Informed by the celebrated curator’s deep knowledge of contemporary art, animated motion pictures, and television show making the Aird’s online DRAWING 2024 project, performs as a broad-based survey highlighting new works by Rhonda Abrams, Francisco Alvarez, Karl Apple, Tariq Atika, Michele Atkinson, Sheila Brosnan, Hannah Catanzaro, Raffaele Caterini, Alyson Champ, Ruth Comfort, Michael Csunyoscka, Maria Luisa de Villa, Douglas Gammage, Jennifer Globush, Darlene Hartung, Thomas Hendry, Elisabeth Hewlett, Emily Honderich, Kevin Ilango, Asefeh Katoozian, Brian Kelly, Carol Kent, Steve Khan, Galnaz Khadivizand, Douglas Lawrence, Jason Macza, Farhoudi Mahshid, Brad McDermott, Nancy Moore, Frank Mulvey, Rita Naras, Alexandrea Nicholas-Jennings, Jangmee Park, Ryan Puchalski, Hannah Rae, Janet Read, Russell Forrest, Chantal-Andrée Samson, Robert CB Scott, Michael Silverstone, Mark Sterling, Andrew Stikuts, Torrin Storr, Andre Vaillant, Ulysses Veloso, Graeme Welch and Rhonda Young.

JUROR’S STATEMENT

I was surprised and delighted when Carla asked me to serve as a juror for the art of Drawing at AIRD Gallery.

At first blush, you may consider that there’s a dis- connect between my world of animation and the world of drawing in fine art. They go hand in hand. For forty years and counting of drawing figures in movement, and designing locations, characters, and storyboards, I can say in all honesty that my pencil mileage is long. Creatively I’ve been challenged to draw anything and everything imaginable. I’ve been at it so long I’m now called a ‘Creative Director.’

It was wonderful to see such a broad spectrum of drawing in all sorts of mediums and to think about how everyone creates in different ways which gave me yet another challenge: how to choose?

The word ‘drawing’ was at the forefront of my mind while having the difficult job of selecting.

As someone who draws all the time, I did lean in that direction as much as I could while making the hard choices of what to pick. I was moved by everything I saw, so I had to create parameters in my mind to make the task possible.

Ultimately, the drawing also had to create a reaction at first glance. I looked for surprises in the drawings, something that made me think and react. And of course, as a fan of movement (animation will do that to you) I was attracted to drawings that moved on, across, or out of the page.

Thank you to the Director, Carla Garnet who always manages to keep things interesting and fresh at Aird. Now it’s time for me to get back into my never-ending, animated world.

Congratulations to you all.

Sincerely,
Jamie Whitney
Creative Director, Guru Studios

JUROR’S BIOGRAPHY

JAMIE WHITNEY is directing at Guru Studios. He recently acted as a creative lead of Development for Boat Rocker Studios and as Executive Producer at Spin Master Entertainment.

In 1983, Whitney pursued animation studies at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. By 1991, he worked at Nelvana, a Canadian animation company, developing and Directing several shows including the prime-time series ‘Bob and Margaret’ for Comedy Central and ‘Ferocious Beast!’ for Nickelodeon. Whitney developed and Directed the animated show Max & Ruby at Nelvana for Nickelodeon/ Nick Jr.

In 1998 he joined 9story Entertainment developing, designing, and acting as animation director on ‘Peep and The Big Wide World’ for PBS.

In 2011 Whitney joined Guru Studios to develop and direct the first three seasons of PAW Patrol and is credited for his work on the first PAW Patrol movie, Pups to the Rescue.

The accomplished creative is also known for bringing the animated series True and the Rainbow Kingdom to life for Netflix as well as leading on the following projects: Beetlejuice, Eek! the Cat, Foolish Girl, The Dating Guy, and World of Quest.

Just recently, Whitney directed A Tale Dark & Grimm for Netflix, where the animated Hansel and Gretel step out of their story into a winding, wickedly witty tale of surprises.

He has been nominated for and won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series several times. Whitney has also been nominated twice for an Emmy award in Best Direction.

You can find him working or playing from his home offices in Toronto and on Georgian Bay.