Wendy and her husband Porter.

Maureen Furniss
Editor of Animation Journal and a teacher at CalArts

Like so many others, I was terribly saddened to hear of Wendy's passing. It took me awhile to compose my thoughts, in part because I had mixed feelings about what to write. Wendy had written for the journal that I publish. I had worked with her while she was at Animation World Magazine, and we had seen each other occasionally at festivals. But despite these encounters, my first impulse was to say that I didn't know Wendy all that well. Still, when I thought of her, I got a strong impression — a huge beaming smile and the sound of her voice saying, how are you?" in a deeply friendly way.

I read some messages about Wendy and realized that I share the same sense of her that others have, and yet I still wondered if I really knew her all that well. Then I looked at her website and saw the many pictures of Wendy, Porter, her dog, friends, festival gatherings, and people and places I didn't even know. In photo after photo, I saw the same Wendy I had pictured in my mind, as though I had shared these memories with her in some way. At that point, I realized I probably did know Wendy a lot better than I had thought at first.

I think that the impression I have of her energy and happiness were and continue to be such defining qualities of her personality that even though we didn't see each other all that much, I really do know a lot about her. Thinking about Wendy this week has made me reflect about the things that are important to me, and ask myself how I can carry on some of her positive life force.

Noureddin Zarrinkelk
President of ASIFA based in Iran

What sad, sad, sad news… This is the second loss on the ASIFA Board. Lou [Hertz] and now Wendy. She is still smiling at me every day and I can't believe the truth yet. She disappeared… so fast… so unbelievable.

Yvonne Andersen
Rhode Island School of Design

During a time when I was head of the Film/Animation/Video Dept. Rhode Island School of Design, I noticed something unusual going on in the Auditorium. Film programs were being presented by someone who was not our faculty.

Asking around, I discovered the shows were presented by a freshman. Her name was Wendy Jackson and she would be a major in our dept. the next year. I had been at RISD about 15 years by that time and noticed that our incoming students had talent in many areas, but this didn't seem to include producers or presenters, the very important people who bring the work of everyone else before the public. I thought, oh great! Finally we've got our first impresario!

Soon thereafter, Wendy showed up at my office door to tell me she was scheduled to present a traveling Film Festival in the auditorium on the same night and hour our Department was scheduled for our yearly program for Freshmen in the school who were selecting their major.

We still had a few days time to work out the publicity for this, so we decided together that her show would go on 30 minutes earlier than scheduled and our dept. show could go on 30 minutes later than scheduled. It all worked out fine.

The next few years, Wendy was in my beginning animation classes. She was an excellent student, but I most remember her in the Film Special Effects class. The students were divided into groups for projects, which included mat box, inserting an animated character into a live-action background, etc. Her group of four students was always laughing. They loved their projects, which turned out entertaining.

Amy Kravitz, in charge of the junior and senior animation projects takes all the animation seniors to the Ottawa Festival every year. Wendy went on this trip in both her junior and senior year and set up private interviews with some of the world's most famous animators. These later appeared in various film publications.

During the summers, Wendy worked for Gail Banker in her animation workshop for children in Vermont. She enjoyed this a lot, so, after she graduated from RISD, Wendy decided to interview me about my work at the Yellow Ball Workshop. Wendy recorded me on tape at school for about an hour. Later she would call me from California or send me an e-mail with further questions. Wendy interviewed me within an inch of my life! It was intensive!

In 2000, Chris Robinson invited me to be honorary president of the Ottawa Animation Festival. Wendy was on the jury, and had been presenting some programs for the festival. She asked me to present a program of Yellow Ball Workshop films including my personal films, and also another program of RISD Student films. She would print part of her interview with me in the program for the festival.

Wendy moved to Seattle with her husband, Porter Hall, and started doing her "Animation Adventures" program for children. I shipped her a few cases of 16mm used prints from the Yellow Ball Workshop to use with her classes. Wendy was always working on different projects. Her abundant energy, hard work and joy in life, made it seem that she was capable of pulling off any project wonderfully. Her loss at such a young age is a shocking and sad event for her family, friends and the whole animation community. We can hardly believe it. We will all miss her, and know that someone special is gone.