Sally Cruikshank interview 1980

[IceManNJD2]

OMG IT'S FRED'S MOTHER!!!!

[kindolwood]

I'm a young artist who draws silly yet wonderful things like you, so inspiring to see your work! I love it!

[laughingsal]

@kindolwood Keep drawing silly wonderful things!

[Madamluna]

Hi! I really love your animations and your characters. I noticed your reference sheets in the interview and I was wondering if you had them scanned/uploaded anywhere. I'd love to look at them!

[laughingsal]

@Madamluna Thanks- I'm sure they are somewhere around here but no idea where. Sorry.

[laughingsal]

cpnscarlet, no I never did anything with the Firesign Theater.

[cpnscarlet]

Went looking for you on YT after watching my copy of QATQ (from CN's 100 Greatest Cartoons). Nice interview...got some insight into your art. Ever do anything with the Firesign Theater??? Some of their routines would be great fodder for your style of animation.

[laughingsal]

Hey, iwritemynamehere, I appreciate all comments but don't take them too seriously, but I do think you're right saying I was before my time.

And MisterEsoteric I've never understood why Good Vs. Evil is a good plot to follow! Geez!

Thanks all for nice comments. I don't know what Super jail is but I'm glad I'm not in Super jail.

[MisterEsoteric]

Remarkable to meet the brains behind the brilliance, Sally!

I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about breaking the laws of physics in animation.

However, it seems like so much animation today is fantasy in the worst sense: Good vs Evil melodramas with all the video game anti-aesthetic and shallow characters that are blandly pretty with no personality at all. Anime, to me, is the worst culprit. That's why I'm in love with your work- it's so alive with originality, personality & fun!

[iwritemynamehere]

WOW!!! i just discovered your animation(s) from a Wikkipedia link from "Superjail" you are creative and just plain AMAZING!!! Well before your time! FANTASTIC STUFF!!!

[J5MARLON]

Super jail was inspired by this.

[TEARDUCTER]

Serious talent here thanks

[AhoraSiExisto]

Hey Sally, woudya marry me? I'm waiting for your answer goodbye

[yaoming444]

She mustve done acid in the 70s

[Ogopogo57]

good advice :) i always wondered why your animations were at random. I think I like the one with the frogs and that haunted house or something. the main character is like, engraved into my memory since i first saw it, and he kinda sounds like my math teacher (im 14). I can also really relate to Quasi, because he kinda reminds me of myself. I have interests that most people normally wouldnt have because im autistic. Everytime i go on youtube i watch your films cuz there like Mona Lisa to me =D

[laughingsal]

@Ogopogo57 interesting comment, thank you.

[TobyHalicki089]

I remember Sally Cruikshank cartoons from the children's television show Sesame Street as a little kid. All of her cartoons are kind of different in certain ways. I like how she puts weird creatures in different universes. Sally makes all tell a story of their own. I like Sally's style of Neo 30's through todays characters.

[laughingsal]

@TobyHalicki089 Thanks Toby!

[laughingsal]

Thanks, morganic88- would like to get back to London sometime.

[morganic88]

hi sally- i really love your werk - very inspiring! - im an artist in London painting murals and making sculpture and would love to do more surreal animation and film. will do so when ive got good kit set up. im part of EXPLODINGCINEMA(dot)ORG if you would ever like to show your films before a live audience at our regular film festival. we just had a great show last night screening lots of funny art films in an art squat type venue. alder best for now, x morganic

[laughingsal]

Thanks for your nice comments, Mooshpups. I grew up in Chatham.

[Mooshpups]

Growing up in New Jersey!  What part? (I live there currently)

[yardlet6]

@Mooshpups Chatham.

[blokis]

i love your art thanks for all your work

[guysmileyiv]

Sally, you look sooooo hot.

[blue32ism]

her stuff is awesome.

reminds me of jim woodring and r. crumb a lot.

so hallucinatory its brilliant

[Launchpad05]

I'm a ducks fan, too. I grew up watching 'DuckTales', and i know an actual Uncle Scrooge artist named Pat Block. I made a Flash cartoon that has Scrooge in it.

[Marbles471]

@Launchpad05

You know Pat Block? Cool.

Haven't people like him basically been forced to work mainly for European publishers, since the Duck stuff just can't get any consistent tracton in America these days?

[Launchpad05]

@Marbles471 I know. The only legitimate traction that the Ducks ever got was 'DuckTales'. These days, I'm angry at Disney for turning it's back on quality animation, and entertainment in favor of worthless tween junk that nobody over the age of 16 with A Y chromosomes would ever enjoy! I'm sick, and tired of them shoving Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, and Selena Gomez down our throats, and they don't seem to care about the damage that Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan have wreaked on society!

[tibetronica]

I studied Cruickshank works seriously in college. It affected my thesis, no, my world view. I'm in Japan, and I'm showing these on YouTube to people saying "You have to know this!"

[laughingsal]

@tibetronica really? I feel humbled to read that. Good luck to you- Sally

[womangirlman]

this is a really awesome interview. i like the way you think :D thanks for making art like this and inspiring so many great artists i know today.

[laughingsal]

There's nothing that makes me happier than knowing I've inspired others. (Just hope they figure out what to do with animation as a career) But that's a ps, it thrills me that I've inspired people. I had a great art teacher in college.

[askalarium]

really inspiring...i grew up seeing your work on sesame street it still effects my art today.

[laughingsal]

This is the nicest thing, to learn that my work is inspiring younger artists. thanks.

[theirishhateyou]

This was such a treat! You have such a great philosophy on cartooning. (: You're making me really consider getting into cartooning and animation again, but I feel like it's probably a pretty hard business to make money in. x)

I also enjoy the fact that everybody seems to think you've done a ton of drugs, and from the replies you really seem like you haven't. That makes me really happy! Makes me wanna go use my imagination all over the place. xD

[sfchris]

What a wonderful interview!!!! Glad you saved it! Maybe the portion that is lost is hiding in someone elses archive. One can hope anyway.

[laughingsal]

glad you enjoyed it.

[RHSteeleOH]

Thank goodness you salvaged this interview. It is truly wonderful.

[laughingsal]

So what IS your first name, RHSteeleOH? Too bad the tape disintegrated where they followed me through Woolworth's on Market St. as part of a segment on where I got ideas!

[RHSteeleOH]

I'm that "Russell" guy, I really would have liked to seen that Woolworth segment.

[Marbles471]

@laughingsal

Have you tried contacting KQED? Surely a copy must be in their vault somewhere.

[goblinko]

DEAR GOD I LOVE YOUR CARTOONS!

[blahnupunk1]

Hi Sally. I'm an artist and a lot of my love for "old style cartoons" comes from your work. I've dabbled in animation and finding your work again is inspiring me to get back into it.

[laughingsal]

Thanks. Good Luck with your work. If you keep your projects small at the beginning you'll have a better feeling of success. (didn't explain that well.)

[TiniNormi]

I want to devour you <3

[tofuCKYOU]

hi sally,

i've been wondering for a while what is the type of pen you use in the video when you draw the characters in the white paper ? 1:30 min

[laughingsal]

just some kind of felt tip pen that was available at the time, maybe it was a Flair.

[tofuCKYOU]

thanks Sally.

i'll look up for it...

[InvaderPet]

Sally, have you ever considered doing an interview on Shokus Internet Radio?

[laughingsal]

No. Actually don't even know what it is.

[OtherBrother09]

You're pretty, and pretty talented too. :)

[laughingsal]

I don't look like THAT anymore!

[OtherBrother09]

I saw your pictures with Pepper that you posted on your blog in August 2007. You're still just as pretty. :)

[ststafford]

I thought I had just discovered your animation for the first time... until I saw that you did many of the Sesame Street animations that I grew up watching! I completely agree with what you said at the end of this video. I draw comics and I've found that, in the wider comics community, most creators have no desire to actually take advantage of the freedom granted to them by their medium (be it comics or animation). I don't understand the obsession people seem to have with realism.

[laughingsal]

People aren't encouraged to explore their imaginations enough.

[Megalon85]

I agree wholeheartedly.

Also, I'm proud to know you're a fellow New Jerseyian. It is an alien place isn't it.

[rcnotes]

I remember your films from the Ann Arbor FIlm Festival. I think the first was Quasi at the Quackadero and then the ultra-fine Face Like a Frog! They are still some of my faves from over 30 years of attending the AAFF. Thank you so much!

[laughingsal]

Thanks, rcnotes. Fun on Mars won a prize there too, which was a big thrill back in 1971 I think.

[100acrewood]

Amazing - I found myself telling my 16-year-old son, "That never happened to me..." and realized I knew where I'd heard that before, and might actually be able to show him! Poor Winky Orlando, I've often identified with him.

I first saw Quasi at the MIT Architecture Machine in 1976 (now the Media Lab) where one of the employees had gotten a copy and projected it onto a wall-size screen.

This is art that frees the mind. Many thanks for this. It has remained pleasantly in my subconscious...

[laughingsal]

Thanks for your lovely comment. If you live in a 100 acre wood, you are very lucky.

[nyctivoe]

Yep, you're right, mainstream animation has gone to far trying to slavishly imitate reality. I wouldn't mind except there aren't any alternatives!

[VHShit]

I was so happy to find your stuff. Thank you!!

[laughingsal]

You're welcome!

[H1r3m2plz]

Sally -

Thank you for posting this one - wonderful to see you in front of the camera. You remind me of Terre Roche, one of the Roches, also from New Jersey. Also an extremely creative, friendly and kind person...

You didnt discuss the music, but when I just heard those first few notes of the Quasi soundtrack, it was like a Proustian experience. I found the Cheap Suits long after I first saw Quasi, not knowing the connection. Now I know - Thank you so much! (Do you know Terre?)

[laughingsal]

Thanks for all your nice comments, H1... No I don't know Terre Roche.

[Snarton]

Hi Sally--

Sally - Great to hear from you!

The "Ghost of Stephen Foster" was directed by Matt Nastuk and his buddy Raymond Persi, both "Simpsons" directors. Unfortunately Matt is too busy to do much else, but he's got some amazing sketchbooks I'd love to see him publish someday.

[Snarton]

Sally-- I've had "Quasi at the Quackadero" stuck in my head ever since I saw it 30 years ago! There's a scene with background moans and sighs that gave me chills to see/hear it again. Thanks for making it and warping my brain!

Check out a friend of mine's Betty-Boopish "Ghost of Stephen Foster" cartoon also on youtube.

[laughingsal]

Snarton, thanks for telling me about "Ghost of Stephen Foster." It's great. Has your friend made other cartoons as well? I'd love to see them.

[starry2006]

The variety of animation is actually what makes it so interesting, perhaps it's less interesting when it just tries to be like a live action film. Obviously your work isn't completely abstract, but it follows in the steps in the animation pioneers (such as Cohl, and later Messmer and Fleischer) who wanted an inventive humorous style, which exploited the characteristics of the medium than tried to hide them.

[starry2006]

Yes exactly, animation is capable of doing anything so why not do that. It's exactly the same for comics, some great independant or underground comix have shown how that form is virtually unlimited in imaginative potential, same with animation. Animation I actually see as related to experimental film in some ways, it can push at the borders of the medium, being inventive within the structure and form as well as the subject.

[ChocolateMilkIsTight]

gosh anitas daggers! so many horrifying flash backs

[lastangelman]

Oh my gosh! I haven't seen any of these cartoons since the seventies. It's wonderful you're uploading your work to YouTube so a wider audience can see your wonderful terrific stuff. Your cartoons are like the successors to the Fleischer Studios on acid.

[vitradesk]

sally's so pretty!

[ConnDevi]

Enida reminds me of the Susan Tyrrell

[likeBrain]

Wow i really feel sympathy for that lady.

[QueeenBrian]

You're amazing.

I love your work. I remember watching your cartoons all the time on sesame street when I was a kid. I was fasinated by it. :)

[ericstefani]

Ducks? Wow fascinating work Anita, I mean Sally. Was your name used for the Nightmare Before Christmas. Anthra-pla-mor-fic Universe. Crazy Worlds of Sally K. Wow! I love animated backgrounds!!!!! Your animations take me into a Colorful World of Betty Boop-like Cabera meeting a Parades of Frogs, Ducks and Adult Themes.

[LukeWehner]

Yay! Sally Cruikshank!

[dignitycrew]

super nice

[laughingsal]

aww, yer so NICE!

[Marbles471]

What a great video! Where was this broadcast?

I'm especially curious since animation in the U.S. was gasping for breath back then--practically dead, really. Only independents like you were doing anything interesting. But since animation had such a low reputation, it's great to see that someone was interested enough in artists like you to interview them for TV.

[laughingsal]

Thanks, Marbles. It was KQED in San Francisco. Good point about animation gasping.

[tpirman1982]

You're the best, Sally!

[ginarosed]

i love your work. always have.

[khrysserx]

o sally how lovely, i seem to remember this, was it kqed? anyway thank you for posting it, i LOVED seeing your drawings.

[sasquatch77]

Thanks for the great video Sally, your work has been amongst my favorites since I was a kid growing up. The universe you've created where the sound of slide guitars motors you through an ever changing landscape of amazing sights and characters is truly fantastic.

Now your work with Sesame Street is turning my kids into fans as well. Glad to see from your comments that you are an avowed "youtube person", I'll look forward to seeing more postings in the future...

Signed, a lifelong fan.

[whitestud]

Did I hear right New Jersey?

[laughingsal]

Chatham, New Jersey. 07928