Water to Paper, Paint to Sky

Book excerpt: Water to Paper, Paint to Sky is the first comprehensive retrospective of America’s oldest living artist Tyrus Wong, whose groundbreaking work on Walt Disney’s classic animation film Bambi influenced a generation of leading animators, including John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Don Hahn. Tyrus Wong’s ability to evoke powerful feeling in his art with simple gestural compositions continues to inspire each new generation of artists, and his influence can still be seen in movies today. “Tyrus Wong’s sophistication of expression was a gigantic leap forward for the medium. Where other films were literal…Bambi was expressive and emotional. Tyrus painted feelings, not objects.” — John Lasseter, Academy-Award winning director Born in 1910 in Canton, China, Tyrus Wong immigrated as a young boy to the United States, where he has enjoyed a long, distinguished, and diverse artistic career as a prolific painter, illustrator, calligrapher, lithographer, muralist, designer, Hollywood sketch artist, ceramicist, and kitemaker. Tyrus is legendary for his innovative work on Walt Disney Studio’s classic animation film Bambi, in which his singular vision and evocative, impressionistic concept art caught the eye of Walt Disney himself and influenced the movie’s overall visual style.