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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Animation Art Collecting - The Early Years

I started collecting animation art very soon after I saw my first piece.  I was having my college undergraduate diploma framed at a small frame shop in Wilmington NC, and happened to glance past the counter to see an image of Walt Disney's version of Robin Hood.  At first I thought it was just a small poster or print out.  However, I soon realized that it was not, and when I asked the employee behind the counter what it was; he told me it was an animation cel from Walt Disney Studios.  I was really so excited, because I had no idea that such a thing was even possible to own!  I was hooked.

When I moved to Raleigh I was doing some Gallery hopping and happened upon a Gallery that had original cels and drawings for sale, and from there it was over for me.  Now I purchase from everywhere; auctions, galleries, art brokers, other countries, just anywhere, and everywhere.  Through my years of collecting I have always focused on Walt Disney Villains.  I grew up watching the Disney movies both on the movie theater and on TV, and loved them!  I loved watching the villains on the screen more than the heros or princesses; and so now, I am at a point in my life where I have the where-with-all to collect them.  
     
At one time I had, what I believe, to be the largest collection of the Evil Queen from "Snow White" in the world, composed of a variety of drawings, cels, and story boards.  Years ago I sold the collection and have over this past year I have started purchasing animation art once again.  This time around I have decided to not be so narrow, but still focus on Walt Disney feature film villains.  My planed collection will be of both cels and drawings spanning the feature films only and covering the time when cels where hand painted.  That means that I will go from "Snow White and Seven Dwarfs," 1937 to "Little Mermaid," 1989.  

As I post photographs of my collection on this blog I will also be adding stories and information that I have gathered over the many years of collecting.  I am both a dealer and a collector, so I think I have an interesting point of view.

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