Yesterday I had the privilege to attend a lecture by legendary Disney animator Floyd Norman hosted by Jacksonville’s Cultural Council as part of the Vystar International Artist Lecture Series. In my not-so-well-known town of Jacksonville, I didn’t expect to have such an opportunity. Others in the audience even asked how he heard about us and it turns out the director at FSCJ had requests from an art internship/camp to bring him about. The rest is history. Even Floyd himself said he’s normally in Orlando visiting Disney World which is to be expected. I am so glad he was invited to come.
Floyd Norman Brief Bio
For those of you who have never heard of him, Floyd Norman is considered the first African-American animator at Disney. In addition to that he is also a writer and comic artist. He’s worked on many of the classic films from my childhood:
The list goes on and on! In 2007 he was inducted as a Disney Legend among the ranks of Ollie Johnston, Wolfgang Reitherman, Mary Blair, Bill Peet, and so on. He’s also worked at Hanna-Barbera and Pixar. Mr. Norman is also known as the co-founder of Vignette Films which was one of the first companies to produce films on black history.
An Evening with the one and only Animator, Storyman, Troublemaker
The lecture started with a screening of his documentary Floyd Norman: An Animated Life that came out last year. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a really great film.
The film was followed by a brief power point lecture by Floyd Norman on how Disney stories are told. The slideshow feature a lot of his own sketches and was a rough overview of the storytelling process. While I had learned all this at Ringling many years ago, it was still inspiring and refreshing to see it again. At the conclusion of his lecture he did a brief Q&A with his talented wife Adrienne Brown-Norman who is a Senior Illustrator at Disney World Wide Publishing. The duo offered inspiring advice to a room full of artists both new and experienced alike.
Mr. Norman was a very engaging and funny speaker. For someone who is 82 years old, he had a lot more energy than I do most days. He’s definitely not someone you would call an old man. I just love watching people talk about things that they are passionate about because its so inspiring how they just glow with enthusiasm.
His lecture also shed a new perspective on Walt Disney the man. While Walt Disney is known as the founder of the magical world of Mickey Mouse, a lot of people have also been casting a negative light on Mr. Disney as a racist. Mr. Norman called those people out as disgruntled people who just didn’t like Mr. Disney or as people who have never even met or worked with the man. He painted a portrait of tough father-like figure who had a shrewd eye for excellent work and talent and it was an interesting and refreshing point of view.
After the lecture Mr. and Mrs. Norman were gracious enough to stay and take photos and sign autographs with the audience. I was very fortunate to be able to get a picture with them as the event director loomed in the background trying to whisk them away to their hotel to get some rest.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend this event. I wouldn’t have even known about the event if my boyfriend hadn’t told me. It didn’t seem like it was really advertised that much to the general public and I haven’t really been involved in the local artistic community. That’s Alex for you, my guiding light. He’s the one that mailed my college application to Ringling for me all those years ago and here he is still finding small ways to inspire me. Over the past few months I’ve been trying to piece back together my life as an artist. I’m pretty rusty and I’m having to re-learn a lot of things. Most days I’m not even sure if I am a real artist or if I’ll ever be good enough. Attending this event gave me the little boost I needed to invigorate my creative energy and I left with a tingling in my fingertips, itching to draw. It felt like I’ve had these creative embers smoldering and I’ve been trying to get a fire going and Mr. Floyd’s presence and energy has given me a spark to get a tiny flame going. As every professional artist has said time and time again, “Just draw everyday”… Such a simple task that seems to escape me all the time but I’ve really got to start and hopefully it will become a habit again.
Sources and Further Reading:
Floyd Norman’s Books:
Animated Life: A Lifetime of tips, tricks, techniques and stories from an animation Legend (Animation Masters) ISBN 0240818059
Faster! Cheaper!: The Flip Side to the Art of Animation ISBN 9780942909029
Son of Faster, Cheaper!: A Sharp Look Inside the Animation Business ISBN 9781941500378
