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Artist Bio - JIM WOODRING


Jim Woodring was born in Los Angeles in 1952 and enjoyed a childhood made lively by an assortment of mental an psychological quirks including paroniria, paranoia, paracusia, apparitions, hallucinations and other species of psychological and neurological malfunction among the snakes and tarantulas of the San Gabriel mountains. He eventually grew up to bean inquisitive bearlike man who has enjoyed three exciting careers: garbage collector, merry-go-round-operator and cartoonist. A self-taught artist, his first published works documented the disorienting hell of his salad days in an “illustrated autojournal” called JIM. This work was published by Fantagraphics Books and collected in THE BOOK OF JIM in 1992.

Jim Woodring-self-portraitHe is best known for his wordless comics series depicting the follies of his character Frank, a generic cartoon anthropomorph whose adventures careen wildly from sweet to appalling. A decade’s worth of these stories was collected in THE FRANK BOOK in 2004. The 2010 Frank story WEATHERCRAFT won The Stranger’s Genius Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for that year. The most recent Frank book, CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS, was released in 2011. Woodring is also known for his anecdotal charcoal drawings (a selection which was gathered in SEEING THINGS in 2005), and the sculptures, vinyl figures, fabrics and gallery installations that have been made from his designs. His multimedia collaborations with the musician Bill Frisell won them a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006. He lives in Seattle with his family and residual phenomena. - Walter Foxglove

The Frank Book
Frank illustration
   

http://www.jimwoodring.com

Jim Woodring - Sleep Club Profile

JIM WOODRING - Making Light
Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD)
Thursday, March 24, 2016


The Illumination of Jim Woodring
Jim’s childhood hallucinations and haunting visions inform his nightmarish, cartoon wonderland of terrifying beauty.
The acclaimed cartoonist’s mind-bending artwork and haunting stories challenge the bounds of mundane perception.
Breach the veil, and venture beyond, into the mysterious dimensions revealed by this documentary.

VISIONS OF FRANK
A short film by Japan's most audacious animators -- all based on the Frank comics by Jim Woodring.


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