Who Really Drew Jim Keeshen's "Day of the Dead"?
It is said that history repeats itself. It seems to be the case even in the history of animation. Patrick Sullivan (1887-1933) was the owner of the Sullivan Studio. Sullivan had a reputation as a chronic alcoholic, convicted rapist, con-man, and credit thief. He was even alleged to have murdered his wife. One of Sullivan's scams was to hire talented artists and animators such as Otto Messmer and to take credit for their work as if it was his own. Although it was later proved that Messmer was the true creator of the legendary Felix the Cat, Sullivan went so far as to put out press releases and to create photo ops falsely presenting himself as the creator of Felix. Until his dying day, he adamantly took credit for work that was not his own. Below is a photo of Sullivan sitting at Messmer's drawing board. He faces the camera as he holds a pen in hand, pretending to draw Felix.
Patrick Sullivan at Felix's Drawing Board
Now, we fast forward many decades later, and Jim Keeshen is also seen below posing at the drawing board for his animated film "The Day of the Dead" (aka, "El Dia De Los Muertos") Notice how Keeshen has the same look as Sullivan, facing the camera, as his pencil rests on an image of Max, the main human character of his animated film.
Jim Keeshen at Day of the Dead Drawing Board
Like Sullivan, Keeshen did not draw the character of Max or any of the characters in his film. He took the credit while conversely employing many talented artists, such as Cecilia Aranovich and Jonathan Caustrita. In fact, Caustrita's storyboard artwork and character designs show the creation of Pancho, the iguana, who journeys from Mexico to East Los Angeles. Pancho was originally named Izzy. To view the Day of the Dead webpage with various versions of the film, click HERE. In fact, you can see for yourself that Keeshen can barely draw at all based on his crude black-and-white sketches.
As we've previously written on this blog, this is not the first time Keeshen has either taken credit for work that was not his or infringed on other's copyrights. Unfortunately, Santa Monica College continues to employ Keeshen as a professor of animation, whereby he has an unlimited pool of talented students to use in his artistic deception and commercial projects at SMC's Academy of Entertainment & Technology (AET). To me, the greatest joy of art is in its creation, not the awards or financial profit one receives. Can there really be such joy if one takes credit for the work one was incapable of doing? Not only does this deceive the public, but it also deceives the students who entrusted themselves in professor Keeshen's care. Ultimately, it also deceives Jim Keeshen himself, as by taking advantage of talented students, he stunts his own efforts at creativity.
-- Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis
(c) 2007: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP
Feel free to link or print this; just include the SAVE SMC URL: http://savesmc.blogspot.com/
Technorati Tags: Santa Monica College, Academy of Entertainment and Technology, Felix the Cat, Patrick Sullivan, Jim Keeshen, James Keeshen, animation, Day of the Dead, El Dia De Los Muertos, Cecilia Aranovich, News and politics, Jonathan Caustrita, Otto Messmer
How AET Has Become The $8.8 Million Parking Lot
According to the SMC Board of Trustees Agenda for January 8, 2007, "by the end of November 2006, tracking results for the Winter 2007 Session indicated a significant lag in enrollment." Of course SMC has used this sad fact to justify spending a total of $73,168 with its contract with the LA Weekly to aggressively market its courses. If one is attentive, there are clues to the lack of enrollment at Santa Monica College.
First, take a peek at the Winter 2007 Open Classes list. Typically, SMC would provide the interested student with the total seats per course as well as the number of seats filled to date. This information was extremely important in that it allowed the student to determine whether it was worth enrolling in a particular course. For example, in addition to maximum enrollment seat capacity, there is a minimum seat capacity. The minimum, usually 16 seats, is required for a course to go through for that particular semester. When the seats do not reach the minimum, the class is often cancelled. If a student, for financial aid reasons, is required to maintain 12 units per semester, each course counts for that total. If a class is cancelled at the last minute, then the student can potentially be locked out of other courses, which are filled to the maximum, and be forced to be below the 12 units per semester, jeopardizing one's financial aid award. So, if one can see that a course is not going to make the minimum, the student can elect to select another course that is more secure. Now, one is left guessing.
The same is true for the Spring 2007 Open Classes list. Also, notice how many classes actually show that spaces are still available. In Winter Session, many courses are open even after the second week into the eight-week session, which two years ago would have been already filled. This is not a very good sign, given that students are being offered a reduction of fees from $26 a unit to $20 a unit. Apparently, new and continuing students are not rushing to the educational starting gate over at SMC.
The final clue to the ever-dwindling SMC enrollment is the free parking offered on the AET campus. SMC prominently displays on its home page the following in capital red letters: "FREE STUDENT SHUTTLE PARKING AT THE ACADEMY CAMPUS." At first, this seems rather generous of SMC, but this has nothing to do with generosity, but the fact that the Academy of Entertainment and Technology satellite campus not only offers very few courses; it can't even fill those courses to capacity. As several people have stated, AET has become a ghost town. Here's a screenshot of the SMC AET online free parking advertisement.
A decade ago, SMC purchased the AET campus for approximately $8.8 million from the Gemological Institute of America. AET allegedly opened its doors in September 1998. Although at first described as a prestigious full-time by portfolio admission program, it has decayed over the years to pretty much an open course program with less and less prerequisites to match its dwindling course offerings and vocational certificate offerings, and overall enrollment. So, while the few students that are enrolling this winter session at SMC will be blessed with free parking and a free shuttle to take them to main campus, the taxpayers are stuck with a satellite campus that has become little more than an $8.8 million parking lot.
-- Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis
(c) 2007: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP Feel free to link or print this; just include the SAVE SMC URL: http://savesmc.blogspot.com/
Technorati Tags: Santa Monica College, Academy of Entertainment and Technology, public schools, vocational schools, enrollment, open courses, Winter 2007, Spring 2007, AET, free parking, News and politics, Gemological Institute of America, LA Weekly
