Nov. 10, 2022 — 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 from Nov. 14 through Dec. 9 in the Napa Hall Gallery. A reception will be held Thursday, Nov. 17, from 5 to 7 p.m.
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, Maxwell and Curtis Hodge, 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, call 805-437-2703.