Barker's Cartoon Museum

Several years ago, I had wandered into Barker's Animation Gallery and was quite blown away by their collection of animation cels and artwork, and quite frankly, by the pricetags.  It was easy to get lost in this place for a couple hours.  Of course, I somehow thought that their gallery was the actual museum.  It wasn't, and it took me a few years to figure this out.

Two years ago, I separated from my previous employer, as my job, along with several hundred others, were being sent overseas.  Luckily I landed on my feet with a new place to call "job", but before I got started, I took a trip back to Cheshire, CT, to visit the infamous Barker's Cartoon Museum.  It's taken me this long to get around to posting about it.  I'm not sure why it took me so long, but I know what made me think back on it today... I've been reacquainting myself with Disney and Hanna Barberra, so I thought it would be a good fit since this is where my brain is presently at.

The museum is tucked away to the back of the property, and from what I'm told, is NOT the full collection.  If you didn't know any better, you would think you'd have wandered into an incredibly well-stocked flea market.  It seems that the Barkers have been collecting cartoon memorabilia for decades.  You name it, they have it:  toys, action figures, lunch boxes, drinking glasses, Pez containers, puzzles, games.  If they put a cartoon character on it, they had it, at least, if it was an American cartoon, it was probably in there.  Pokemon seemed to be one of the few Asian imports represented.  No Voltron, but you didn't need him to feel entertained here. 

I was especially taken by the age of some of the items in the collection, particularly the tin toys.  Disney was well represented, as were so many others.  Here are some photos... let's let them do some of the talking (I could have taken pictures all day... I took a lot; here are some of the better ones):

If you've seenthe Peanuts book by Chip Kidd I've discussed in this blog, these will look familiar.

Tinykins by Marx.  I'm currently hunting these down.

Just a few character glasses....

When Goin' Gets Tough....

... it means it's time to hit the drawing table.  Somehow, it never fails that my safety valve, my way of blowing off steam, always, always involves a pencil, paper, and time away. 

For some reason, November always seems to be that time of year when take a moment to pause and think about the goings-on of the the period, and assess for myself, just what is really important.

In this most recent period of reflection, I've come to the following conclusions, and none of this is anything new, so forgive me if any of this seems obvious or sounds like I'm hitting "repeat".  What's different now is the clarity in which I'm making these observations.

1) Life is too short, and it's going by too quickly for me to be tabling things that are important to me.

2) I need to draw more.

3) I need to read and write more.

A year ago in November, I apparently hit this same point, or at least, I hit the drawing table after what must have been a challenging few weeks (the "new" job seems to demand a lot a this time of year).  I took a few photos of my "process" without giving too much away.  I put them up on Facebook at the time, so I'm going to collect them here because I think they're worth posting again, especially given the subject of this post.

Some ideas will start as "notebook art".

Some ideas wait until I'm at the table.  Concept art for "Battle Robo III".

Scanned lineart, waiting to be digitally colored.  From "Orionic Wars"

Coloring in progress...  from "Orionic Wars"

Some of my favorite background art is drawn directly on the computer.

It's been a long road back to relative health following that bad shoulder/neck strain that kept me away from the table.  You could say it was a bit like cutting off my left hand.  Believe me, I found enough to do with my time to make up the difference.  But given the recent changes going on in my life (which I won't elaborate on here), it is time (actually past time) to shuffle the deck.  Some decisions have not been easy to make.  In time, though, I think the outcome will be for the better, and the results I hope to share here, I hope will be amazing.

Stay tuned....