That one time I had to call Pixar

 If you know me well enough, you will know that I can be...er...impulsive.

Good thing or bad thing...it all depends. This has either landed me making a real good joke, or throwing egg all over my own face. If you are ever bored on a Saturday, just go and find an adult who grew up as an only kid. We shall find enough to help fill and make the day interesting.

So, one afternoon after the kids had come off the bus and I had some time to kill before we headed off to church to help run troops. I looked at the dining room walls and remembered about a piece of art I had saved from moms old house that I wanted to hang. It was a wooden relief carving of a chicken. For as long as I could remember, it hung in the kitchen, right before heading out, just past the trash bag on the counter. After years of neglect, it was gunked with dust/cooking oils/cobwebs etc. The redwood needed a scrub with wood oil to bring things back to life and enhance all the details found in the chicken.

After using a mini electric spinning scrub brush, much like a slightly larger tooth brush head, I turned it over to discover there was a partial address, phone and the name Harley Jessup. The last name Jessup was also carved into the front right bottom corner

With having a name to go on, I was curious as to who this artist was and if they continued to do any more of this work. I found myself doing this a lot with the art pieces which graced the walls of my childhood home to see if the art had much value before posting them on marketplace. Google is as good as gold when going cold searching.

I entered the name and chicken carving + wood relief into the search field. I wasn't getting much with any artist related to wood carving or anything else that looked anywhere close to the above style. But yet, I did have some sorta famous person who kept coming up. What caught my eye was they had been invited as a guest speaker for commencement for Oregon State University and featured in the college's alumni publication.

Hmmm...that's located in Corvallis. We have A LOT of family history there with the former Sand and Gravel plant, family alums and my grandmother growing up there. The address on the back just listed some Hall...like a college dormitory. When I asked my mother where this piece of art had been procured from, she said it was from an old restored Methodist church that had been turned into an art gallery. She spent $60 on it in the very late 70's and had thought to gift it to one of her uncle's wifes as she loved farm house décor and...chickens. Except, it never became gifted and lived in SoCal for 40 years.

I continued to read up on this Harley Jessup guy. His degree in graphic design took him eventually to the bay area where he did the large maps of Neverland for the movie Hook and other projects with Industrial Light and Magic. Eventually it brought him to work at Pixar.

So, here I am calling Pixar and getting a robot voice to speak of the person you wished to contact. Nervously, I spoke his name...paused.....and then it rang.....until I got a VM prompt.

"Hi, my name is Erin and you don't know me. But if you ever carved a wooden chicken, please give me a call. Otherwise, if a wooden chicken seems odd to you, please disregard this message and go on with your day."

Okay then...nothing else I can do at this point and we best be getting off to church for troops.

During dinner, I get a call from an LA area number. Now, usually I ignore these numbers as its usually some solicitation about an extended car warranty, insurance or a time share vacation I'd won. 

But...what if it was.....Jessup?

Upon answering..."Yes, this is Harley Jessup, and that is my chicken you speak of!"

I FOUND THE ARTIST......and

HE WORKS AT FLIPPIN PIXAR.....and

HE IS THE HEAD OF THE ART DIRECTION DEPRTMENT....and

HE HAS COME UP WITH THE ART DIRECTION FOR MONSTERS INC,UP, RATATUOI...and others!

It turns out, he only did wood carving for a very limited stint. A very large piece for his family and the solo chicken was done for a freshman level art course at OSU. He had donated it to the gallery as part of an auction/fundraiser for restoring the old church building at the time. Except he never went to the opening night of the gala and never checked up on if the piece had sold.  He said it was like looking back on an old friend. 

I've shared some of my illustration work with him and he showed me the first piece he did, complete with an accompanying rooster in it. 

So, now our chicken hangs in our dining room and I look at it with a whole new set of eyes and appreciate it all the more knowing where the artist started and brought him in life.