Tony Maki

Inspired by the plight of rhinos that are hunted for their horns, artist Tony Maki contributes this beautiful diptych titled Dove’s Perch. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tony attended the Academy of Art University graduating with a BA in Illustration and Traditional Animation in 2001. Through college Tony supported himself as a UPS driver, after which he worked briefly as a designer/animator of hand held games. Then with the support of mentors he developed a few TV shows and worked on a variety of short films. Relocating to the East Coast, for the past six years Tony has been a Story Artist with Blue Sky Studios, where his film credits include Robots, Ice Age 2 and 3, Horton Hears a Who!, and where he is currently at work on the soon to be released Rio. A contributor to the Totoro Forest Project, Tony is also a freelance illustrator and animator who specializes in character based development and creation.

To see more of Tony's art please visit his blog.

Amy Pertschuk

Inspired by her recent trip to the Galapagos, this piece titled PHATARIA UNIFASCIALIS is by award winning designer and internet entrepreneur Amy Pertschuk. Born in Portland, Oregon and raised in Washington D.C. Amy grew up inspired by spending many hours in the national museums. Moving across country to California, she studied Design and Illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and Parsons School of Design in Paris. In the 1980’s, Amy worked as a scientific illustrator at the California Academy of Sciences and illustrated several cookbooks including The Great American Seafood Cookbook and Ginger East to West.  In 1998, Amy co-founded eNature.com, the Web’s premier nature-discovery resource. Most recently co-founding the Children & Nature Network with author Richard Louv and others, Amy is serving as C&NN's managing director.

For more information on the children and nature movement and Amy's current work please visit childrenandnature.org

Xiangyuan Jie

This beautiful landscape painting is by the immeasurably skilled artist Xiangyuan Jie, also affectionately know as "Master Jie". A native of Hunan, China, Jie received his formal art education in China, Europe, and the United States. In 1982, graduating with a BFA in Theater Set Design from the Central Academy of Drama at Beijing, Jie taught art and design at Hunan University and then studied and lectured at the Ecole Cantonal d’ Art de Lausanne, Switzerland. Upon immigrating to the United States, Jie taught at Auburn University in Alabama as a visiting professor and, in 1995, he received his master’s degree in Industrial Design from Georgia Tech. Following, Jie worked at Disney and Blue Sky Studios as a Background Stylist and Visual Development Artist with screen credits including Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear and Ice Age: The Meltdown. Published in Artist’s Magazine, International Artist’s Magazine and Southwest Art Magazine, in 1999 Jie received Third Prize in Artist Magazine’s Portrait Competition and his artworks have been featured in national and regional juried art exhibitions throughout the United States. A member of the Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America and Plein Air Painters of the West, Jie received Second Place in 2003 and the Honor Award in 2002 and 2005 at the Portrait Society of America's International Competition. His landscape paintings were selected into the Top 100 in the 2002 and 2003 Art for the Parks competition, and received the Landscape Art Award, the Grand Teton Natural History Association Purchase Award and the Judge's Choice Award. Currently living and painting full time in Atlanta, Georgia, Jie enjoys painting people from life settings and en plein air landscape on locations wherever he goes on the road trips.

To view more of Master Jie's art please visit his website.

Nate Wragg

Contributing a painting of his signature "snow beast" this sweet submission is from artist Nate Wragg. Born and raised in the small town of Davis, California, Nate drew all throughout his childhood and in high school when he was introduced to the world of animation he was smitten. He eventually moved to Southern California where he earned an animation degree from Cal Arts. Nate interned with the James Baxter Animation studio in Pasadena, and then was hired on at Pixar Animation Studios where he worked as an illustrator and production artist with credits including Ratatouille and Toy Story 3. An illustrator for the children's book Too Many Cooks, Nate also contributed an illustrated story to the sequential anthology Afterworks 2, as well as authoring/illustrating several other books. He has contributed his art to the Totoro Forest Project, the We Love You So blog, and Terrible Yellow Eyes and his artwork has been shown with galleries in New York and Los Angeles, most notably the New York Society of Illustrators 50th Annual Exhibition.
 
For more of Nate's art please check out his blog.

Stephen P. Neary

This sweet painting, by the very funny multi-award winning artist and filmmaker Stephen P. Neary, is based on a still from his short short titled Let's Make Out. A graduate of New York University, Stephen is a Hoosier-born, New York-based animator and story artist. His student short, Chicken Cowboy, won Best Undergraduate Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay at NYU's First Run Film Festival in 2009.  It later won The Grand Jury Prize for Best Animation at AFI Dallas Film Festival and was screened at the Director's Guild of America, on top of screening and winning additional awards in numerous film festivals nationwide.  Stephen has worked as a Story Artist at Blue Sky Studios since Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, where he is also developing his short film. Stephen spends his nights working on new shorts, doodling his thoughts, and feeding his turtle, Dr. Geranium.  

You can view more of Stephen's work at his blog.

Annie Fix

This joyful mixed media piece by illustrator Annie Fix incorporates her passion for sewing and design. With a life-long calling to be an artist, Annie started very young finding drawings her older sister, Lorraine Rocha, had done and tried to learn by copying them. Though discouraged to pursue art by her parents, Annie eventually graduated from San Jose State University with a BFA in Illustration and Animation; whereupon she interned at Slave Labor Graphics, was an Art Assistant in Industrial Light and Magic's art department, and then moved on to freelance as a Concept Artist for the likes of Ubisoft, Stormfront Studios, and presently for 2K Games. Having just recently finished working on characters for Bioshock 2 and Annie is now onto the next 2K project. A very full-time mother to a busy 3-year-old boy, 8-month-old girl, and 8-year-old stepson, Annie also somehow finds time to develop her own art AND contribute to benefits and art auctions such as ours!

To see more of Annie's art and related projects please visit her blog.

Noah Klocek

This colorful narrative painting is by the talented artist Noah Klocek. Noah was born in Neptune, New Jersey to artist parents who encouraged him to draw but discouraged him from pursuing a career in the arts. Thankfully the discouragement didn't work and after trying everything from wildlife biology to paramedic training Noah decided to go to school at San Jose State and pursue a career in art. Following school most of Noah's work has been in film design work or matte painting. He has done matte paintings for PDI/DreamWorks on Shrek 2 and Madagascar and even more paintings for Industrial Light and Magic on Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminator 3 and The Hulk. In search of new challenges, Noah was lucky enough to find a place at Pixar Animation Studios where he is currently working as an Art Director. Much of his design work at Pixar can be seen in the Art of Wall-e and Art of Up books. Currently, besides art directing at Pixar, Noah is working on several children's books, and freelance illustrations.

To view more of Noah's art please visit his website.

Alen Lai

Alen Lai's great appreciation for the outdoors is clearly evident in his beautiful landscape painting. Originally from Taiwan, Alen now lives in New York working at Blue Sky Studios as a Senior FX Technical Director and Sequence Lead where he develops and supports the pipeline for the fx department and also writes tools for creating various effects throughout the production. He has worked on such films as Ice Age 2 and 3, Horton Hears A Who! and Robots and has been recognized for his work in animated film by numerous festivals including an Individual Achievement in Animated Effects nomination for the 36th Annie Awards. When he is not working on the computer he spends his time painting in nature.

To see more of Alen's art please visit his blog.