tell you about Drew, my son, who is on the autism spectrum, and his friends. As we’ve come to learn over the years, young people with autism, like Drew, face imposing challenges. Physical and social awkwardness. Rejection and solitude. Friendlessness. Hyperstimulation. Attention deficit. Anxiety. Depression. All coupled with a fear of entering new situations and encountering new people.

Because we believe that these special young people deserve to socially engage -- and that creative activities help make that happen for them -- my wife and I, with some trepidation, planned a creative workshop for “our kids” at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. Once we arrived, something truly miraculous happened. Thanks to the welcoming atmosphere and the encouragement of our art guide, Drew and 15 other kids just like him overcame their fears—and emerged from their cocoons.

They didn’t draw, paint or build alone, they engaged with each other. According to one mother, her son Todd talked freely with other children for the first time, instead of quietly sitting in the corner of the room. Todd and his newfound friends worked together to construct a “laser gun”—on the way to capturing the Road Runner. He laughed and smiled. For more than a week thereafter, his teachers commented on how buoyant and forthcoming he was in class. They marveled and wondered why. Todd, as his mother related, said: “I really like being creative, mom. It makes me feel good.”

I can’t imagine a stronger endorsement of the Center. However, these programs don’t happen without cost. We’d like to plan next quarter’s creative workshop for those on the autism spectrum. I am asking you today to join me and others like you in donating whatever amount you can afford, to help make that workshop happen.

Todd and Drew are looking forward to meeting up again at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and to exercising their creative genius. Your support today can make that happen as well as furthering our ability to serve youth in the community with our after-school enrichment programs, and seniors through our healthy brain-aging programs.

Your contributions to the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity of time, talents or money matters greatly. The work of the Center couldn’t happen without you.

Our programs can impact children from every demographic, every educational ability, and all walks of life.

Please click the Donate Today button on the top right of the Home page to make your donation. If you’d like to support the Center by giving of your time and talents, please contact Cyndi Burgess at 949-660-7793 or at Cyndi@ChuckJonesCenter.org for more details.

Sincerely,

Mike Smith

Board of Directors, Chuck Jones Center for Creativity

Beverly Hills Women's Club Gets Creative!

The Creativity Kit for children took shape earlier this year when we participated in UCLA's Social Enterprise Academy. Our student team developed several different social enterprise business ideas for the Center, and although it was not chosen, the Creativity Kit, and its concept percolated in the idea-verse. The idea of a Creativity Kit took shape with a visit to the UCLA Pediatric Coronary unit and became reality when UCLA put the Center together with the Beverly Hills Women's Club.Craig Kausen, chairman of the Center and Chuck Jones's grandson, along with toy designer and conceptualist, Frank Howa, designed and developed the box and the contents of the Creativity Kit. It contains crayons, Model Magic, pencil, drawing paper, coloring book, yarn, Wile E. Coyote stickers, a make-your-own flip book, and much, much more.

The members of the Beverly Hills Women's Club assmebled 300 of them for distribution this holiday season to young patients at the UCLA Mattel Chidlren's Hospital.

"The funnest Sunday afternoon you'll have all year! Five Carrot rating!" --Bugs Bunny

CAN YOUR FAMILY COME OUT AND PLAY?Play It Forward, a “Spook”tacular FUNdraiser for Creativity

Benefitting the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity

Costa Mesa, CA: “It looks like you’re having fun,” was one of the highest compliments given by famed artist, author, and educator, Don Graham, to his students when the work they were doing showed promise. Having fun is an important part of creative endeavors at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. “Play It Forward, a FUNdraiser for Creativity—will benefit the programs of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, a 501(c)3 public charity,” says Craig Kausen, Chairman of the Board and grandson of Chuck Jones, “everyone remembers knocking on your best friend’s door and asking, ‘can Johnny come out and play’. That’s exactly what Play It Forward is for, having fun and playing, while paying it forward.”

A carnival atmosphere focused on Halloween will pervade this family-friendly event where you and your children will be able to participate in creativity stations throughout the 6000 square foot Center. There will be mask-making, trick or treat bag and faux pumpkin decorating, “Day-of-the-Dead” skeleton head decorating, wire art, lyric-writing, toy-making, animation light-table drawing, and a stop-motion animation station where you’ll be able to make your own cartoon using some of Chuck Jones’s favorite characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, and the Road Runner.  

Play It Forward, a FUNdraiser for Creativity, will be open from 1 to 4 PM on Sunday, October 22 at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, 3321 Hyland Ave., Suite A & B, Costa Mesa, Ca. Tickets are $50 per family, regardless of the number of members, and will include a “Mix-Your-Soft-Drink bar, Popcorn, and a Decorate Your Own Brownie station. Plus, there’ll be live music provided by Music Vault Academy! Tickets available at PIF4Creativity.org.

Monday After School Classes at the Center in October & November

We are kicking off the school year with a Stop Motion Animation series during the month of October. Over the course of 5 weeks, students (7-15) will transform their hand drawn concepts into moving animation utilizing a computer application.No experience necessary.

Mondays 3:30-5:00 PM

October   2:   Animation Sequencing

October   9:   Story Development

October 16:   Backgrounds and Filming

October 23:   Filming

October 30:   Finishing Touches and Upload

TO ENROLL, visit the CLASSES tab of our website at ChuckJonesCenter.org or our program manager, Cyndi Burgess. 949-660-7793 or Cyndi@ChuckJonesCenter.org.

$75 PROGRAM PRE-REGISTRATION (5 classes @ $15 each)

$17 CLASS PRE-REGISTRATION (single)

$20 DROP-IN (as space allows)

We continue our studio classes during the month of November with a 4 week series in CARTOONING.  Join us on Mondays from 3:30-5:30 in the gallery. Students (7-15) will learn drawing techniques inspired by Chuck Jones to be used in character development and visual storytelling.

No experience necessary.

Mondays 3:30-5:00

November   6: Shapes and Gesture

November 13: Caricature

November 20: Character Design

November 27: Comic Panels

TO ENROLL, visit the CLASSES tab of our website at ChuckJonesCenter.org or our program manager, Cyndi Burgess. 949-660-7793 or Cyndi@ChuckJonesCenter.org.

$60 PROGRAM PRE-REGISTRATION (4 classes @ $15 each)

$17 CLASS PRE-REGISTRATION (single)

$20 DROP-IN (as space allows)

Leigh Rubin, Creator of "Rubes", Appearing in Wisconsin! Moo!

Friend of the Center and comic genius, Leigh Rubin, creator of "Rubes" cartoons will be appearing in Wisconsin from October 2nd through October 11th. He is a must see! For more information, visit: http://www.rubescartoons.com/events.html

What Will Your Photobomb Be?

This is a big month for the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity!Along with our participation in this year’s Festival of Children—be sure to stop by on Saturday, September 9 between noon and 4 PM at the Carousel in South Coast Plaza—we’ll have a fun, easy creative activity in progress—we have a great opportunity to win a $50,000 grant from Festival of Children Foundation by participating in their NCAM Photobomb Challenge. But we need your help!

During September, you can upload your favorite photobomb photo or video to indi.com/2017ncamchallenge and select the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. If we are the first charity to win an “Indi Buzz” score of 500,000 we will win the $50,000 grant to spread more CREATIVITY to the children who need it most.

SPREAD THE WORD! This is where you can help:

Upload your favorite photobomb to indi.com/2017ncamchallenge and select Chuck Jones Center for Creativity.

Create “Indi Buzz” around your photo or video by sharing on your social media. The more likes, comments, reposts, etc., the more the score will GROW!

Want to get extra CREATIVE? Use the Looney Tunes characters and/or backgrounds shown in this blog post to enhance your photobomb! Remember to include © Warner Bros. in your photo or video bomb if you do use these images.

You can share as many photobombs as you want. Use #NCAMCHALLENGE when sharing to stay connected.

We hope you’ll take advantage of this great opportunity to help the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity win $50,000 by exercising your genius! Thank you for helping us make a better, more productive and creative world.

June Foray--A Remembrance by Craig Kausen

I truly feel as though we lost part of the family yesterday as June Foray, at the age of 99, passed away.Of all of the people that Chuck worked with throughout his career, June is by far the person that I became closest to.  I remember her perfectly at the premiere of "The Phantom Tollbooth" in Hollywood when I was 7 years old and my memories of her and with her only grew from there.

In an interview a couple of years ago, I was asked about June Foray and what came to mind that day was that she always said "yes" to whatever was requested.  Can you come to screening? Can you take a call from a fan? Can you do an interview?  Every time she said yes.  She was the epitome of a living, giving star in Hollywood.  Others will recap her accomplishments and certainly there are so many, but my memories of June are all about her sincerity, her passion for everyone she worked with and her genuine loving spirit she shared with everyone.

She and Chuck were dearest of friends and they had a professional love and respect for each other seldom equaled.

The last time I visited June along with my mother, we went to dinner with her, her sister, and brother-in-law at their favorite restaurant in the Valley.  We spent time at her house and then all went to dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon.  The stories, the banter, the laughter never stopped and it was a wonderful way for me to have a final personal memory of my time with her.  

I am sure, just like I still do with Chuck, I will pick up the phone to call her and regardless that she is not physically there, she, along with Chuck, will continue to live on through the wonderful memories (and a lifetime of work) she left behind.

My deepest condolences to all that loved her..

How You Can Change the Life of a Child

Did you know that arts education aids students in skills needed in life and the workplace: flexibility, the ability to solve problems and communicate, the ability to learn new skills, to be creative and innovative?And that youth who participate in arts and creativity learning are:

Four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement

Four times more likely to participate in a math and science fair

Three times more likely to win an award for school attendance and four times more likely to perform community service.*

Did you know that in spite of the facts, funds for arts education have been slashed?  School funding for after-school programs of all types have been cut. 

Currently, the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity provides our successful and transformative art-making programs to schools who have the funding, such as Huntington Beach, Irvine and Tustin. 

BUT we want to be able to offer our programs to all area schools, especially those serving low-income, at-risk youth,  who have no funding for after school programs, such as Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Compton and many more. It is up to us to fill this crucial gap in arts education. And that is why we're writing to you today.

We offer seven after school programs designed to nurture creativity in various forms of art-making for young students.

These are the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity After School Enrichment Programs:

Exercise Your Genius                         

Be a Junior Animator

Paint Like Picasso                              

Planet X and The Third Dimension

Daffy’s Lasting Impression                 

Let’s Have Fun Cartooning

Acme Inventors

Programs are one hour in length, for 6 to 8 weeks (determined by each school) and are offered fall through spring.  Each program reaches 18-24 students.  Our approach is process-driven …. the fun & discovery is in the hands-on activities, not the final product.  These programs teach techniques that enhance each student’s ability to visually articulate personal expression. We provide a trained and qualified Teaching Artist, a Teaching Assistant and all materials for a one-hour program for 8 weeks for 18-24 students for the cost of $300. This is only $12.50 per student. 

Will you help make a difference?    Please donate today. 

Yes!   I wish to support Back to School Art Enrichment Programs by making a tax- deductible contribution to The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity.

Your generous support will provide the following:

_____   I wish to support two students in one after school class with a donation of $25.00  

_____   I wish to support four students in one after school class with a donation of $50.00  

_____   I wish to support one student for a 6- week program with a donation of $75.00  

_____   I wish to support two students for a 6- week program with a donation of $150.00  

_____   I wish to sponsor one after school class for twenty four students with a donation of $300.00  

_____   I wish to sponsor twenty four students for an entire 6-week program with a donation of $1800.00  

_____   I wish to sponsor twenty four students for an entire 8-week program with a donation of $2400.00  

For a donation of $1,000 or more, you may designate a school or school district. Please contact Programs@ChuckJonesCenter to make those arrangements.

The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, a public charity founded in 1999 in Orange County California, fosters and teaches creative thinking, the thinking behind problem-solving. Creativity is like a muscle in your brain- it needs exercise to get and stay healthy. The Center serves as a “gymnasium for the brain”.  Exercise your genius!

Thank you for your generous support to the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, a nonprofit public charity, tax ID #45-982522. 

*(Study by Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching)

Are You "All In"?

The 1st OCCASIONAL FUNDRAISING POKER TOURNAMENTBenefiting the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity

Costa Mesa, CA: Join the Center for Creativity for an evening of poker with optional “Play-In” opportunities on Monday, June 19th from 6 to 11 PM (ish).  This is a poker tournament fundraiser with the opportunity to increase your initial chip stack by competing in optional play-in game tournaments.

Play-in games begin at 6 PM and end at 7:45 PM; poker tournament begins at 8 PM. There are three Play-in tournaments and are intended to be double elimination: Ping-Pong, Darts, and Cornhole (timing and expectations of all Play-in tournaments shall be subject to change.)

Win prizes! The final table winners will all win prizes! 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will choose from: 3 Angels tickets to Angels vs. Boston on July 23, 2017, a $180 value; Signed, hand-painted Chuck Jones cel art edition, “All In”, framed, value: a lot!; XS Scuba Gift Package; SoCo Restaurant Gift Cards; Home Cotton Candy Machine as well as other prizes.

Buy-ins are: Poker $100 for 1000 chips; Re-buys $40 (1000 chips); Play-in Games for $40 each game (200 chips each game guaranteed); All 3 Play-in Games for $100. Play-in Games First Place winner receives an additional 1000 chips; 2nd place 500 chips, and 3rd place 250 chips.

The evening includes food and beverages, poker prizes, bragging rights, participation in raffles for more prizes! Transportation by Uber recommended. Registration is limited to 32 players. Register at www.CharityAuction.bid/CJCCPOKER, and registrations closes Friday, June 16. The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, 3321 Hyland Avenue, Suite A, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. ChuckJonesCenter.org.

"At-Hope" Youth Overcome Obstacles

On Tuesday, June 6, the Chuck Jones Gallery in San Diego hosted a reception for the publication and release of "Presence: An Invitation to Be Your Creative and Authentic Self". This anthology along with related stop-motion animated films were the product of a collaboration between the nonprofit Words Alive! of San Diego County and the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. Each year, Words Alive! works with "at hope" youth, youth who have been or are incarcerated, in foster care, or out on parole, helping them achieve and succeed in school. For 18 years, Words Alive has been an ardent leader in the movement to make reading matter for families, children and teens in San Diego County, giving them the necessary tools for success and the ability to transform their lives. A key component to making this happen relies on our partnerships and collaborations with the community. Our longest-standing partner in this effort has been with Momentum Learning (Juvenile Court and Community Schools) through our Adolescent Book Group and writing program. Designed to reinforce the act and practice of reading and writing within a population of teens who face extraordinary circumstances, trained facilitators spend many hours each month delivering a specially-designed curriculum to over 350 students, reigniting their interest in reading. The collection here — letters the students penned themselves to accompany the animated short films they created around the theme of “presence,” represents many months’ work with Words Alive writing instructors alongside our partners at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. Always identifying deeper and more meaningful ways to connect to text and to support the students’ storytelling ability, the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and Words Alive developed this opportunity for students to explore creative and transformative avenues of expression and understanding.

It was an awesome partnership! To view a selection of the student films on YouTube, click here. To purchase the anthology, "Presence: an Invitation to Be Your Creative and Authentic Self", click here. The anthology is the most hopeful book you'll read this year, it's highly recommended!

Here's an example of one of the poems you'll discover in the anthology:

"I am mad and frustrated, I wonder if I have to do this, I hear my teacher nagging, I see a blank paper, I want to do something, I am mad and frustrated.

"I pretend to do my poem, I feel my paper, I touch my pencil, I worry I'll fail this assignment, I am mad and frustrated.

"I understand that I should do this poen, I say I can't, I dream I could, I try my best, I hope I finish, I am mad and frustrated." --Dylan

From the Linda Jones Clough Archive: Mammoth Lake

Linda Jones Clough continues to sort through her archive of memorabilia and ephemera to share with us. In this photo, taken in 1941 at Mammoth Lake, we find Chuck Jones, standing far right back row, with members of his Unit A taking a holiday at California's Mammoth Lake. Back row from left: Ben Washam, Harry (last name unkown), Alta Harris (wife of Ken Harris), Beverly Monroe (wife of Phil Monroe) and Chuck Jones. Front row: Rudy Larriva, Phil Monroe, Katherine (last name unknown), and Edeline Washam (Ben's wife). This is a list of the cartoons released in 1941 from Chuck Jones's Unit A: "Elmer's Pet Rabbit", "Sniffles Bells the Cat", "Joe Glow, the Firefly", "Toy Trouble", "Porky's Ant", "Porky's Prize Pony", "Inki and the Lion", "Snowtime for Comedy", "Brave Little Bat", "Saddle Silly", and "Porky's Midnight Matinee".

Storyboard Workshops with John Ramirez!

Learn from the best!In conjunction with the Art Institute of Orange County, the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity is pleased to present a storyboard workshop with John Ramirez at the Art Institute of Orange County on Saturday, July 8 and Saturday, July 15, 2017 from 9 AM to 12 PM. The workshop on the 8th is designed for students 13 and younger; the one on the 15th for students, ages 14-19. The workshops are limited to only 24 participants. Reserve your space today by clicking here. 

Ramirez's work can be seen in Toy Story II and Beauty and the Beast, among other animated film projects. He is an award-winning theme park and Rose Bowl float designer. He cites Chuck Jones as one of his major influences. 

Class to take place at Art Institute of Orange County campus, 3601 W. Sunflower Avenue, Santa Ana, CA 92704. Call the Center with questions or for more information.949-660-7793 x 1007. Reserve your space by clicking on this sentence.

Presence: An Invitation to Be Your Creative and Authentic Self

Words Alive, a leading literacy organization, provides integrative literary programming within 16 classrooms in Momentum Learning (formerly Juvenile Court & Community Schools), which includes a book club, writing program and annual arts project. Through this comprehensive programming, students experience attitudinal shifts toward reading, their education and futures, in addition to building upon their vocabulary, critical thinking, literary analysis and soft-skills.Each year through the Teen Services art program, our students have an opportunity to look at literacy through a different lens and find meaningful relationships to books and the world. As part of the arts program, students have an opportunity to make intrinsic connections to written text through a form of art they create.

This year, students will design their own stop animation film through a partnership with the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. With this project, we focused on the theme "presence," and students read and discussed several prolific texts, including Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates), The Crossover (Kwame Alexander) and Letters to a Young Artist (Anna Deavere-Smith) with groups of trained volunteers in the classroom.

Students wrote a letter about themselves to a person or place of their choice. The letter served as a basis for the subsequent art project: the animated films. As a culmination of text, book discussion and art, students will have an opportunity to showcase their animated films at an event, open to the public, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 6 at the Chuck Jones Gallery (232 Fifth Ave, San Diego, CA 92101) with an online gallery available on the Words Alive website to follow: www.wordsalive.org.

To learn more about the reception at the Chuck Jones Gallery and to RSVP, click here.

Drawing Like the Pros!

We continue our children's drawing classes during the summer with an 8-week hands-on introduction to the six elements of art. Students will learn drawing techniques inspired by Chuck Jones. No experience necessary.Monday afternoons from 3:30 to 5:00 PM beginning June 5th at the Center, 3321 Hyland Ave., Suite A, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 in SoCo (South Coast Collection)

Click here to order this class. 

6/5       Our Creativity: splatter creatures and squiggle game

6/12     Line: line pattern composition

6/19     Shape: building objects by combining shapes, how to draw a Chuck Jones Character

6/26     Value: create pencil composition using gradation from black to white

7/3       Space: cut paper design featuring positive and negative space

7/10     Texture: circles transformed using texture; adjectives are visually described

7/17     Color: primary, secondary and tertiary colors applied to radial design

7/24     Face Vase: a unique composition that includes all the elements together

Red Dot Auction VII Preview Night Photos + More!

Wow! What an incredible couple of days! Thank you to all of our contributing artists for sharing your creativity with the Center and thank you to all of our winning bidders, donors, and sponsors who helped make the seventh annual Red Dot Auction the success it was! Bravo!All of the artists have been identified in the catalog at ChuckJonesCenter.org/RedDot. Check out who did what work!

We've posted photos from the Preview Night here in the Photo Gallery. More from the Main Event to be posted in the next couple of days. Click this sentence to view the photos. Photos by Stephen Russo. 

The Linda Jones Archive: Herblock and Chuck Jones

The Pulitzer Prize-winning and world-renowned political cartoonist, Herblock, was a fan of Chuck Jones. So much so, that he called Jones up one day in the summer of 1978 and introduced himself. They spent several hours on the phone and became life-long friends. This is part of letter that Chuck Jones wrote to Herblock a few days after that initial phone conversation.Dear Herb Block,

I have been told on extremely good authority that there is a time to live, a time to love, a time to die, a time to etcetera -- all indisputably true, all, philosophically speaking, absolutely meaningless, but -- there certainly is always time to be surprised and delighted as I was when you called the other day. I have known courageous people, wise people, intelligent people and brilliantly talented people but seldom people who possess more than two of those qulities and I don't need more fingers than I have to count those who posess all of those qualities. You are in illustrious company, Herb Block: Mark Twain, F.D.R., Walt Kelly, R.L. Stevenson, Vachel Lindsay, Beatrix Potter -- a few more perhaps -- shall I grow more fingers?

...thank you again for the stimulating call -- it justified the entire history of the Bell System. Best regards, Chuck

Cure Empty Wall Syndrome

The Red Dot Auction Relieves All SymptomsWhich Artist’s Work Will You Take Home Tonight?

Spring Gala Fundraiser Announced for Chuck Jones Center for Creativity

Costa Mesa, CA: You’ll find the cure for “Empty Wall Syndrome” at the Red Dot Auction. Over 100 artists from around the globe have contributed one or more 12” square canvases and 3D art objects to this special fundraising event. What differentiates The Red Dot Auction from other silent art auctions is that the contributing artists have signed their artwork on the reverse of the canvas. Consequently, attendees at the event will not know who the artist is when bidding, they’ll only have their heart to follow.

“The artists who are participating come from all levels of notoriety, skill, and accomplishment, from students to emerging to established artists; we reached out around the world hoping to capture the imagination and appreciation of these artists. We are thankful that they were willing to help us achieve our goal of promoting creativity by providing a nurturing environment where it may grow and blossom,” said Craig Kausen, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Center.

“This year, we’ve mixed it up by dividing the auction into six distinct groupings,” says John Gaydos, President of the Council for Creativity which organizes this event in the spring and the Center’s “Play It Forward” fundraiser in the fall, “there’s now areas devoted to Landscape, Portrait, Abstract, Homage, Assemblage, and 3D artworks. The donated artwork is remarkable in its breadth and diversity.”

Participating artists include British POP art star and graphic novelist, Des Taylor; Michael Scharf, producer and creator of the children’s animated program, “Do Re and Mi” starring Kristen Bell; Art Deco-inspired contemporary Orange County artist, Mike Kungl, and Eric Goldberg, longtime Disney animator and director.

The Red Dot Auction will take place on Saturday, May 6h from 7 to 10 PM at the Center located at South Coast Collection (SoCo), 3321 Hyland Avenue, Costa Mesa, California. Admission is $25.00 per person ($35 per at the door) and open to the public. Buy tickets by April 25th and receive 5 free raffle tickets when you sign in at the front desk the evening of the event. To buy tickets online, go to ChuckJonesCenter.org/RedDot.   

A Preview night is scheduled for Friday, May 5th from 7 to 9 PM and will include a tribute to the contributing artists, a musical performance by students of Music Vault Academy, and a Glitter-painting performance by James C. Mulligan. Headlining the evening will be Disney Imagineer, Terri Hardin, live-sculpting a 60th Anniversary tribute sculpture to the Chuck Jones-directed, “What’s Opera, Doc?” which will then be sold, funds benefiting the Center’s programs. Tickets for the Preview Night are $100 per person and are available at ChuckJonesCenter.org/RedDot.                                                                                                                

The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity is a 501(c)3 public charity based in Orange County, CA. Chuck Jones was a creative genius who gave life to Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote & Bugs Bunny along with over 300 animated films.  The Center, which he founded in 1999, is an organization that fosters and teaches creative thinking—the thinking behind problem solving. It’s a proven fact that “creativity” is like a muscle in your brain that needs exercise to get and stay healthy. The stronger that muscle is, the better it works in engaging tasks and solving problems. The Center serves as a gymnasium for the brain. We work with disadvantaged youth, school systems without arts programs, people on the autism spectrum, the elderly (many of whom suffer from early onset dementia), and other groups, including corporate clients, who see the value of pumping up creativity in their ranks.

Images of the artwork for The Red Dot Auction are available upon request.