CAMARILLO — A free public exhibition at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) will commemorate the life and work of Art Lecturer and pioneering animator Kathleen Quaife, a longtime Oak Park resident who died unexpectedly in October 2021.
“Kathleen Quaife: A Portrait of the Artist” will run through Dec. 9, in the Napa Hall Gallery.
The exhibition includes frame-by-frame animation artworks, film clips,drawings and landscape paintings. There are examples of Quaife’s groundbreaking animation for studios including Disney, Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. over her four-decade career. Quaife was best known for her work as an effects animator specializing in the portrayal of water, fire, smoke and electricity. The methods she developed through intensive study of these forces continue to influence animators working today.
“If you’ve seen a splash, a spark or a fireball in any recent animated film, you’ve seen either Kathleen’s painstaking handiwork or her direct influence,” said CSUCI Professor of Art Luke Matjas, Co-Curator of the exhibition. “These forces of nature have mesmerized artists through every age, and she brought them to life with a distinctive sense of personality and poetry. I think we all know that we had a master in our midst.”
Quaife’s depiction of the oozing villain Hexxus in the 1992 animated film “FernGully: The Last Rainforest” is a cult favorite among animation enthusiasts and environmentalists. Her work a decade earlier for the laser disc-based video games “Dragon’s Lair” and “Space Ace” were some of her earliest to gain critical attention.
The exhibition features iconic sequences and original artworks from Disney feature films including “Tarzan,” “Hercules,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Pocahontas.” There also are examples of her work for Don Bluth-directed classics including “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” “The Land Before Time” and “The Secret of NIMH.”
Matjas and other members of the Art faculty worked with her sons, Maxwelland Curtis Hodge of Oak Park, to develop the exhibition. They included instructional materials that Quaife developed during the 17 years she taught at CSUCI and work by her former students.
“Kathleen was a pillar of our program,” said Co-Curator and Art program Chair Marianne McGrath. “She inspired so many students who began their creative journey at CSUCI.”
The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. Napa Hall is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is located on the east side of Ventura Street just south of Santa Barbara Avenue. Visitors can park in free spaces with time limits or buy a $6 day permit. For more information, call805-437-2703.
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY CHANNEL ISLANDS — California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) is Ventura County’s only public university and opened in 2002 as the 23rd campus in the CSU system serving the regions of Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles counties, as well as the entire state. CSUCI is located between Camarillo and the Oxnard Plain, midway between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and 25 miles north from Malibu.
The campus is nestled against the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains and is a 10-minute drive from the Pacific Ocean. With more than 5,600 students, 24,500 alumni, and 1,000 employees, CSUCI is poised to grow in size and distinction, while maintaining one of the most student-focused learning environments in public higher education with more than 90 academic degrees, teaching credentials, certificates, and professional and community programs.
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