In which Chris Robinson asks animators profound and inane questions that have little to do with animation. This week's guest is Joanna Quinn.
Girls Night Out by Joanna Quinn
One of the legends of animation, Joanna Quinn has created a slew of memorable works including Girls Night Out (1988), Body Beautiful (1991), Dreams and Desires: Family Tires (2006) and, of course, those loveable butt-cleansing Charmin bears. Her drawing skills are superhuman and have influenced generations of artists around this globe. Joanna graciously agreed to sit down with me during a rare 11pm cricket match near the Haçienda flats in Manchester to answer my probing and ingenious queries.
I get the greatest pleasure from....
Drawing with a proper pencil on proper paper.
The sport I do or would like to play is...
I used to be in a volleyball team and hurdle for my school but now my favourite sport is eating and then going for walks to try and cancel out the eating.
A (non-family member) person I idolize is....
It would have to be Milt Kahl at the moment! I am presently studying his animation with the wonderful Richard Williams and analysing the movement frame by frame and studying his drawings and dope sheets and methods of working. Fascinating and he's even more of a genius than I originally thought!
The song that makes me tingle is....
Blimey that's a tough one and could be quite a few I'm sure but I'll say "Di Provenza il mar" from Verdi's La Traviata.
The funniest thing that happened to me….
A few years ago I was stuck on a stationary train (after a wheel fell off) for 9 hours in a carriage with a budding pop star, a teacher, an actress, a banker, a hairdressing student, a lord and 3 Filipino women with 10 suitcases who just arrived and spoke no English. The lord kept shouting at the top of his voice that he was richer than all of us and kept buying the entire carriage drinks. The end of the journey was a bit of a blur but I remember we all kissed and hugged each other goodbye saying we loved each other and would have annual reunions...but we never did.
A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
