ARTISTS - AMERICAN FILMMAKERS

PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS VIRTUOSO OF VIOLENCE:
Storyline: The gory warrior slowly purges himself of his interior poisons through artistic bloodletting so as not to be a casualty of his own inner wars.
Brian De Palma (1940) - American filmmaker. Outer: Son of an orthopedic surgeon. Although his family was Roman Catholic, he was raised as a Protestant. Became fascinated with blood and gore by watching his father operate on patients. Went to both Protestant and Quaker schools, then majored in physics at Columbia Univ., although was more drawn towards drama and began making film shorts with the Columbia Players. Won an MCA writing fellowship at Sarah Lawrence College via a prize-winning short, becoming one of the first male students there. 5’11”, husky and bearded. Through money earned by shooting documentaries, he was able to film a feature, and then received acclaim with two satires. Began what he called his Hitchcock phase in a conscious homage to that master, borrowing and expanding on techniques from him, until he established his own gory style, which won the enmity of many critics, and were a bit too over-the-edge for popular taste. His remake of Scarface in 1983 would be a lasting testament to this period. In his early 40s, he married actress Nancy Allen, who has starred in several of his films, divorced 5 years later. Extremely bold in his imagery and visual flair, finally hitting his stride in his late 40s, with Casualties of War, a Vietnam morality tale, although an expensive flop in the beginning of the 1990s briefly curtailed his career, and led to a period of reassessment, before continuing his notable body of work as a superb technician with a violent esthetic, and a deep respect for the masters of cinema, whom he has consciously imitated. Married producer Gale Hurd in 1991, divorced two years later, one daughter from the union. Married a third time in 1995, to actress Darnell Gregorio, divorced 2 years later, one daughter from the union. Moved to France in 2000, although remains a Hollywoodian at heart. In 2007, he released Redacted, a compilation of disturbing images of the casualties of the Iraq War, meant to propagandize his personal view that the conflict has been completely whitewashed by the media. It went on to win the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, although it was then edited against his will, with blacked out faces of dead Iraqis in its final montage, while he earned the undying enmity of the right for his effort, with squeals of ‘traitor,” for his artistic apostasy of showing America in a bad light. Inner: Animated and friendly, although distant and self-contained while working, with a great need to expunge his violent imagination on film. Up-and-down career is an indication of his own roller-coaster interior, allowing him to investigate himself through success, rejection and failure, while maintaining the integrity of his need to explore the darker elements of his maleness, no matter the consequences. Blown up lifetime of coming to terms with himself through an outer unevenness, while viewing life from the vantagepoint of the bloodied, but unbowed self-healer. George Wesley Bellows (1882-1925) - American artist. Outer: Descended from a line of whaling captains. Father was a builder and an architect. Mother wanted him to be a Methodist bishop. The duo were in their 50s and 40s when he was born. Grew up in a house his father built, and drew as a child. Had an All-American childhood. A good athlete, he played semi-pro ball as a shortstop but turned down an offer to be a professional baseball player in order to study art. Went to Ohio State Univ. where he was a standout athlete in baseball and basketball, but left in his senior year for NYC where he studied under Robert Henri (Martin Scorsese), becoming a lifelong friend of his. 6’2”, shambling, ungainly, but with a good singing voice. Henri helped him develop his artistic persona. Never went to Europe, instead, he studied from life rather than the old masters, save for Francisco Goya (Diego Rivera) and Honore Daumier (R. Crumb), and supported the independent art movements in NYC. Drew kids in the streets, choosing unselfconscious subjects limned in direct realistic fashion. Elected at 27 as an associate member of the National Academy, the youngest ever to gain that honor. Taught at the Art Student’s League. Never left the United States, although exhibited frequently abroad. His best known work was Stag at Sharkey’s, exploring the esthetic violence of boxing. In 1910, he married Emma Story, the daughter of a well-to-do businessman, 2 daughters from union, close family. Helped organize the revolutionary Armory Show of 1913, which opened him up to new directions in coloration. Began playing with lithography in 1916, and helped to revive that art-form, showing himself as equally adept at it as painting. Sympathetic to liberal causes. Worked as an illustrator for “The Masses,” from 1912 to 1917, until it folded, and also taught at the Ferrer Center, an anarchist school run by Emma Goldman. Preferred everyday scenes in his work, as well as sports, and also did book illustrations. Won numerous prizes and honors but died somewhat prematurely of a ruptured appendix. Inner: Firm, direct, enthusiastic and blunt, with a very strong masculine overview of life. Foundations were probably extremely important to him, because of the advanced age of his parents and the occupation of his father. Death was an ongoing self-poisoning that he has yet to transcend. Constantly trying to improve his work. Macho but homebody lifetime of rendering what he saw around him in as direct a manner as possible, celebrating violence and commonality with equal artistic elan, while giving himself the base of a solid homelife. Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) - Dutch artist. Outer: Son of a prosperous linen merchant. Studied under the same master as Peter Paul Rubens (Louis Malle), and in his late teens, married his teacher’s eldest daughter, Anna Catharina van Noort, 3 children. A prolific Baroque painter, who did religious, genre, his/storical works and portraits, but is best remembered for his coarse, earthy pictures of commonplace life. Succeeded Rubens as the most popular painter in Flanders. Never went to Italy like most of his contemporaries, focusing instead on the rich, lusty environs around him, which he executed with crude humor and an obvious love for the obscenities of everyday life. Claimed to be a Calvinist convert, although received many commissions for Roman Catholic churches. Had a good feeling for both color and composition, and through his success, was able to build a fine house into which he settled, although the security it provided gave him little motivation to continue the level of his earlier output. His later works were vastly inferior to his earlier oeuvre, with his inability to maintain consistency throughout his entire career. Inner: Roisterous and rowdy. Fun-loving lifetime of capturing his coarse vision on canvas in accordance with the style of the times, and achieving great popularity with it, only to fade at the end, when security blanketed his gifts.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS MIDWESTERN LANDSCAPIST:
Storyline: The collaborating regionalist parallels his longtime brother/cohort, before making a perfect marriage of imaginations with him, and in the process, creating a unique American body of work dedicated to celebrating the country’s eccentric heartland.
Joel Coen (1954) - American filmmaker. Outer: Of Jewish descent. Had a Minnesota upbringing, father was a professor of economics, mother was an art his/storian and university teacher, although his parents eventually divorced. Younger brother of Ethan Coen. 6’. Along with his sibling, attended Simon’s Rock College in Mass., a fully accredited school for those not wishing to complete high school. Graduated NYU film school, and began working as an assistant editor on low-budget horror films, as well as doing rock videos. Decided to collaborate with his brother on a screenplay, and the duo went on to create an unusual body of work noted equally for its dark humor, gory realism and unusually geometric sets, beginning with Blood Simple in 1984. Although the two would be totally intertwined in their creative efforts, he would take the title of director, while his sibling would call himself the producer, but both would be equally in all aspects of their collaborations, which would include Miller’s Crossing and the cult favorite, The Great Lebowski, a slacker paean, which would go on to have a celebratory life of its own via its fanatical fans. In 1984, he married actress Frances McDormand, who appeared in several of their movies, including their most popular effort Fargo in 1996, one adopted son, and a second child from union. Continues to employ the same technical crew and stable of actors as an extended creative family, while exploring a variety of genres in highly original fashion. Also a producer of the works of others. Published a collection of short stories, “Gates of Eden,” in 1999, as well as a book of poetry two years later, “The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way.” In 2008, the brothers pulled down a trio of Oscars for No Country For Old Men, winning Best Director, Picture and Adapted Screenplay. Inner: Like his brother, reserved and witty, preferring to let his work speak for him, and avoiding the usual trappings of Hollywood. Also like him, allows both geography and geometry to dictate his visual sense. Shared lifetime of bringing a skewered Midwestern esthetic to the movies, and intimately combining creativity with his longtime sibling/friend. John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) - American artist. Outer: Of Irish descent. Oldest of 5 children of a prosperous farmer, giving him a physical youth. Studied briefly at the Chicago Art Institute, earning tuition by sweeping floors. Short and stocky with a high-pitched voice. Served in the army during WW I, then attended Geneva College in Pennsylvania, where he was a good football player. Dropped out, became a magazine illustrator, then spent a year in Paris, supported by a loan from a banker. Also studied at the Russian Academy. Returned to NY and completed his formal art education at the Art Student’s League. In 1923, he married Clara Derrick, who died 9 years later. By the early 1930s, he began being exhibited, as a painter of the nativist tradition, which glorified the rural American experience, then in vogue. Grant Wood (Ethan Coen), was also a nativist. Married a second time in 1934 to Kathleen Gould. Largely imitative, taking advantage of the popular commercial style of moment, with a fine geometric sense to his canvases. Often painted memorable moments from his childhood. Traveled with and sketched the Ringling Brothers Circus, did huge murals, and taught painting at Cooper Union in NYC. Best known for the murals he did for the Kansas Statehouse, although at the time they were thought to present the state in negative fashion, which so angered him, he refused to sign them. Died of a heart attack, which some thought was brought on by stress related to the negative reaction to his Kansas masterpieces. Inner: Friendly, informal. Midwestern memorialist lifetime of taking advantage of a popular tide of art, and extending his own childhood memories through it. John F. Kensett (1818-1872) - American artist. Outer: Father was an English engraver who emigrated to America. Trained with his sire and then an uncle, and was romantic-looking in youth. Worked for the American Bank Note Company for 2 years, then went to Europe with a group of artists, including Asher Durand (Ansel Adams) and Thomas Rossiter (Ethan Coen), to study painting. Remained for 7 years, painting landscapes from nature and engraving, dividing his time between England and Paris. Roomed with Benjamin Champney (Sam Raimi), as well as Rossiter, while living in Paris. Did long walking tours of western Europe, painting and sketching, while developing a strong affinity for 17th century Dutch landscape painting. Returned to NY in 1847 and was made a National Academician in 1849. The paintings he sent to America had already established his reputation. Wandered throughout NY state and New England, as well as the Colorado Rockies, doing similar artistic renditions of environs as he did in Europe, which he visited again several times. His work became extremely popular, although he was never a particularly deep artist. Known for both his east coast landscapes and seascapes, done in what was known as a “luminist” style, which was a step behind impressionism. Never married. Became a full member of the National Academy of Design, and a founder and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Contracted pneumonia after trying to rescue the wife of a friend from Long Island Sound, and died of heart failure at his NY studio. Inner: Kindly, generous, sympathetic, with a gift for friendship, but shy and habitually reserved. Nomadic lifetime of painting them exactly as he saw them, and dedicating himself to finding his spiritual base in nature.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS MIDWESTERN LANDSCAPIST:
Storyline: The collaborating regionalist finds his perfect creative partner in his brother, as the two mercilessly skewer the sensibilities of their youth and lives past in a dualistic creative life proving that two heads are far more bitter, better and battering than one.
Ethan Coen (1957) - American filmmaker. Outer: Of Jewish descent. Father was a professor of economics, mother was an art his/storian and university teacher. Had a Minnesota upbringing and parents eventually divorced. Older brother of Joel Coen, studied philosophy at Princeton. 5’8”. Was laboring as a statistical typist at Macy’s, when he and his sibling decided to do a screenplay, which sent them both on a filmic pathway of totally intertwined collaboration, dividing titles, so he would be the producer of their films, while his brother would get official nod as director, even though each operates in a variety of capacities on their unique works, and are known together as “The Two-Headed Director.” Beginning with Blood Simple in 1984, they have etched a memorable body of work, including Raising Arizona and Barton Fink, and eventually achieving widespread popular success with Fargo, a humorous paean to the thick-headedness of their native Minnesota environs. Married twice, the second time in 1993 to Tricia Cooke, a film editor, one son from the union. Favors stark landscapes and officescapes, played against complex unsympathetic characters, with a particular affinity for limning Midwestern types. Works with the same technical crew, as well as the same group of actors, in an extension of the familial dynamic of his collaborate works. Also serves as a producer on the films of others. Along with his sibling, he scored an Oscar trifecta in 2008, with best director, picture and adapted screenplay for No Country For Old Men. Has also employed off-Broadway one act plays as an ongoing venue for himself. Inner: Reserved, totally attuned to brother, the two often finishing each other’s sentences. Along with his sibling, known as autocratic initially in his career for adhering to his own vision, rather than valuing actors’ inputs, while insisting that scripts be adhered to, word-for-word. Strong sense of American geography in all his works. Shared lifetime of bringing a skewered Midwestern esthetic to the movies, and intimately combining creativity with longtime sibling/friend. Grant Wood (1892-1942) - American artist. Outer: Born to a Quaker farming family, as the second of 4 children, he began drawing as a child, employing charcoal and charred sticks from the stove, to render the things he saw around him. His sire died of an apparent heart attack when he was 10, and his mother sold the farm andn moved the family to Cedar Rapids. Won a prize sponsored by the Crayola Company in a national contest while in elementary school. Subsequently had only the sketchiest of formal training in Chicago and Minneapolis, before returning home to support his widowed mother and sister with odd jobs as a carpenter and housepainter. Trained as a craftsman and designer, he was inducted into the army during WW I, and worked on camouflage in Washington, D.C., before returning home to teach art in Cedar Rapids’s public schools. Made several brief trips to Europe during a self-styled bohemian period, studying art in Paris, where he painted in the impressionist manner. On his 4th trip, he won a commission for a stained glass window in Munich, where he was deeply affected by the art of Hans Holbein (Stanley Kubrick). Evolved his own style through study, a combination of European primitivism and American art deco. Preferred hard-edged realism to the prevalent art movements of the day, citing the Sears, Roebuck catalogue as his most useful referance book. Lived with his widowed mother for much of his life, and acted the absent-minded child with her, much to her constant consternation. In his early 40s, he married Sarah Maxon, a widowed music teacher and retired light opera singer a decade his senior. No children from the disconnected union which ended in divorce 4 years later. Became part of the short-lived regionalist movement, focusing on life in the mid-west. John Steuart Curry (Joel Coen), and Thomas Hart Benton were also part of this group. His most famous painting was “American Gothic,” a 1930 double portrait of two grim-faced farm people, with the man holding a pitchfork, for which he employed his sister, Nan, and his dentist as his sitters. Founded an art colony in Iowa 3 years later, and then was appointed state chairman of the Federal Public Works Art Project in Iowa. Made assistant professor of fine arts at Univ. of Iowa. Popular in his time, with his obsession with patterns in both landscapes and portraiture, although his later works were less effective because of personal and professional problems. Died of cancer. His reputation went into eclipse afterwards, although rose later in the century when his complex technique could be better appreciated. Inner: Geometrician at heart, looking for the patterns in landscapes and lives. Once said, “All the really good ideas I’ve ever had came to me while I was milking a cow,” while affecting bibbed overalls to underscore his complete alienation from East Coast esthetics. Spoke slowly and hesitancy, and remained largely an ungrown taciturn boy. Probably virginal, with an asexual nature. Obsessed with sugar, sprinkling it on everything, as if he constantly needed to sweeten his life. Good sense of humor, subtly injecting sly wit into some of his work. American gothic lifetime of combining an ingrained love for storytelling and patterns into pictorial expression, before succumbing to his own highly controlled interior. Thomas P. Rossiter (1818-1871) - American artist. Outer: Studied painting and drawing in his home town of New Haven, Connecticut, and by the time he was 20, had a studio and began doing portraits. At 22, he sailed to Europe for further training with a group of artists, including John Kensett (Joel Coen). Spent 6 months in London, traveled the British Isles, then spent a year with Kensett in Paris. Went with Thomas Cole (Thomas Hart Benton) to Rome and took a studio, passing 5 winters there studying museums and painting with the trio also traveling in western Europe. Returned to America, settled in NY, married, three children from union. Moved into a studio with Kensett and another artist, which had been planned and built for them. Elected to the American National Academy of Design. In his mid-30s, he returned to Paris, staying almost 3 years, traveling and doing studio work. Returned to NY and did his/storical paintings, before moving upstate to Cold Spring, where he lived in a house he had designed and constructed. The last part of his life, he devoted much time to a series of paintings depicting the life of Jesus. Died suddenly at home. Inner: Gentle, great curiosity. Nomadic lifetime of wandering, and learning to make himself a more inspired storyteller, through his experiences, before completing his sojourn with an extended pictorial epic of that ultimate wondering wanderer, Jesus Christ.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS MULTI-DIMENSIONAL CARTOONIST:
Storyline: The accidental artisan enters into his chosen life’s work via happenstances of fate, before finally finding his true metier without the aid of providence, and proving himself an adept pictorial storyteller in whatever medium he assays.
Sam Raimi (1959) - American filmmaker. Outer: Of Polish-Jewish descent. Mother ran a lingerie store, father managed his own sire’s furniture and appliance store. 4th of 5 children. Fascinated with movies from childhood on, as well as comic books, ultimately combining the 2 in his initial career. His older brother, who was an amateur magician, drowned while visiting Israel on a scholarship, and he took up magic as an homage hobby afterwards. Attended Michigan State Univ, where he majored in humanities and made numerous super-8-mm films. 5’9”. With the help of a brother and a friend, he made a 30 minute preview version of a horror film and received the backing to form a production company with the money he raised, called Renaissance Motion Pictures. Did some light acting, and worked with other filmmakers. His first feature, The Evil Dead, made in 1983, was presented at Cannes, and has since become a cult classic. In 1993, he married Gillian Greene, the daughter of actor Lorne Greene, 3 children from union. Continued making cartoonish horror films, all with a slick visual comic-book style, reaching his apex with Spiderman in 2002, which became the 5th highest-grossing film of all time at the time. Also did the even more spectacular follow-up. Has worked in close tandem with the Coen Brothers, Ethan and Joel, on their equally memorable cinematic cartoons. His later work has branched out into more traditional genres, although he remains a cartoonist at heart. Inner: Conservative Jewish upbringing, strong sense of moral identity with his beliefs. Good-hearted, self-effacing and genuine. Building block lifetime of moving up to the next medium with his longtime allies, to present his own comic-book vision of life. Alex Raymond (1909-1956) - American cartoonist. Outer: Father was a civil engineer Interested in drawing from childhood on. After Catholic high school, he took a job as a clerk in a stockbroker firm right before the stock market crash of 1929. Lost his job, but, encouraged by a neighbor who did the cartoon strip, “Tillie the Toiler,” he enrolled in the Grand Central School of Art, while working as a solicitor for a mortgage broker. In art school, he showed draftsman skills and began as an assistant to his neighbor, working for King Syndicate Features. Asked to develop two strips, “Flash Gordon” and “Jungle Jim,” to compete with the popular “Buck Rogers” and “Tarzan,” of the time. Enjoyed an immediate success with them, and also worked with writer Dashiell Hammett on “Secret Agent X-9.” His first two strips eventually translated into other media, inspiring serials, movies, radio and eventually TV. Also a reserve officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, and art director of Marine Corps publicity office in Philadelphia. Saw combat duty during WW II as a public information officer and artist aboard a carrier in the Pacific. Created a 4th strip after the war, with a partner, about a debonair and sophisticated criminologist. Helped refine realism in strips, but acted more as a creative technician, than an innovator. Served as president of the National Cartoonist’s Society from 1950 to 1952. Killed in an automobile accident. Inner: Learning lifetime of integrating his innate sense of adventure with the kinetic world of comics, before exiting relatively early in order to take full advantage of the next medium available to him, the magic of the movies. Benjamin Champney (1817-1907) - American artist. Outer: Father was a lawyer who died young, leaving his family of 8 impoverished. Sent to an aunt, he worked in a cottonmill 40 weeks a year, while going to school the other 12 weeks each winter for 4 years. Returned home and went to an academy in hopes of getting into West Point, after a promise from a congressman, and future president, Franklin Pierce (Eugene McCarthy). When it didn’t happen, he toiled as a clerk in shoe shop which faced a lithography studio. An application to work there was rejected at first, despite a lifelong interest in drawing. Made friends with the head draftsman, who lived at the same boardinghouse, and eventually became an apprentice there, before opening up a studio for portraiture with the draftsman. After saving enough money to study abroad, he sailed for Paris. Met and roomed with John Kensett (Joel Coen), making a trip to Fontainebleu to paint directly from nature, an unusual practice at the time. Returned to America, then went back to Europe, painted scenes from the revolution of 1848, then discovered New Hampshire, where he was joined by Kensett. Became the founder of the “White Mountain School” of painters, and his studio served as a noted social center. Married and bought a summer home there. One of the founders of the Boston Art Club, and an early president. His later life was largely uneventful, son James became an artist. In 1900, he published his autobiography, “Sixty Years' Memories of Art and Artists.” Inner: Perceptive critic, realizing the importance of the Barbizon school of landscapists, and early impressionistic works of Claude Monet (Claude Lelouch). Nomadic lifetime of combining artistic curiosity with a sense of travel and adventure and eventual reflection on the three.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS VISIONARY TECHNICIAN:
Storyline: The technological wizard parlays the same classical mythology over two successive lifetimes to become Hollywood’s reigning sorcerer of special effects, while preferring the magic of industrial light to imaginative characterization in his colossally well-received creations.
George Lucas (1944) - American filmmaker. Outer: Son of an office-equipment retailer. Enjoyed racing cars during high school but was forced to give it up after an accident crushed his lungs. Attended Modesto Junior College, then enrolled at the USC Cinema School, making several prize-winning films there. 5’6”. After winning a scholarship to observe his work, he became a protege of Francis Ford Coppola, who produced his first film in 1971, THX 1138, an expanded version of an earlier prize-winning student film he had made. Also served as production assistant and made a documentary on one of Coppola’s films. His next effort, the autobiographical American Graffiti, proved to be a huge success, and prepared him for the phenomenal popularity of Star Wars, in 1977, the first of a projected set of morality tales that he had envisioned ever since becoming interested in the medium. Star Wars would be a rewrite of his earlier life’s Oz series, with the wizard being replaced by the elfin Yoda, the tin man by a robot, the cowardly lion by a large hairy copilot, and Oz by the population of deep space, making this series an inverted male manifestation of the earlier books. With the success of Star Wars, he turned his imaginative attention to the technological side of film, while allowing others to direct the equally successful sequels. In his mid-20s, he married Marsha Griffin, a film editor, one adopted daughter from the union. Created a production company, Lucasfilm, bought a huge property, Skywalker Ranch, in Northern California, and created a state-of-the-art special effects complex there called Industrial Light & Magic, while continuing as co-producer of the Indiana Jones trilogy, which have also been among the top moneymakers of all time. Skywalker Ranch is a recreation of village idylls of the past, integrated with the technological wonder of the present and future, with himself as its benign feudal overlord watching over a horde of employee/serfs. In addition to his filmwork, he has also created multimedia software and has been involved in TV production. Divorced in 1983 after a 14 year marriage, he subsequently adopted 2 more children, although has not remarried. Had a serious relationship with singer Linda Ronstadt during the 1980s, while his children remain the mainstay of his life. The rerelease 20 years later of the original Star Wars trilogy proved equally popular to its first showing. In the spring of 1999, he finally brought forth The Phantom Menace, the much anticipated prequel and sequel to Star Wars, which proved another commercial phenomenon, adding to his billionaire status through merchandising tie-ins, while solidifying his ongoing lordship over his own unique realm of the imagination, that has continued to resonate with an audience desperate for magical sustenance in an increasingly mundane world, despite his lack of interest in the human presences in his work. In 2005, he was given the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Inner: Low key, unpretentious, workaholic. Champion of digital moviemaking, seeing it as the future of filmdom. Sentimental, soft-hearted and emotional, although well-protected. Self-professed Victorian romantic. Stickler for detail, perfectionist. Increasingly reclusive and aloof, although a child at heart, placing great importance on his role as both mother and father to his adopted brood. Looks on himself as a pure filmmaker, despite his long commercial career. Myth-maker extraordinaire, with the ability to tap into his contemporary collective psyche. Techno/wizard lifetime of actualizing his earlier life’s fascination with technology, while repeating an imaginary mythology that once again captured the fancy and fantasies of the American public. L. Frank Baum (Lyman Frank Baum) (1856-1919) - American writer and special/effects technician. Outer: Father was of German descent and the proprietor, along with a brother, of a small barrel factory, and later went into the oil industry and grew rich, opposing the Standard Oil Company, in the process. Mother was descended from Scotch-Irish farmers, and was a strict Episcopalian, who filled the house with stern characters, whom her son would later caricature. 7th of 9 children, 4 dying young. Born with a defective heart, he was sedentary and shy as a child, often playing by himself, on the family’s large estate. Used to have a nightmare that a scarecrow was chasing him, turning those early fears of death into later imaginative fodder. Educated at home until he was 12, then spent 2 years at a military academy in Syracuse, while dreaming of writing a great novel that would make him famous. Had a nervous breakdown from the discipline, and was taught by tutors afterwards. Suffered several early heart attacks, and always felt a tenuous hold on life. Used the initial ‘L’ for his first name, since he felt Lyman sound affected. Appeared on stage in NYC, and his sire gave him a series of theaters that he owned in upstate NY. Wrote for them, but the venture failed, save for one sentimental success with Irish audiences, “The Maid of Arran.” At 24, he began a reporting career. Married in his mid-20s, to his complete opposite, Maud Gage, the strong-minded daughter of militant suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage, who helped found the National Woman Suffrage Association, and was initially violently opposed to the match. 4 sons from the happy union. Became an enthusiastic feminist through his in-laws, which in turn would make little girls his storied heroines. Went into the family petroleum products business, but it failed when his father was severely injured in an accident, and could no longer astutely advise him. Moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota to take advantage of a gold rush there by opening a store, but went bankrupt with the enterprise, then started a newspaper there, only to fail at that, as well. South Dakota would ultimately become Kansas in the Oz books, since he never visited the latter state. Wound up editing a Chicago periodical for window decorators, then became a traveling salesman for a crockery firm, while writing a little poetry and prose on the side, and struggling mightily to support his growing family, living in poverty until his redoubtable mother-in-law moved in with them, and insisted he go out and publish something, which he did, Mother Goose in Prose, which was illustrated by a then-unknown Maxfield Parrish. Along with another collaborative illustrator, he wrote a successful follow-up, Father Goose: His Book, that finally brought him some money. The next year, 1900, he published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, after being turned down by every house in Chicago and finally paying for its printing with his illustrator. It swiftly became a huge success, inspiring over 5,000,000 copies in the succeeding century, and was produced two years later as a Broadway musical. Initially inspired by a brightly lit San Diego hotel to create the Emerald City of Oz, he invented the name after seeing the letters O-Z on a filing cabinet, while first telling bits of the story to his children in his Chicago apartment. With the money, he went to Italy for several years, then built a home for himself in Southern California. Had a huge birdcage in his garden where he loved to write, and was also a prize-winning gardener, as well as an inveterate tinkerer. Wrote under various names for children, and produced 14 Oz books and over 70 children’s tomes all told. Became one of the first special-effects people in Hollywood, with The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, on a seven acre lot, although it, like most of his other commercial adventures not directly related to writing, failed. His reputation plummeted after his death of a stroke, although resuscitated in the second half of the century. His final words were, “Now we can cross the Shifting Sands.” Inner: Given a strong sense of his fleeting mortality early on, so as to open his imagination in compensation. Kind, modest, reserved, both a loving husband and father. Poor businessman, although his wife complemented him in that arena. Tinkerer and internal explorer. Often walked around in a trance when he was possessed by his characters. Fighting-against-time lifetime of both creating a mythology he would continue to explore, as well as beginning a multi-life fascination with the techno-illusionary side of filmmaking, which he would bring to even fuller fruition the next time around, in far more healthy and grounded fashion. James Hargreaves (1720-1778) - English inventor. Outer: From an extremely humble background. Spent the early part of his life as a poor, uneducated and illiterate spinner and weaver. Married, had numerous children, including daughter Jenny. In 1764, his daughter accidentally tipped over a spinning wheel, which continued working in an upright position, which gave him the idea for a multiple spinning machine, which could process several threads at once and which he dubbed the spinning jenny. Began to build and sell the machines of his design, but an angry mob of hand spinners, fearful that it would put them permanently out of work, destroyed both his house and machinery in 1768. Moved to Nottingham, and with a partner, built a small mill in which they employed the jennies to spin yarn for hosiers. Two years later he patented the device, and the rest of his life, was spent in moderate comfort, thanks to his inventiveness. Inner: Techo/wizard lifetime of technological innovation and then suffering mightily for what he had wrought, only to recover and recreate a far better life for himself and his family through his inventive efforts.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS GRANDIOSE CARTOONIST:
Storyline: The self-crowned king of the world continually feels compelled to out-do himself in a series of titanic careers that show him to be a citizen of many spheres and possessor of a restless, blockbuster imagination, with the ability his considerable will manifest no matter the obstacle.
James Cameron (1954) - Canadian filmmaker. Outer: Mother once raced stock cars, and was quite macha. Father was an engineer at a paper mill in a largely French-speaking town. Oldest of 5, including 3 brothers, who were raised in a blue collar environment. After seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey a dozen times when he was 14, he saw his own future as a filmmaker and doggedly pursued it, although eventually grew bored with his efforts as a teen, and abandoned them. His family moved to Southern California when he was 17, and while working as a machinist without a high school diploma, he took courses at Fullerton Junior College, before dropping out. Star Wars revived his earlier interest, and he began to explore filmmaking again. 6’2”. His first job in the medium was as an art director, and miniature-set builder on one of quickie producer Roger Corman’s projects. Married Sharon Williams, a waitress, in 1978, divorced 6 years later. Made his directorial debut the following year, then worked as an uncredited script doctor. His initial breakthrough film was an actioner he had penned and then shot for $6 million, The Terminator in 1984, the first of several collaborations with his 2nd wife, producer Gale Anne Hurd, whom he married in 1985 and divorced 4 years later. Sued by writer Harlan Ellison for lifting the story from two of his, which was settled out of court. The same year he wed director Kathryn Bigelow, and divorced her 3 years later. Went on to build a highly successful career as an action director, topping himself each time with more and more outrageous visual stunts, and a sure-handed sense of entertainment, filled with sound and fury and signifying nothing more than an entrancing several hours in the dark for his audience. The possessor of an excellent sense of story and special effects, while working on a grandiose cartoon level to become one of the very best in Hollywood at what he does, which is to fill up the screen with visual pyrotechnics in what he calls “tech-noir.” First to crack the 100 million dollar production mark with Terminator 2, then topped the 200 million mark with the hugely successful Titanic, playing a cross-class romance off of the famed disastrous sinking of an unsinkable ship, which he researched fanatically and faithfully re-created to the tune of some $1.8 billion worldwide. Proudly crowed his triumph after winning the 1998 Oscar for Best Director that he was king of the world. His 4th wife was actress Linda Hamilton, who appeared in his Terminator series, one daughter from the union which ended in divorce in 1999. The following year, he wed actress Suzy Amis, one daughter from the union. Turned his attention to deep sea documentaries after Titanic, so that a full decade would pass before his next can-I-top-this project would hit the screen. In the interim, he produced a televised documentary with purported DNA proof that the prophet Jesus was buried alongside his family and never resurrected, as yet another fillip in his ongoing desire to unearth the past in the most titanic and provocative manner. Withdrew his application for American citizenship following George Bush’s 2004 presidential win, despite his longtime residency in the USA. After finally finding a project worthy of the intervening technological advances, and working on it several years, he released the spectacular 3-D sci-fi adventure, Avatar, a CGI futuristic collision of species, which got rave reviews, and budgeted out at $280 million plus marketing costs, while trumpeting itself as the future of film in its integration of digital creations and human actors. Subsequently became the 5th ever film to break the billion dollar barrier, and made him the first to do it twice, as it quickly became the greatest grosser of all time, while also raising the hackles of right-wing critics, as a pro-Green, anti-American imperialism screed. Despite winning Golden Globes for Best Picture and Director for it, he lost out to his ex, Kathryn Bigelow and her far more modest Hurt Locker, in the subsequent Oscars. In 2012, he used a specially designed submarine to dive nearly seven miles to the deepest spot on the planet, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, to film and explore its extremities. Inner: Innovative, difficult, driven, demanding, thin-skinned and highly ambitious, with a self-view as an outsider. Has a fascination with exploration, as in lives past, as well as technology, with a deep draw towards the ocean as the ultimate unexplored frontier. Bombastic, irascible, angry perfectionist. Total taskmaster on his films, driving his crews and cast to meet big-budget deadlines, while showing a mastery of every aspect on a set, down to make-up touchups on wounds. Titanic lifetime of giving violent vision to his roiling crypto-archaeologist interior, while leaving his oceanic character largely unexplored because of his fascination with far larger landscapes than himself. James Stuart Blackton (1875-1941) - English/American filmmaker. Outer: Father was a carriage maker who deserted the family. Mother remarried and the family emigrated to the United States when he was 10. Worked as a carpenter, went to night school in NYC, and became a journalist-illustrator for the New York World. Impressed inventor Thomas Edison, who allowed him to make a short film of his drawings, and he, in turn, bought a Kinetoscope off of Edison and went into business with 2 partners as film exhibitors, establishing the Vitagraph Company. Worked as an actor in the company’s early projects, while filming both fake and real news events. Married Isabel MacArfthur in 1895, divorced in 1906, 2 children from the union, writer/actress Marian Blackton, and actor J. Stuart Blackton, Jr. Established the first glass-enclosed studios in Brooklyn, while directing most of his company’s early efforts, including early story films. Pioneered many of the initial innovations of film, including single frame animation, and close shots. Emphasized editing, and next to D.W. Griffith, was probably the most original creative force in early filmdom. Pioneered in early stage adaptations, as well as 2 and 3 reel comedies, starring as a character named Happy Hooligan. In 1906, he wed actress/writer/director Paula Hilburn, who died in 1930. 2 children from the union, actress Violet Blackton and actor Charles Stuart Blackton. Between 1900 and 1915, he was also president of the Vitaphone Company, which produced records, and in 1915, he organized and became president of the Motion Picture Board of Trade. Also published and edited Motion Picture Magazine, one of America’s first fanzines. Eventually began overseeing the work of many as a production supervisor. Left Vitagraph in 1917 to initiate his own independent production company, producing and directing a series of patriotic propaganda films, before returning to England to direct several costume pageants, 2 of them in color, still an experimental process at the time. When Vitagraph was absorbed by Warner Bros. in 1926 he retired, and 3 years later he lost his fortune in the stock market crash and was forced to work for the Federal Relief Film Project in Los Angeles during the Depression. Married Dr. Helen Stahle, an orthodontist in his mid-50s, she died in 1933. His 4th and final mate was actress Evangeline Russell, whom he married in 1936. Died of head injuries suffered in an automobile accident. Inner: Innovative, driven, and highly ambitious, although ultimately sunk by forces much larger than himself. Pioneering lifetime of being there at the creation of the motion picture industry, and serving as one of its primary forces for the first 2 decades of its existence, before playing with failure for his life’s end/run, and ultimately becoming undone by the machinery of technology, which had served him so well earlier on. Sir Robert Ker Porter (1777-1842) -Scottish artist. Outer: Father was a military surgeon who died when son was 2. One of 5 children, including novelist and playwright Jane Porter, and writer Anna Marie Porter. Spent his boyhood in Edinburgh. The family was poor and dependent on the support of his sire’s old patrons. Influenced by the Scottish rebel figure, Flora Macdonald, he decided to become an action painter. Moved with his mother to London, to allow him to pursue art and he studied under American expatriate Benjamin West (Steven Soderbergh). Because of his extraordinary promise, he was elected a member of the Royal Academy at the tender age of 14. Became a popular painter of grandiose battle scenes, and was best known for a 132 foot panorama, called “Storming of Seringapatam,” painted at the age of 23. A splendid horseman, he was made a captain in the Westminster militia. Through his polished manner and good connections, he went to the court of Alexander I (Mikhail Gorbachev) of Russia as the official court painter. Fell in love with princess Maria Sherbatoff, but was forced to leave the country because of their affair. Knighted by the king of Sweden, traveled in Finland and Spain, then returned to Russia in 1811 after Napoleon’s retreat and married the princess. Knighted in England in 1813. After 1817, he traveled in the mid-East and gave up his flamboyant painting style for the meticulously painstaking copying of ancient artifacts, most notably in Persepolis. For 2 years, he drew virtually everything he saw, and in 1821, published a book on his travels. After his wife died of typhus in 1826, he became British consul in Venezuela, doing the seminal portrait of the liberator, Simon Bolivar (Fidel Castro). Left in 1841, to return to Russia, and died there suddely of apoplexy. Inner: Precocious, driven, restless, energetic, capable of cramming several different lives into one. Master of the grand style, but also a meticulous renderer of detail. Able to ingratiate himself with people of all castes. Peripatetic lifetime of unconsciously combining the dualistic styles of detail and sweep in preparation for the advent of cinema to come, while proving himself a stylish citizen of the world, adept at expressing himself in any culture in which he found himself.

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PATHWAY OF THE WRITER/ARTIST AS PULPMEISTER EXTRAORDINAIRE:
Storyline: The crackerjack comic book chronicler brings his extremely dark view of civilization and its discontents to the fore through a variety of media, after earlier having lived the lives he limns, before focusing on the rich sheen of his imagination to desolately redefine heroics for the modern age.
Frank Miller (1957) - American artist, writer and filmmaker. Outer: Of Irish Catholic descent. Mother was a nurse, father was a carpenter/electrician. Fifth of seven children. Filled his early imagination with thrillers and movies, citing numerous hard-boiled pulpists, such as Mickey Spillane as his inspiration. Headed for NYC after he finished high school in Vermont, and immediately found work as a comic book artist, despite a lack of superheroes in his sampler. 6’1”, lanky, with a hawkish profile, and a trademark fedora. Began with illustrating Twilight Zone stories, before moving over to DC comics, where he worked in the combat genre. In 1978, he began drawing and inking for Marvel comics, becoming the penciller for the Daredevil series, before taking it over when the original artist left, while elevating it to an extremely popular title. Created his female ninja love interest, Elektra, while utilizing a gritty noir style not seen in comics beforehand. By 1981, he was both the writer and penciller of the series, while exploring far bleaker storylines for the blind superhero. Collaborated with other writers on other characters, before coming up with Ronin, a samurai warrior and alter ego of an armless boy, in 1983, and then moving on to Batman, a longtime staple, bringing him into the future, while employing adult-oriented stories in his characterization of the Dark Knight, as a brooding vigilante, which would inspire a film franchise, delivered in similar ruminative manner. Married Lynn Varley, one of his colorists with whom he would work on a variety of projects, divorced in 2005. Produced a graphic novel, “Daredevil: Love and War” in 1986, along with an artist collaborator, and helped bring Japanese manga to western audiences, before getting into a dispute with DC over perceived censorship, and moving over to Dark Horse Comics, championing creator rights and fighting against the dark hand of the censor. Moved to Los Angeles in 1990, and began writing filmscripts, beginning with RoboCop 2 and 3, about a police cyborg, which turned him off Hollywood and nervous studio interference with his work. Began an even darker series in 1991, “Sin City,” which would become his focus for the rest of the decade, while proving a throwback to his very first efforts as a teenager, replete with his far more jaded view of urban civilization. Along with his wife, he did “300” retracing the Spartan battle of Thermopylae with the Persians, which was made into a successful film in 1997. Collaborated with director Robert Rodriquez on a short and then a feature on Sin City, with his original drawings as the basis for much of it. His dark take on the hero genre would be successfully commercially, although would meet with much critical ire over his lack of human empathy. Rendered Will Eisner’s classic The Spirit into film noir in 2008 to similar criticism. Has made several cameo appearances in his works, while using pen, ink and camera as aduncts to his take-no-prisoners imagination. Inner: Strong sense of his/story, as well as good’n’evil, with virtue as his ultimate heroic trait. Inspired by pulp fiction and detective stores, with an affinity for resurrection in some of his stories, while also limning many characters with afflictions. Lively pen lifetime of creating dark knights for an equally dark age, as a means of addressing his own ongoing sense of the decline and fall of just about everything save for our need to be saved by super and subhuman avengers. Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) - American writer. Outer: Of Irish descent. Both sides of the family fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Mother suffered from TB, her entire son’s life. Extremely close connection between the two, where she encouraged his writing. Father was a country physician, who was always looking for a financial killing, which never came about, exacerbating tensions in the household between husband and wife, with the latter feeling she married beneath herself. Grew up in a variety of small Texas towns, where his mind was enflamed by tales of ghosts, frontier life and the southwest. Bored with school, he began writing at the age of 9, ultimately finding in pulp magazines the perfect outlet for his hyperactive imagination. The family settled in a small oil boomtown, which gave him a shuddering view of the corruptions of civilization, and permanently etched the natural state of barbarism as far superior to it in his subsequent oeuvre. His first literary efforts were rejected, before he began attending a boarding school, where he finally found friends who shared his interests. Had his first stories published in the school’s newspaper. Tall, blue-eyed and bookish, he became a bodybuilder, while showing a fascination for boxing, and an equal feel for alienated heroes. Did odd jobs and took a stenography course at a business school, before finally seeing his first short story published in “Weird Tales,” a pulp magazine with which he would subsequently become identified. Dropped out of school, moved back to Cross Plains, to be close to his mother, and began pouring forth with a host of stories and poems, while also penning an autobiographical novel, which was never published during his lifetime. Took up the violin, with the thought of a music career, although never pursued it, and also wrote oil news for a local newspaper, before finally receiving payment for his pulp in 1925. Continued with a series of unsatisfactory jobs, while publishing poems in a variety of journals, which focused on the bloodlust and brutality of war, and served as a basis for the later imagery of his stories. Boxed to relieve his frustrations, returned to school, and penned “The Shadow Kingdom,” a sword and sorcery tale that combined elements of mythos, romance and action, establishing a new genre that would come to dominate pulp. Created a host of characters that he would continually limn in his stories, including Solomon Kane, a Puritan swordsman, Kull, an Atlantean savage, and sailor Steve Costigan, his fighting alter ego, while submitting them to a host of magazines, so that by the heart of the Depression, he was an an acknowledged pulpmeister. Able to become a full-time writer by 1930, punching out his stories on an Underwood typewriter, while pursuing Celtic themes, after teaching himself a little Gaelic. Explored various historical epics, while also engaging in a correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, a fellow purveyor of chthonic mindscapes. In 1932, he came up with his most lasting character, Conan the Cimmerian, ruler over a mythical kingdom in an equally fictive age. Isolated from his neighbors, he had one girlfriend, Novalyne Price, an aspiring writer, who eventually became fed up with his lack of commitment and obsessive clinging to his mother, although she would later write of their relationship in “The Whole Wide World.” Worked in other genres, with westerns as his final one, and by 1936, was making more than the local bank president, but his mother’s continuing decline deeply affected him. When she went into a final coma, he walked out to his car and fired a bullet into his head, dying eight hours later. His mother expired the following day, while his suicide note was found in his wallet, “All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre; The fest is over and lamps expire,” paraphrased from a poem by Viola Garvin, an obscure English poetess. His career would continue unabated after his death, with his stories collected and published and republished, in homage to his mastery over pure pulp fiction. The Howard home would eventually be bought and turned into a museum in 1989. Inner: Afraid of growing old, with a desire to die in his prime. Suffered from a weak heart, in contrast to his fierce and angry mind. Literal mind-blowing lifetime of pumping out pulp in masterful fashion as a purveyor of the heroic fantasies of youth, achieving an immortality that belied his own brief existence, that was unable to see itself past his own oedipal yearnings. Prentiss Ingraham (1843-1904) - American soldier of fortune and writer. Outer: Only son of a reverend, who was also a writer. Educated by private tutors at a military academy, before going on to Jefferson College in Mississippi. Had intended further medical training, but instead became an officer in a Mississippi light artillery regiment at the outbreak of the Civil War. Wounded in the foot and taken prisoner at Fort Hudson, although escaped when he was sent north, only to be wounded a second time in Tennessee. Became a commander of scouts for the Texas cavalry, before deciding on the life of a soldier of fortune. Fought with Benito Juarez (Lazaro Cardenas) against imperial French designs on Mexico, then later served in the Austrian army during the Austro-Prussian War. Subsequently fought against the Turks in Crete, and with the Khedive’s army in Egypt, before ending his military career with Cuban rebels against Spain, showing a strong identification in all his engagements with insurgent forces fighting against established powers. Rose to colonel in the Cuban army and captain in their navy, before being captured and condemned to death by Spain, only to escape once more. Moved to London, where he began his writing career, with articles and poems, as well satiric sketches of British life, although found little audience for his initial efforts. Returned to the U.S. and penned his first dime novel in 1872, “The Masked Spy.” Proved extremely prolific afterwards, knocking off 35,000 to 70,000 word pieces per month, all by longhand, since he couldn’t type. In 1875, he married Rose Langley (Lynn Varley), an author, artist and composer, three children from the union. Settled in NYC and began writing dime novels for Beadle and Adams, as well as plays and poems. In the early 1880s, he worked with Buffalo Bill Cody (Clint Eastwood), becoming an advance agent for his wild west show, while penning a fanciful biography of him. Although much of his work just tumbled out of him, and followed stereotypes rather than characterizations, his output would have a strong effect on his readership, so that even cowboys began dressing the way he described them. Eventually moved to Maryland and then Chicago, while suffering on and off from the foot wound he incurred during the Civil War, which led to his eventual death from nephritis, after returning home to Mississippi. Ultimately wrote over 600 novels and 400 novelettes for a variety of publishers, as well as serials and short stories under a host of pseudonyms, including Dangerfield Burr, Colonel Leon Lafitte, and Midshipman Tom W. Hall. Probably penned some of the works credited to Buffalo Bill, while also adding to his legend with his own stories. Inner: Highly adventurous and equally prolific, combining derring-do with an extremely active imagination. Swashbuckling lifetime of hyperwarrior activity followed by an equal desire to limn his sense of heroics on paper, before returning to continue to do the same with a far more degraded sense of civilization, and far darker and more fantastical paladins needed to combat it.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS MAESTRO OF MAWKISH MYSTERY:
Storyline: The industrious outsider uses his sense of otherness to explore the entertainingly enigmatic in his ongoing desire to reign supreme at the box office via his skills at transliterating the nightmarish into the daylight of audience delight.
M. Night Shyamalan (Manoj Shyamalan) (1974) - Indian/American filmmaker. Outer: Born in India, during one of his parents’ visit home to see their family. Father was a cardiologist. Inseparable family, who continue to live close to one another. Small for his age, and frightened of everything. Grew up in Philadelphia. Raised a Hindu, although was sent to Roman Catholic grade school for the discipline, and began making films at the age of 10 with an 8 mm camera. Added Night to his appellation as a teenager because his teachers would mispronounce his first name. 5’11”. Attended NYU and studied film there, while also meeting his future intended, a psychology major, to whom he proposed through a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant. Tall and broad-shouldered. Made his first feature in 1992, Praying With Anger, which he shot in India in order to save money, and in which he starred, although it fared poorly. Sold a screenplay afterwards, although Fox, which bought it, then reneged on his shooting it. Married Bhavna Vaswani in 1993, 2 daughters from the union. Fared worse with his second feature, which hardly made any money after being recut, but struck gold with his third, The Sixth Sense, in 1999, about a boy who could see the dead, which was deliberately penned to be a commercial success, and made the list for all-time top 10 money-makers with $672 million. By the turn of the century, he had established himself as a maestro of the mysterious with his next three moneymaking features, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village, despite critical carping, making him Hollywood’s highest paid screenwriter. An unabashed fan of commercial, rather than artistic directors, he has become more and more isolated with his successes, displaying both an arrogance and a taste for the melodramatic and the superficial, which may ultimately militate against his further triumphs in a notoriously fickle industry. Broke ties with Disney over his next film, Lady in the Water, after criticism from the studio, which further alienated him from Hollywood, while it tanked, as his first failure since winning acclaim as a filmmaker. The entire process was chronicled in a book, “The Man Who Heard Voices,” as an ironic paean to someone who doesn’t seem to listen to anyone but himself. His later efforts would make him a favorite at the Golden Raspberries, topping himself in 2011 with 4 for his The Last Airbender, including Worst Director and Worst Picture. Inner: Unabashed movie fan, who measures his triumphs by their grosses, rather than their artistic merit, making for more and more hokey fare, as his career has progressed. As interested in self-promotion, as he is in filmmaking, seeing the two totally intertwined. Still a small boy at heart, afraid of his parents’ disapproval. Introspective, competitive, self-confident and tapped into his audience’s potential viewing desires. Golden glove lifetime of striving to be a box office champion, and once again using his outsider status and imaginative fascination with the mysterious to work his way into the rarified circles of supreme commercial success. Maurice Tourneur (Maurice Thomas) (1876-1961 - French filmmaker. Outer: Father was a jewel merchant. Began as a book illustrator and decorator, before serving with the French artillery in North Africa. Went to work for sculptor Auguste Rodin (Robert Rauschenburg), before becoming an actor on the French stage with several companies at the turn of the century. Married twice, the second time to actress Louise Lagrange, son Jacques Tourneur became an American citizen and a noted director in the same milieu as his father, fantasy, as well as horror. Following a quarrel with the head of his acting company, he turned to film and became an assistant director in 1911, and the following year, he began his career as a director with the Eclair film company, with a particular emphasis on the visual quality of his films. At the start of WW I, he emigrated to the U.S., and with a good command of English, began directing his company’s American productions on the East Coast. All of his productions were noted for their visual texture and sublime aesthetics, as he branched out to other American-owned companies, focusing on mystery and fantasy as his speciality. Returned to France in 1926, after a dispute with MGM, although found he was resented for having avoided the carnage of WW I. The latter part of his career was spent in Europe, as he made the transition to sound, and continued working until 1949 when he lost a leg in a car accident. For the rest of his life, he translated American mystery novels into French. Inner: Sensitive and self-righteous. Fascinated with the beauty of mystery. Stranger in a strange land lifetime of exploring the visual elements of fantasy before literally rendering himself unable to stand on his own in order to explore the pure expository power of his mind through the written word. Charles Perrault (1628-1703) French writer and critic. Outer: Father was a lawyer who sat in Parliament. Had 3 brothers, all of whom became well-known, including Claude (H.G. Wells), an architect, who translated Vitruvius, an earlier go-round of his sibling’s. The other 2 brothers, Pierre and Nicholas, were a lawyer turned hydrologist and a theologian. Wrote his first work in school, with the aid of his siblings. Attended the College of Beauvais, and ultimately followed his father’s profession, gaining his legal license in 1651, and subsequently held several royal administrative posts. Wrote his first book in 1653, “Les Murs de Troie.” Elected to the French Academy in 1671, and was very active in it, introducing secret ballots for the election of members. Married the following year, 3 sons from union, his wife died in 1678. Made a chancellor of the academy, and its librarian as well. Established his literary reputation with a poem to Louis XIV’s (Charles de Gaulle) century in 1687, in which he supported les modernes, or modern letters, which raised the hackles of the classicists, and initiated a war of words twixt the 2 camps over the next 3 years, with himself playing the aggressive defender of the contemporary, albeit in far more civilized manner than others who shared his views. Showed an ignorance of classical antiquity, but made up for it with a good-natured mocking of his pedantic foes. Eventually reconciled himself with the opposing view. His lasting contribution to letters, however, came from his Mother Goose tales, which he had composed in spare moments, and in which he put little lasting store. They were published in 1697 over the name of his young son. Although the 11 stories were not new, but rather part of the folklore tradition, he put them in appropriate dress and language, and, ironically, dipped into the classicism of the form to make them contemporary. The stories of ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Little Red Riding Hood,’ and ‘Tom Thumb,’ among others, have come down unabated through time, as the bedrock of children’s classics. Lost his youngest son to war in 1700, and 3 years later died at home. Inner: Versatile and amiable. Good-humored lifetime of leaving a lasting legacy for childhood via dint of an imagination that has always loved innocent and experienced fantasy as its primary form of expression.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS MASTER OF PEAKS AND VALLEYS:
Storyline: The commercial cineaste reaches a successful apex of catering to public tastes only to slip from public grace, when he outlives his talent for pleasing the capricious palate of his audiences.
Robert Wise (1914-2005) - American director and producer. Outer: Father was a meat packer. Youngest of 3 brothers. Fascinated by film ever since childhood, seeing 3 or 4 matinees a week, and also interested in writing, serving as sports editor of his high school paper. Went to Franklin College in Indiana to study journalism, but was forced to drop out because of finances. His older brother was an accountant in the film industry, and he got a job in 1933 as a film porter, before moving into sound effects, and finally becoming an editor. Married crew member/actress Patricia Boyle in 1942, and their son became a cameraman. Served as an editor, and worked on several Orson Welles classics in the early 1940s, including Citizen Kane, and the disastrous recutting of The Magnificent Ambersons before making his debut as a substitute director in 1944 with Curse of the Cat People, which he completed in 10 days. Worked on B pictures throughout the rest of the 1940s, making an imprint with the boxing classic The Set Up. Continued as a high-quality meat-and-potatoes director during the 1950s, and into the 1960s during which time he won an Academy Reward for co-director of West Side Story in 1961, and again for Sound of Music in 1965, while also winning Oscars as producer of both films. Worked in all genres, producing several gems, although never developed a distinctive style, preferring anonymous craftsmanship to auteurship. Served as president of the Screen Director’s Guild in 1970, during which time he was an outspoken opponent of the Supreme Court’s “eye of the beholder” obscenity ruling. At the same time, he formed a production company, the Filmmakers Group, with 2 partners in order to finance films without studio interference. Married a second time to Millicent Franklin in 1977 after his wife’s death from cancer in 1975. His later work tailed off, largely due to the material chosen. In 1998, he was given the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and his final film was for cable TV in 2000. Subject of a controversy in 2003, when his praise for Gangs of New York, in the Oscar race, was revealed to have been written by a publicist. Died of heart failure. Inner: Disciplined craftsman, modest and self-effacing. Repeat lifetime of rising to a productive peak in mid-career, only to outspend his creative coin afterwards. Frederic Church (1826-1900) - American artist. Outer: From a family whose ancestors were the original settlers of Hartford. Father was a businessman and prominent citizen, who wished a similar career for his son. Tall and thin. Studied with landscapist Thomas Cole (Thomas Hart Benton) for 2 years in the mid-1840s, during which time he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in NY, winning full membership in 1849. Went to South America in 1853 to see nature at its most spectacularly exotic, and established himself with “Niagara,” a grandiose pictorial of the falls, which was the start of his ‘Great Picture” period. Traveled in the northeast during his summers, as well as returning to Ecuador in 1857, while reading science texts voraciously, so as to give a detailed miniaturist view of the natural world in his epic canvases, which had begun with serene scenes and exploded into the drama of nature at its most astonishing. Capped his career in 1859 with “Heart of the Andes,” which sold for a record $10,000, bringing his same sense of overblown religious romanticism to it as well. Enjoyed phenomenal success in the 1850s and 1860s, with his powerful landscapes, which evoked both national pride and religious sentiment, and were sent on major tours of both Europe and America, as paid-admission single picture affairs. Married Isabel Carnes and moved to Hudson, New York in 1860, where he had a magnificent 5 story home, Olana, constructed over a 6 year period, which he filled with exotica from his continued his travels, to Canada, the Middle East, Greece and Italy over the next decade. Both his children died of diphtheria in 1865, had one more son afterwards. When the genre of romantic landscape declined, so did his reputation, which was compounded by inflammatory rheumatism which cost him the use of his right hand in 1877. After teaching himself to paint left-handed, he experienced the same loss of dexterity, and it failed him as well. Unable to adjust to the post-Civil War industrialized America, he was practically forgotten and severely crippled by the time of his death, having long outlived his romantic vision. Inner: Shy, unassuming, religious, detached and repressed. Outer-directed lifetime of turning nature into a highly salable commodity, while keeping his own nature hidden even from himself, and winding up a ghost in the attic of American changing tastes and times.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS SHARP-EYED PORTRAITIST:
Storyline: The theatrical teacher switches from brush to pen, and dandy to actor, before settling into what he has always done best, serving as a teacherly eye through which to see the world anew.
Arthur Penn (Arthur Hiller Penn) (1922-2010) - American filmmaker. Outer: Of Russian-Jewish descent. Father was a watch repairman, mother was a nurse, duo divorced when their son was 3. Younger brother of photographer Irving Penn. At 5, he was frightened by a horror movie and didn’t see another until he was 14. Lived with his mother in a series of apartments in NJ and NYC, and went to 13 different schools, while identifying strongly with Francois Truffaut’s tale of disaffected childhood, The 400 Blows. At 14, he went to live with his ailing father to help him with his shop, although knew nothing about watch repair. Found himself quite like his withdrawn, taciturn, fastidious sire, who became a closed emotional model for him. By high school, his interests had expanded to the theater, enjoying the technical side of it initially. Slight, trim, with a preference for casual attire. While stationed in South Carolina during WW II, he formed a drama club, then continued to study acting in both Black Mountain College in North Carolina and the universities of Perugia and Florence in Italy, following the war. Did theatrical work, with a particular interest in the technical side, and also continued his education at the Actor’s Studio in Los Angeles, before ultimately opting to go behind the camera for NBC TV in 1951. Within 2 years, he was writing and directing productions for the network’s two prestigious drama shows, Philco Playhouse and Playhouse 90. In 1955, he married former actress Peggy Maurer, a daughter and a son Matthew, who became a director. Gave JFK excellent advice of looking straight into the camera and parsing his comments to the brief and pithy during his TV debate with Richard Nixon, which probably helped get him elected in 1960. Parlayed his network work into a film career, beginning with The Left-Handed Gun, a psychological look at the legendary Billy the Kid replete with Method acting, that was well beyond the American public, although quite admired in Europe. Turned to the theater, and had three consecutive successes on Broadway, which brought him back to Hollywood in 1962, with a film adaptation of one of them, The Miracle Worker, which he made while insisting the original theatrical cast be retained, over the studio’s wishes for a genuine star. Prevailed and won an Oscar nomination for his effort, before being fired by his star, Burt Lancaster, a couple of days into his next try, The Train. Dismayed, but not undaunted, he made a quirky independent film after it, and then suffered a second slap in the face, with The Chase in 1966, when he was fired by the producer and the entire film was recut. Disgusted with Hollywood, he was, nevertheless, pulled back by producer/star, Warren Beatty, for Bonnie and Clyde, a seminal movie of the decade, which he was allowed to make without studio interference, thanks to Beatty’s protection. Continued with his distinctive fare through the first half of the 1970s, until the half-realized The Missouri Breaks in 1976, which caused his own break from filmmaking, with only sporadic fare following, with much of it relatively forgettable. The 1980s proved far less effective for him, and he ultimately ended his film career and returned to television, both as director and executive producer, as well as live theater. Died at home of congestive heart failure the day after his 88th birthday. Inner: Exacting, with a strong esthetic and a great desire to produce memorable art. Emotionally intense and informal. Never storyboarded his films, preferring spontaneity, and capturing real emotional moments. Into the breech lifetime of dueling with the yahoos of Hollywood over his strong esthetic vision, while trying to serve once again as a popular teacher of the power of the visual in bringing the country’s inner life to life. William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) - American artist. Outer: Father owned a shoe store, which his son worked in, although his artistic talents were obvious from his early youth. Oldest of 7 children. The family moved to Indianapolis, where his sire opened the first shoe store in the West with its own women’s section. Recognizing his son’s talents, the latter took him to a local artist for instruction, and in 1869, he went to NYC, where he studied for 3 years at the national Academy of Design and did still lives, since they were the most commercially viable of the various genres open to him. After his father’s business failed, he moved to St. Louis, and was subsequently aided by several local businessmen, who sent him to the Munich Royal Academy in 1872 to complete his studies. Painted in the somber colors of his school until decade’s end, when he switched to a much lighter, more impressionistic palette, while exhibiting a technical mastery in all he did. Stayed until 1878, burnishing his reputation with successful exhibitions, then, after another year painting in Venice, returned to NYC, where he taught at the newly formed Art Student’s League, proving to be a highly effective teacher, integrating as he did European traditions, with the far freer American palette. An unabashed dandy, he sported spats, a cane, an arching mustache, and topped it off with a pair of pince-nez, feeling that proper dress demanded respect. In 1886, he married Alice Gerson, a 20 year old, 6 girls and 2 boys from union, with his daughters serving as his favorite subject matter. Established a studio and school on Long Island in the 1890s, and remained a teacherly force for the rest of his life, as well as a tireless promoter of what he considered the best of the new art. In 1896, he founded the Chase School of Art, which became the NY School of Art. Discouraged debate and disagreement, while imbuing his lectures with both gravity and decorum. After inviting Robert Henri (Martin Scorsese) onto the faculty in 1902, he suddenly found himself in contention with the latter, as their teacherly styles were diametrically opposed, ultimately forcing him out of the very school he had founded in 1907. Since the two were considered the pre-eminent American teachers of the time, their division would continue to be debated long afterwards by their respective students. Absolutely deplored the so-called Ash Can School that Henri represented, since it showed little of the aesthetic that he tried to imbue in all his works. From the early part of the century, he made it a practice to take a group of students with him to Europe, and continued to do so up until WW I. Best known for his portraits and inner and outer landscapes. Worked in pastels and watercolors as well as oils, and was active until the end of his life. Inner: Cosmopolitan, individualistic, with a heartfelt sense of esthetics which he wished to pass on both through his work and his teaching. Saw art in terms of extracting beauty from whatever subject is presented. Professorial lifetime of playfully playing the dandy, while seriously making himself an instructive force in the ongoing evolution of American art.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS PESSIMIST AT HEART:
Storyline: The two-eyed cyclops toys with his own personal sense of power and innocence in his ongoing need to look at himself through a glass darkly, in order to try to find the light within.
Alan J. Pakula (1928-1998) - American filmmaker. Outer: Of Polish-Jewish descent. Father was in printing and advertising. Started writing and acting in plays in high school, with the dream of becoming a director. 6’2”, and eventually bearded. Graduated from the Yale Drama School, and began in films in 1949 as an assistant in the Warner Bros. cartoon department. Started his larger career as a production assistant at Paramount, before ultimately forming his own production company with director Robert Milligan, for several notable films, including, To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962. In 1963, he married actress Hope Lange, duo divorced in 1969. Began directing later in the decade, with A Sterile Cuckoo, and hit his peak in the 70’s, with Klute, The Parallax View and All The President’s Men, for which he earned a Best Director Oscar nomination, as well as the reputation as Hollywood’s favorite director of political paranoia, despite his lack of an activist sense. In 1973, he married writer Hannah Cohn Boorstin, a widow with 3 children. After the 1970s, however, he seemed to have largely spun himself out, save for Sophie’s Choice in 1982, which he both wrote and directed to strong effect. Continued working out of NY, rather than Hollywood, and in 1989, produced, directed and wrote, See You In The Morning, based on his own second marriage, after it had ended. Remarried Lange in 1986. Killed in a freak accident, when a metal pipe went through his windshield while he was driving, striking him in the head and killing him, after he lost control of his car. This bizarre ending was also symbolic of being impaled through the eye of his vehicle, perhaps as a sacrificial opening up of it to greater vision in the future. Inner: Introspective, meticulous, and highly self-critical in his approach to all his work. Fascinated with the loss of innocence and trust as well as power used and misused, which he would continually explore. Far more into the personal than the political, despite the social themes of many of his works. More fully realized lifetime of finding his power, then passing his peak, before exiting in most unusual cyclopean fashion, perhaps to claim a higher reputation in his artistic milieus to come. Dennis Miller Bunker (1861-1890) - American artist. Outer: Father was secretary-treasurer of the Union Ferry Co. Had a privileged upbringing, and was a handsome youth. At 16, he enrolled at the National Academy of Design and the Art Student’s League. Initially painted boats or deserted beeches. In 1882, he went to Paris, spending 2 years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Studied under Jean Leon Gerome, and did landscapes and plein air painting. On his return, he was elected a member of the Society of American Artists, and began a teaching career at the newly opened Cowles Art School in Boston. Found it, however, a disappointing experience, despite gaining the reputation of being an effective teacher. Disliked Boston’s provincialism and faux formality. Despite having a one man show in 1885, he had money problems, which were tempered further by his own melancholic disposition. Also suffered from stomach pains and eye problems. Became close friends with Isabella Stewart Gardiner, Boston’s premier art patron, and through her, met John Singer Sergeant (Stanley Kubrick), who would influence him enormously, turning him into an impressionist afterwards. Fell in love with one Eleanor Hardy the following year, but struggled with his sense of financial inadequacy. Quit Cowles in 1889 and returned to NYC, before wedding Miss Hardy, but died prematurely soon afterwards of influenza. Inner: Extremely self-critical, rarely met his own standards. Loved literature and music, but a complainer at heart, always looking at the darker side of things. Pessimistic lifetime of ultimately trying to lighten himself through his palette, before prematurely succumbing to his own dark sense of lack of personal power, to try it again in an even more demanding milieu.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS INFORMATION-DISPENSER:
Storyline: The chronic-abuse chronicler lends his unerring eye to the underside of the human tragedy in order to bring it to public consciousness, while trying to keep a dispassionate eye, despite a passionate need to expose the sordid realities of his larger environs.
Frederick Wiseman (1930) - American filmmaker. Outer: Of Jewish descent. Mother was the administrator of a children’s psychiatric ward, and his father was a lawyer who served on hospital boards and charitable organizations. Imbued with a sense of social concern from an early age. Short and trim. Hated high school, then went to Williams College and Yale Law, where he met his future wife, before spending 2 years in the army, which he disliked. Married a law professor, 2 sons. Afterwards studied law at the Univ. of Paris, passed the bar, but never practiced, although later taught academic law. Named his production company, Zipporah, after his wife, and began producing extraordinary documentaries, beginning with Titicut Follies in 1967, a grim view of a Massachusetts state prison facility, which was banned in the state for 25 years, but brought him instant recognition for his cinema verite style and his ability to tell his stories totally through images, rather than narratives, voiceovers or interviews, giving the viewer the impression they were immediately present at the shooting, and allowing them to draw their own conclusions from the material. Using lightweight portable equipment, and minimalist crews, while making his locales, rather than individual subjects, the focus of his shoots, he has been able to give a direct voyeur’s view to all his material. A master editor, he ultimately came to see his early works as too didactic and reformist-minded, and has since allowed his subject matter to evolve on its own, taking on a far more objective view of it. In some 30 plus documentaries, he has covered a wide range of subjects from high school to intensive care units, while always focusing on the frailty of the human condition, with a particularly raw nerve for the inhumanity of bureaucracy. Has also taken on far more fluffier subjects for balance, while always approaching his work as an artist, thanks to his longtime fascination with the theater. Began expanding his body of work from its 90 minute limitations to more epic undertakings in the mid-1970s, and continues to give his audience an up close and personal look at both worlds that are difficult to view and those that give great pleasure in the observing. Inner: Reticent, preferring to allow his work to speak for itself. Deliberately inverted his personality to become more the objectivist than the impassioned moralist. Initially a reformer at heart, gradually evolved into an artist, in his ongoing evolution as a very realistic eye in an increasingly unrealistic world. Jacob Riis (1849-1913) - Danish/American journalist, reformer and photographer. Outer: Father was a teacher in a Latin school. Received his education from him, and was raised a Methodist, with a deep Christian consciousness. At 13, he discovered a filthy tenement, and with his Christmas money, bought soap to clean away some of the horrors of the place. Served 4 years as a carpenter’s apprentice in Stockholm, then emigrated to the U.S. in 1870. Worked at farming, coal-mining, brick-making and peddling, and wandered around the east, living in semi-poverty, including occasionally sleeping on the streets, before settling into a newspaper career in 1877, the year after he married a childhood friend, Elisabeth Gortz, despite her initially rejecting him in the old country, 5 children from the union. In 1878, he began an 11 year association with the NY Evening Sun, working as a police reporter, where he got to know the slums of lower NY first hand. In 1890, he wrote “How The Other Half Lives,” which he illustrated with his own photographs. The work awoke the country to the heartbreaking conditions of its urban poor, and its popularity allowed him to write and lecture full-time. Close friend of Theodore Roosevelt (Kathleen Kennedy), who was then NYC’s Police Commissioner, and often accompanied him on his rounds. Retired from the Sun in 1899, and spent the rest of his career lecturing and writing, including his best-selling autobiography “The Making of an American.” Tried to reconcile his idealism as an immigrant with the reality of urban decay via his works, although, ironically, his own successes from sadisame, allowed him to transcend the entrapments he wrote about. Saw his subjects in ethnic stereotypes, and was far more the recorder than the reformer, seeing hard work as the panacea for poverty, rather than social change. Did, however, take part in reformist campaigns for better housing, and remained a romantic at heart, with the fantasy of recreating a small town feel for blighted urban areas. In 1913, he bought a farmstead in Massachusetts, and spent the rest of his life there, dying of heart disease. Inner: Natural, spontaneous, exuberant. self-confident and tenderhearted.Always compared the closeness of his early life with the impersonality of urban America, while finding failings in virtually every ethnic group, save his own. Also felt quite negative about interracial socializing. Devout and a conservative Republican with Christianity, rather than government, as his model for reform. Felt defective character led to poverty and conscience-driven capitalism was its solution. Do-gooder lifetime of employing the old maxim of a picture worth a thousand words in his ongoing desire in making the world a better place for his having seen it.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS VISUAL SATIRIST:
Storyline: The exuberant expatriate finds his filmic niche and sticks with it before summarily renouncing his craft, after earlier finding nothing but failure as a previously successful stranger in an estranged land.
Richard Lester (1932) - American/English filmmaker. Outer: Father was a teacher, mother was a nurse. A highly precocious child, he started school at 3. Graduated the Univ. of Pennsylvania, where he composed light music, sang with a group and worked as a stagehand at a TV studio, ultimately becoming a successful TV director by the time he was 20. Went to Europe 2 years later, playing guitar and piano while he traveled. Settled in England, and in 1956, he married Dierdre Smith, a British ballet dancer and choreographer, 2 children from union. Worked as a TV director, briefly hosting his own comedy program, as well as shooting commercials. Also collaborated with comedian Peter Sellers on “The Goon Show.” After a successful inventive short and two directorial failures, hit his stride with the Beatles’ first two movies, in the mid-1960s, A Hard Day’s Night and Help, setting a fast-cutting, highly visual style that he would exploit with varying results in the rest of his films, which to some are empty exercises in cleverness and to others, highly original affairs. Adept in all genres from farce to swashbuckler, with a particular emphasis on his ever-moving cameras and his cutting-room techniques. After the tragic death of actor Roy Kinnear on a shoot in 1989 he decided to quit directing, and did so. Inner: Clever, visually celebratory artist with a sure-handed skill at satire. Multi-expressive lifetime of finding success as an emigre artist after his previously life’s failure at the same pursuit, thanks, in large part, to a healing childhood and a better inner and outer sense of himself, as well as the foreknowledge when to quit, while he was ahead. Mauritz Stiller (Moshe Stiller) (1883-1928) - Swedish filmmaker. Outer: Parents were Russian/Polish Jews. Mother committed suicide when he was 5, father died a year later, making him an orphan, and he used his adoptive family’s name of Katzman afterwards. Attended Hebrew school, studied violin, and was trained to go into the family’s haberdashery business, but fled from Finland to Sweden with a false passport when conscripted into the Russian army. Became an actor and director of avant-garde stage-works, and entered into Swedish films in 1912. Quickly established a reputation as a sophisticated director of satiric social comedies, with a penchant for visual gags. After WW I, he began doing epics, often of Selma Lagerlof novels. Wrote or collaborated on his own scripts, and appeared occasionally in his own films as an actor. Discovered Greta Garbo, became her mentor and constant companion, insisting on bringing her over to America in 1925 when he was signed by M-G-M. Their positions, however, quickly reversed in Hollywood when she immediately became a star, while he floundered. After difficulties, he moved to Paramount, but following a strong initial work, he quarreled with the studio and, suffering from respitory difficulties, returned to Europe, totally broken. Despite a doctor’s recommendation that he go to Switzerland to recover, he directed a stage musical and then expired a few months later, committing suicide when he was seriously ill with pleurisy. Inner: Visual comic master, extremely strong-willed. Searched for perfection in others, saw Garbo as his Pygmalion. Homophile, with an ongoing sense of being the eternal outsider. Melodramatic lifetime of cross-cultural confusion and cross-purposes to his career, necessitating a softer repeat of the same dynamic the next time around in this series, from a far more secure foundation to a more thoroughly integrated livelihood to a final realization he had spun his full course.

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PATHWAY OF THE MAGICIAN AS MASTER OF NEW MEDIUMS:
Storyline: The preternatural prestidigitator employs his sleight-of-hand in a variety of entertaining forms, seeing himself as both teacher and performer, and taking great delight in dazzling and elucidating his audiences with his combined skills.
Jim Henson (1936-1990) - American puppeteer. Outer: Son of an agronomist who worked for the government. Involved in puppetry since high school, and was hired while a senior as a part-time puppeteer for TV in 1954, doing a five minute show called “Sam and Friends.” Studied art and stage design at the Univ. of Maryland, and began doing regular 5 minute TV segments, creating some of the characters who would go on to become the world-famous Muppets. Made the first version of Kermit the Frog out of his mother’s old coat. In 1959, he married Jane Nebel, a fellow art student and helper, 3 daughters and 2 sons from the union, who would later inherit his empire. His original show, “Sam and Friends” became a local cult hit. Began experimenting with film, and totally redesigned his puppetry for television, allowing the medium to dictate logistics. With a partner, created the Muppets, who entered public consciousness through the public television show, “Sesame Street,” for pre-schoolers in 1969. Operated the puppets himself and supplied the voices for several of them, including Kermit, Ernie and Guy Smiley. Expanded into other shows, including “The Muppet Show” and “Fraggle Rock,” winning several Emmys and a Peabody award for his efforts. His shows ultimately reached millions worldwide in over 80 countries, but traveling and work ended his marriage. Entered films in 1979 with The Muppet Movie, and went on to design, direct, produce and supply voices for a host of films that followed over the next decade, working with longtime associate Frank Oz. Built an empire around the movies, TV shows, and his production company, which was ultimately bought by Disney Studios. Died suddenly of a streptococcal infection in his lungs, and his children inherited his empire under the auspices of Disney. Inner: Long-haired, elfin, friendly and work-driven. Empire-building lifetime of tuning his creative genius to a new medium and profiting handsomely from it on all levels, only to sacrifice his personal life in the process and literally flood his very breath of life away. Johann Hofzinser (Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser) (1806-1875) - Austrian magician. Outer: Worked in the Austrian-Hungarian bureaucracy as a clerk in the financial department., where he spent most of his working life. An early fascination with card tricks led him to become an amateur performer, beginning with shows at his apartment for an elite audience of invited guests several times a week when he was in his early 50s. Quickly gained noble patronage, which gave him entree into high cultural circles, and he expanded into tours of the larger cities in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Eliminated elaborate costumes and stage apparati, and focused on his imaginative skills of prestidigitation. Considered the father of card-magic, employing simple tricks, which are still part of the repertoire of stage magicians a century later. Also a romantic poet and a critic, he employed social satire and current events into his act. Never performed outside of his native Austria, and before he died, he insisted his tricks remain hidden, although his wishes were not followed, and they were collected and published several decades later. Inner: Master magician lifetime of focusing on the basic discipline of card-magic and becoming the standard by which all who followed him would be measured.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS COLOR-BESOTTED REALIST:
Storyline: The palette-wielding perfectionist plays with dark and light and the real and the irreal in his quest to integrate his own esthetic with an alienated world peopled by loners, as a means of better understanding himself.
Michael Mann (1943) - American filmmaker. Outer: Father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant. Parents owned a small grocery store, one brother, lower middle-class upbringing. 5’8”. Went to the Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, where he was an English literature major, with the intention of becoming a writer or being an academic, but after taking a film course, he saw his life’s pathway. Escaped the draft because of asthma, and studied at the London International Film School. Stayed aboard, and made both documentaries and commercials, as well as a short film, Juanpuri in 1970, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Returned to the U.S. and moved to California in 1971, where he became involved in TV work and divorced his first wife. Remarried a painter in 1974, four daughters from the union, including actress Ami Canaan Mann. During the decade, he did a few small acting roles, and also worked as a production executive, but his real strength was in his TV scripts. Wrote initially for TV police shows, beginning with “Police Story,” and “Starsky and Hutch,” in the mid-70s, and 4 years later directed his first film for TV, “The Jericho Mile.” Reached an early peak in 1984 with “Miami Vice,” serving as producer as well as writer for the five year series, which made actor Don Johnson both a star and fashion-plate. Far more intrigued with the visual sense of his shows, and the relationships between his characters than actual police procedure. Turned to filmmaking in 1981 with Thief, where he was both writer and director. Has shown a greater regard for natural detail in his film work, although in all his efforts, the hyper-real visual is paramount. Also focuses on the humanness of his criminals, making them sympathetic, despite their flaws and amorality. Operates the camera himself, and employs repetitive visual objects in many of his films. His style is also a means of exploring character, who are often surrogates of his own perfectionism, and dualities of darkness and light. Switched back and forth between TV work and films, hitting another peak in 1992, with The Last of the Mohicans, based on the James Fenimore Cooper (John Steinbeck) epic. Far more interested in producing lasting works, than ordinary commercial fare, he has only made a double handful of films in his quarter century behind the camera, but all have been memorable in their own way, thanks to a fine sense of the dramatic to go with his supercharged esthetic. A champion of digital filmmaking, he shot Collateral in 2004 in that medium, preferring the detail of images it brings up, to conventional film stock. Part of the impressive writer/drector team, along with David Milch, for “Luck, a 2012 cable series based on characters playing off the world of the Santa Anita racetrack. The series, however, quickly ran out of luck, when three horses died and production was sspended. Inner: Perfectionist, with an extremely strong visual flair, and a fascination with both criminality and illuminating the dark side of human behavior. Harbors a Nietzchean overview that a will to power drives people to become their opposites. Peeled eye lifetime of expanding upon his pronounced visual aesthetic to add a storytelling flavor to it, making for a memorable oeuvre of mixing the dark with the light of pure pictorial splendor, as he reveals his dualistic interior through his exterior work. William J. Glackens (1870-1938) - American artist. Outer: Grandfather was an Irish immigrant who founded several newspapers. Father was a railroad clerk. Youngest of 4. Went to high school with future fellow artist, John Sloan. Studied at the Penna. Academy of Fine Arts with, among other teachers, Robert Henri (Martin Scorsese), while working as a newspaper and magazine illustrator, attending classes only when he could get away from work. In his mid-20s, he went to Paris for a year, and when he returned, he settled in NYC, eager to rejoin Henri, and his group of peer realists, who were joined by a common desire to limn contemporary life in as unadorned a manner as possible, earning them the sobriquet of the Ashcan school. On his moving to NYC, he got newspaper illustration work, through one of them, George Luks (Brian De Palma). In 1898, he was sent to Cuba by McClure’s magazine to cover the Spanish American war, and after he returned, he decided to become a serious artist. In 1904, he married an artist/illustrator, Edith Dimock, son and daughter from the union. The former, Ira, would write on his father’s life and work. Close friends and neighbors of the Everett Shinns, appearing along with his wife, in the melodramas they staged in a little theater built behind their home. Continually used his family as his own subject matter, as well. As he matured, he became more and more interested in impressionism, combining a desire to re-render color atop a realistic sense of scene portrayed, and had a successful career doing so. Became a member of the National Academy of Design in 1933. Died of a cerebral hemorrhage while visiting friends. Inner: Modest, gentlemanly, with an easy manner. Disliked being centerstage, and thought the artist should paint as he pleased. Truth-seeking lifetime of stripping his perceived realities to their ashcan essence in order to deepen his own aesthetic by concentrating on the commonplace and reinventing it through his own impressionistic take on the ordinary.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS MASTER OF THE GROTESQUE:
Storyline: The controversial cartoonist sees life as an ongoing nightmare as he plumbs ugliness for its aesthetic beauty in an oeuvre dedicated to both repulsion and revelation.
David Lynch (1946) - American filmmaker. Outer: Father was a research chemist for the Department of Agriculture. The family moved around the Northwest, before settling in Virginia. Wanted to be a painter, studied art in Washington and Boston, then held a number of short term jobs. 5’11”. Married Peggy Reavey, a fellow art student in his early 20s, when he returned to school at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Their daughter ultimately became a filmmaker, and the couple divorced in 1974. 2 years earlier, he discovered Transcendental Meditation, through his sister, which would prove a lifelong balm, allowing him to turn his anger into creativity. Lived in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Philadelphia, that later fed into his nightmarish vision of America. Commissioned to do a four minute moving painting for someone’s livingroom which led to a grant from the American Film Institute. Following an award-winning short, the grant turned into a fellowship in the AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies. His first film took several years, during which time he delivered newspapers and his marriage ended. The grotesque result, Eraserhead in 1977, ultimately became a cult hit, despite its head-scratching initial reception. Remarried Mary Fisk, the sister of a longtime friend, the same year, one son from the union, but that relationship also ended in divorce. Achieved mainstream success with Elephant Man in 1980, but his reputation really rocketed with Blue Velvet in 1986. Had a well-publicized affair with its female star, Isabella Rossellini, then initiated the highly quirky television series, "Twin Peaks," once again exploring the darker, surreal side of American violence, which was shown in its unexpurgated form to foreign audiences.Had a son in 1992 with film editor Mary Sweeney, subsequently marrying and divorcing her over a decade later. In addition to filmwork, he is also a photographer and semi-abstract painter, as well as a lyricist and syndicated cartoonist, while continuing to explore the far side of the American experience through his unrelenting lens. In 2005, he created the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace in the hopes of raising $7 billion to fund 7 “universities of peace,” dedicated to spreading the gospel of Transcendental Meditation, which he would document in “Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity.” After a 5 year absence, he returned to the screen with Inland Empire, shot in video, and as noir as the night itself, while doing his own do-it-yourself publicity and distribution. Married actress Emily Stofle in 2009. In 2011, he opened Silencio in Paris, named after the same club in his 2001 noir thriller Mulholland Drive. Inner: Quirky, moody, with an artistic trickster’s desire to shock and stimulate. Flasher lifetime of exploring the nether-side of his imaginative through a variety of creative skills dedicated to shocking, grossing out and stimulating his audience, while trying to balance it all with a meditative-induced calm. George Luks (1867-1933) - American artist. Outer: Of German extract on both sides of his family. Father was a physician and good draftsman. His mother was also artistic, as well as a musician, allowing him to grow up in very supportive creative environs. 3rd surviving child out of 6. Encouraged by both parents in his early artistic pursuits, while given a humanist appreciation of commonality. 5’6” and stocky. Went to the Penna. Academy of Fine Arts, then toured with a brother in a minstrel act called Buzzey and Anstock.” Impatient with formal teaching, he dropped out of two schools, including one in Dusseldorf, Germany, before teaching himself in museums in London and Paris, where the old Dutch masters deeply impressed him. Returned to the U.S. in 1894, to become an illustrator for the Philadelphia Press, dashing about the city to record its daily tragedies in pencil, and then burnishing them up in pen-and-ink back at the office. Shared an apartment at the time with Everett Shinn, who would later join him as one of the self-appointed Eight. Unusually robust and broad-shouldered, he also had a fantasy life as a a fighter named Chicago Whitey Lewis, which he would embellish upon, replete with shadow fisticuffs, when properly lubricated. His later obituaries accepted these stories as sworn fact. A noticeable figure wherever he went, he wore a broad-brimmed black hat, and was a strong physical presence. Painted commercially, doing signs and circus wagons, in addition to his illustrations. Went to Cuba in 1896 to report an insurrection, but eventually was deported because of confrontations with authority, as well as missing deadlines, while some of his more graphic material was questioned as to its authenticity. Became a cartoonist in 1902 for the NY World, vying with Richard Outcault (Ralph Bakshi), as the continuer of his strip, “The Yellow Kid.” Common life around him interested him artistically, since he felt everything, even commercial work, added to his own artistic experience. Helped William Glackens (Michael Mann) and Everett Shinn to get work on the World, and the former convinced him to begin doing oil sketches of street life, which appealed to him, since he identified with social outcasts, and loved depicting the detritus of society. Married briefly at this time, although his wife couldn’t abide his drinking and divorced him. Took up afterwards with Emma Louis Noble, a cultivated beauty whom he dubbed ‘Babe,’ in a far happier relationship, for a time, although she, too, eventually divorced him following WW I for his drinking and fighting. One son from the union. After century’s turn, he felt impelled to put what he saw around him on canvas, and began seeing himself as far more of a painter than an illustrator. Reached a certain peak during this period, and after having trouble with conservative academic critics, decided to join with his old friends, and some new ones and exhibit together. After their divorce his second wife married Frank Crane, his former editor, who adopted their son, who, in turn, didn’t find out who his real father was until he was 18. In 1908, he and the others, he and the others became known as the Eight, with Robert Henri (Martin Scorsese) as their acknowledged leader. Their first combined show was an unqualified success, and signaled the end of the stuffy National Academy of Design as the sole arbiter of American art, thanks to the heavy does of realism they injected into popular tastes. Had his first one man show two years later. Taught at the Art Student’s League, til objectionable comments in the classroom caused him to quit. Married a third time following WW I to a tall, slender Cuban who was half his age. By now he was considered a leading American painter, although he remained as combative as he had always been. Suffered from arteriosclerosis and died of a heart attack on a Manhattan street, either while looking at a sunrise, which the newspapers reported, or more likely, as a result of a drunken brawl, since no autopsy was performed on him. Inner: Confrontational, strongly opinionated, very physical. Loved brawling and drinking almost as much as rendering the life around him on canvas. Bulging bicep lifetime of combining his muscular aesthetic with his in-your-face take on existence, to make for an unusual combination of the creator/destroyer taken down to the personal level.

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PATHWAY OF THE POET/ARTIST AS GOOD-HUMOURED MORALIST:
Storyline: The dualistic director switches genders while turning his/her social concerns from filmmaking to direct activism in order to more fully integrate him/herself by compartmentalizing his vital interests, and levening them with his delicious wit.
Rob Reiner (1945) - American actor and filmmaker. Outer: Father was actor/writer/ producer/director Carl Reiner. Mother, Estelle, was a singer who later revived her career in the 1960s as a jazz chanteuse. Brother Lucas also became a writer/director. Raised in a bi-coastal show business milieu. 5’10”. Attended UCLA, then began his own show business career with regional theater and improvisational troupes, before moving onto small comic TV roles. Made his film debut in his father’s Enter Laughing in 1967, but it was TV that brought him to national prominence as the liberal son-in-law foil of Archie Bunker, known as ‘Meathead,’ on “All in the Family,” beginning in 1971. Won 2 Emmy awards during that show’s long run in the 1970s. In 1968, he married actress Penny Marshall, no children from union, although he helped raise her daughter. The duo were divorced in 1977. At the near-end of the decade, he created his own short-run comedy series, ‘Free Country.’ Made his directorial debut in 1984, with This is Spinal Tap, a dead-on satire mockumentary of a burnt out rock band. Acting soon took a secondary role for him, as he became a full-time director, showing himself equally adept at drama with Stand By Me in 1986, as he is with comedy. Married Michelle Singer in 1989, 3 children from the union. A political activist, he has successfully championed a number of causes, while also sitting on a state commission on early childhood education, which he was forced to resign from in 2006, amid accusations that it used tax money to boost his own political interests. Nevertheless, an effective bureaucrat and political infighter. Despite his activism, his body of work has largely remained apolitical, with his focus on the psychological rather than his own pet concerns. Inner: Liberal, well-organized and highly social. Once again, tried the same partner, with each switching sexes, but only found their differences outweighed their longtime affinities. Enter laughing lifetime of switching genders, in order to separate his work from his overview, through an upbringing specifically designed to bring out his considerable sense of humor and give him a more balanced view of himself. Lois Weber (1881-1939) - American actress and director. Outer: From Pennsylvania German stock, which had many preachers in the family. Father was an upholsterer and decorator, and she received a religious upbringing through him. 2nd daughter. Musically inclined, she toured as a pianist, until a piano key broke during a recital, causing her to subsequently fear playing in front of live audiences. Joined the Church Army, singing at its rescue mission in a poor section of Pittsburgh, and in bordellos. Became frustrated with the slowness one-on-one work, until an uncle suggested she take up acting, as a means of converting more high-impact sinners Medium height, dark-haired and compact. Decided, against her parents’ consent, to become an opera singer, while playing for her teacher’s other students in order to pay for her lessons. Toured, and met her future husband, Wendell Phillips Smalley (Penny Marshall), the stage manager of one of the companies. The duo were wed in 1904, no children from union. Over the next 5 years, the two played together as often as they could, where she specialized as young matrons. Left the company to keep house, but grew bored with not working, and went to Hollywood as a couple, where they signed joint contracts over the next decade and worked in tandem. Made her debut in “talking films” 2 decades before the advent of sound with The Heiress in 1911. Turned to directing the following year, and proved excellent at developing young actresses. Although they worked as a team during the first half of the decade, she soon eclipsed her husband, and became the highest salaried female director in the world. Had a great desire to uplift and awaken her audiences, and often took on social and moral problems, creating great controversy in 1916 with Where Are My Children? which explored the then taboo topic of birth control. Divorced in 1922 and suffered a nervous breakdown afterwards. In 1926, she married Harry Gantz, a retired army officer, but that union also ended in divorce and depression in 1935. When she recovered, she returned to directing, although the skills she had honed in the silent era did not translate into sound, despite her being the co-scenarist on many of her early films. Penniless at the end, she eventually died after a long illness with a gastric ulcer. Extremely prolific, she wrote or adapted all but 7 of her many films. Inner: Moral, upright, but with problems around personal power, partnership and innate fears of failure. Very supportive of other women in the industry. Moralist lifetime of religiously trying to do right by tradition-bound ethics, and suffering personally for it, despite a recognized skill in all her artistic endeavors.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS INSECURE PERFECTIONIST:
Storyline: The self-doubting director switches genders in order to more fully explore her female side, only to discover her inner self is far more precarious than her humor and professionalism can comfortably handle.
Penny Marshall (Carole Penny Marscharelli) (1942) - American actress and filmmaker. Outer: Mother ran a dance studio, and father directed commercials. Youngest of 3, including director Garry Marshall. Had a difficult relationship with her highly critical mother, while harboring feelings she was extremely unattractive. 5’6 1/2”. Went to the Univ. of New Mexico to get as far away from home from possible, but in her junior year, she became pregnant and delivered a daughter and had to drop out. Married Michael Henry, the football player father and divorced 2 years later. Began her show business career doing summer stock and dancing, and soon was appearing regularly on TV. Married actor/director Rob Reiner in 1968, and together the two raised her daughter. The duo were divorced 9 years later. Unable to find a satisfactory relationship afterwards, despite a connection with singer Art Garfunkel, she became wedded, instead to her work, while fighting periodic depression, through the help of Prozac. Made her film debut in 1968 in The Savage Seven. Came to national attention on the TV show “The Odd Couple,” which her brother directed, in 1971, and enjoyed her greatest success as a performer on “Laverne and Shirley,” playing the former for 7 seasons beginning in 1976, while also getting a taste of directing during its run. Made her big screen debut as a director in 1986 with Jumping Jack Flash, and has enjoyed considerable success ever since, with several big hits including Big and A League of Their Own. Has also served as a producer, although her private life has been less satisfactory, thanks to an obsessive nature, and a difficulty with self-love. Inner: Perfectionist, with a large ego and a small sense of self-esteem, despite her many obvious talents. Finds filmmaking terrifying, and in the past has had to fight a drug dependency just to get through the process. Insecure lifetime of switching genders to get more in touch with her female side, only to find it extremely porous and vulnerable, as she struggles to integrate her two halves, the driven artist and the frightened little girl who still sits behind the wheel. Phillips Smalley (1875-1939) (Wendell Phillips Smalley) - American actor and director. Outer: Father was a Boston lawyer and journalist. Mother was the adopted daughter of abolitionist Wendell Phillips. Enjoyed a wealthy upbringing, traveled to Europe with his family in the 1880s, and met many of the cultural lights of England. Educated at Oxford Univ. and Harvard Law School, before turning to the stage, becoming both actor and stage manager. Strong-jawed with deepset eyes, making him a natural theatrical leading man. Married Lois Weber (Rob Reiner) in 1904, no children from union, and the duo worked closely together over the next 5 years, before entering the incipient film business at its very beginnings. Continued collaborating with his wife as co-director, as well as the star of some of his vehicles, while also making numerous shorts with cliffhanger heroine Pearl White (Meg Ryan). His directorial career petered out in the first decade of film, and after his marriage broke up in 1922, he became largely a character actor, as his career faded, and he became virtually nonexistent in Hollywood by the mid-30s. His last years were all small character parts. Inner: Despite familial social involvements, little desire to explore them as an artist. Copartner lifetime of finding his strength in creative and domestic alliance, only to discover at the end of the relationship, great difficulty in establishing himself on his own, which probably gave him the desire to test his own inventiveness from the perspective of the opposite sex the next time around in this series, in order to get a more complete view of himself.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS TECHNICIAN TURNED ARTISAN:
Storyline: The cardiac-provoking carpenter builds on his tool-wielding expertise to turn himself into a gothic cartoonist, specializing in the effects of horror, satire and fear on his white-knuckle audience.
John Carpenter (1948) - American filmmaker. Outer: Son of a violinist who taught music at Western Kentucky Univ. Began making fantasy films as a child. Attended his father’s school, but dropped out short of graduation to enroll at the USC film school, where he spent 4 years making a dozen short films and collaborating in a number of roles on an Oscar-winning live-action short, The Resurrection of Bronco Billy. 6’. His first feature was done with a special-effects wizard and classmate on a low budget and became the sci-fi cult classic, Dark Star. His 3rd feature, for which he also wrote the screenplay and composed the music, was the 1978 horror movie Halloween. Done on a low budget, it established his reputation as a name above the title maestro of horror and sci fi, and inspired a host of sequels. Has also continued composing for most of his movies. Although his succeeding films would be uneven in quality, with too much of a reliance on special effects, as well as the genre limitations he has imposed upon himself, they have created a loyal audience and uninterrupted career for him. In 1979 he married actress Adrienne Barbeau, who has appeared in his works. The duo divorced in 1984. Married producer and casting director Sandy King in 1990. Has continued unimpeded in his career, with a coterie of supportive fans tuned into his special blend of visual violence and techno-imagery, in his ongoing desire to create a memorable body of work and survive in a town not known for its kindness to faded talent. Inner: Musically as well as visually talented, with a pulp fiction sensibility, sacrificing character to mayhem and special effects. Gothic tongue-in-cheek lifetime of making the bridge from technology to artistry in his continuing exploration of the medium of film as a reflection of his unsettling imagination. Edwin S. Porter (1869-1941) - American pioneer filmmaker. Outer: Son of a merchant, he quit school at 14 and held a wide variety of jobs, including theater cashier, stagehand and machinist. Served in the Navy for 3 years, assisting in the development of a gunnery electric range finder. After his discharge, he went to work for the company that marketed the Edison Vitascope, an early movie projector. Helped set up the first screening of a projected motion picture in the U.S. on April 23, 1896. Traveled to the West Indies and South America trying to sell Edison’s Projectoscope, although had difficulty, then returned to NYC and worked as a projectionist, while developing an improved machine, which he manufactured with a wealthy partner, although the factory burned down in a fire, and he never rebuilt it. Went back to work for Edison and became the chief of production at his NY studio, experimenting with early film techniques. Most noted for the milestone creation of The Great Train Robbery, a 12 minute action film that is considered the premiere antecedent to the Hollywood product to come, with a cast of 40 and an action-driven narrative, climaxing with a bandit firing his pistol at the audience. Remained with the Edison company until he was 40, writing, shooting and editing his own films. Far more interested in the technical effects than the esthetics of filmdom. Established an independent film company, and after selling it, joined the forerunner of Paramount Pictures, Famous Players, supervising its productions and directing some of its films in a fairly straightforward, unmemorable manner. Turned his later attention to experimenting with processes and new technology and sold his shares in Famous Players to invest in a machine company that manufactured a new projector. Although his business prospered for the next decade a half, he lost most of his fortune in the 1929 Stock Market crash, and spent the rest of his life anonymously tinkering with motion picture technology in a small machine shop. Inner: Proficient rather than imaginative, literally serving as a porter for the machinery of filmdom, while concentrating on the tinker aspect of his trade, and leaving its imaginative excesses to others, a stance he would rectify the next time around in this series. Pioneering lifetime of literally being there at the creation of the motion picture industry, with a primary focus on its technology rather than its artistry in a life of both fortune and failure which would impel him to expand his abilities later on.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS DETERMINED PUSHER OF ENVELOPES:
Storyline: The amazon artisan acts as a pioneer in opening up women to new genres of self-expression in the heretofore exclusively male preserves of cinematic action and violence, after earlier having also showed her sense of self-possession in an era even less kind to female artists.
Kathryn Bigelow (1951) - American artist and filmmaker. Outer: Father was the manager of a paint company, mother was a librarian. An only child, she was determined to be an artist from a young age. initially had a strong interest in the old masters, and fostered it in her teens by taking segments of their paintings and reproducing them large-scale. Nearly 6 feet tall and striking, she once posed for a Gap ad. Studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, then won a scholarship to the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program, while being given a studio in a former Offtrack Betting building. Spent a dozen years in NYC as a painter, conceptual artist and post-structuralist theoretician. Eventually abandoned painting and went to Columbia Univ.’s Graduate School of Film, to draw more action into her work, after earlier experimenting with film as a backdrop to her art. After becoming a filmmaker, she moved to Hollywood, and made her full-length debut in 1987, with Near Dark, a nicely conceived combo western/vampire actioner shot on the cheap. In 1989, she married director James Cameron, only to divorce two years later, although he would co-produce one of her later efforts. Slowly began building a reputation, with off-beat, violent films, several of which she also co-scripted, including Blue Steel in 1990, while breaking the barrier that had earlier been imposed on women in that particular genre, and purposefully working outside the studio system. Also had a career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Often sits on film festival juries, while her output, which has also included TV, has been sporadic since century’s turn, totaling only 8 by 2009, with each one quite unique as reflection of her cerebral, yet visceral sensibilities. Became queen of the world of the 2010 Oscars, when her Iraqi war drama, Hurt Locker, garnered 6 Oscars, including both Best Picture and Best Director, winning out in the latter two categories over her ex, Cameron, and his multi-billion dollar effort, Avatar. Her achievement would make her the first of her gender to break through the Academy’s previously all-male directorial glass ceiling. Inner: Self-possessed and self-assured. Into the aesthetics of violence and kinetic energy, and continually exploring the limits placed on female artists and directors. Has had a lifelong love of both art and horses. Pioneering lifetime of pushing the artistic envelope on imaginative violence from a female perspective, while maintaining her own strict independence. Cecilia Beaux (1863-1942) - American artist. Outer: Father was a Frenchman who came to Philadelphia to establish an American branch of his family’s silk concern. Her mother’s family were dry goods merchants of old New England stock but had lost its money mysteriously, and she became a governess, before marrying her husband to the displeasure of her Quaker family. Her mother died 12 days after her birth, and her father fell apart, returning to France. Raised along with her sister by a maternal grandmother and aunt, a gifted musician living in genteel poverty. Supported by their Quaker uncle. All were a tightly knit family that emphasized a seriousness of purpose with exposure to the arts, while giving her a strong sense of self-reliance and imbuing her with a Protestant work ethic. Her sire gave her an interest in French culture, while her aunt and uncle were extremely supportive. Began taking drawing lessons at 16 from a distant female relative, in addition to 2 other artists, and probably went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she would later teach. Desiring financial independence, she worked for the U.S. geological survey and also painted china plaques for a manufacturing concern. Her first large painting proved to be an immediate success, insuring her career, as she became an ideal painter for America’s older elites, to whom she was strongly predisposed. Very concerned with design and color, and truth in her renderings. Never married. Made the first of many trips to Europe in her mid-30s, where she worked with several artists, and also deepened her appreciation of the old masters, bursting into tears at the sight of a Rubens’ (Louis Malle) ceiling, feeling the world had been revealed to her. Settled in NYC at the turn of the century and established herself as a leading portraitist. Knew many of the culturati and political figures of the time. Rarely flattered sitters, who were mostly well-off, instead always looked for their esthetic essence. Had numerous one-woman shows, traveled widely, lectured frequently, and wrote her autobiography. Fell on a Paris street and broke her hip in her early 50s, leaving her a semi-invalid, dependent on heavy steel braces, and unable to paint her last several decades, because of cataracts and arthritis. Wrote her autobiography, "Background with Figures" in the late 1920s. Recognized as a master, she was well-honored his last two decades. Died of coronary thrombosis. After her death, her reputation waned, despite a charming vitality to her work, although a resurgence of interest in portraiture, saw it begin to rise again by century’s end. Inner: Tried to integrate character traits with physical likeness in all her portraiture. Conservative, traditional stylist, who identified with the elites that she painted. Self-possessed and self-assured. Felt artists were born and not made, and that she was one of the elect. In control lifetime of pursuing her own purposeful pathway of limning her inner truths in an uncompromising fashion, thanks to receiving overwhelming and extended family support.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS ESTHETIC CONTROVERSIALIST:
Storyline: The voluble esthete searches for beauty in the oddest places in a direct desire to transliterate the low and the common and uncommon into high art.
Gus van Sant (1952) - American filmmaker. Outer: Father was an executive for a sportswear manufacturing company. Moved to Darien, Connecticut when he was young, and grew up in privileged circumstances there. Thin and soft-spoken. Studied music and painting and made his first short using his parents’ 8 mm Kodak camera. At 17, the family moved to Oregon, where they lived in a palatial Tudor home. Shot his first film in high school, The Happy Organ. Educated at the Rhode Island School of Design, and after abandoning the idea of becoming a painter, he became a producer of commercials. Moved to Los Angeles, and worked as a production assistant to Roger Corman in his grade B factory, although spent a lot of his time rolling joints for writers’ meetings, and found mainline Hollywood unfulfilling. In 1983, he returned to the northwest to live with his family, worked in a warehouse, did TV commercials for a NY ad agency and wrote offbeat scripts. Directed and wrote his first feature in 1985, Mala Noche, a tragic homophile love story. Openly same-sex, which he could continue to explore in his ongoing oeuvre. Came to public attention with the low-budget Drugstore Cowboy in 1989, a tale of addicts, and continued to explore the offbeat with a retelling of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” in the hustler street story, My Private Idaho. Made more mainstream features, including a shot-by-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, while also limning himself in an ongoing series of autobiographical shorts. After his one mainstream success with Good Will Hunting, he grew tired of straight narratives and began exploring alternative means of telling stories, notably in Elephant in 2003, which explored the Columbine high school shootings through non-actors and an oblique style of presenting the material, and Last Days, an equally oblique look at rocker Kurt Cobain’s death. Continues to work on the relative cheap while trying to eschew as much of Hollywood convention as possible. Inner: Laconic, and an extremely spontaneous filmmaker, believing in anonymous art. Unclouded lens lifetime of exploring his uneasy anima through a same-sex lens, while continuing to plumb nether-worlds and oddball realities for their intrinsic esthetic value. Walter Sickert (1861-1942) - German/English artist, printmaker and polemicist. Outer: Paternal grandfather was a painter, while his maternal grandfather was a noted English astronomer, married to an Irish dancer. Father was a Danish-born German illustrator who settled his family in England when his son was 8. Oldest of six, with five younger brothers. Sickly, he underwent several operations for a fistula. One sister, Helena Swanwick, became a well-known suffragette. Performed on the stage as a child actor under the name of Mr. Nemo, until his early 20s, then enrolled at Slade School to study art, despite his father’s initial objections. Dropped out and became a pupil of James Whistler (Orson Welles), while showing a fondness for London music hall interiors. Also met Edgar Degas (Jacques Demy) in Paris, and both would go on to influence his work, although he soon moved past each. Held a fascination with the real and the sordid, which he would transliterate into art, preferring the commonplace to the esthetically embroidered. Married in 1885 to Ellen Cobden, the daughter of Richard Cobden, an influential Liberal British politician, although the duo had a difficult relationship, and were divorced in 1899, after numerous infidelities on his part. She would remain loyal to him, however, attending him in sickness, and also limning their marriage in a novel. The darkness of his early work prevented him from becoming popular, showing in some of his portraiture a brutal, repellant feeling for his subjects. Had a studio in London’s East End at the same time Jack the Ripper was active there, and later produced a series of paintings based on the infamous case. Made England his headquarters from his mid-30s to 50, while also spending much time in Dieppe. Wrote with great wit in defense of modern art, and was a guiding light behind the Camden Town Group, a school of British impressionists. May have fathered an illegitimate son, although had none from his 3 marriages. Opened an art school in Chelsea in 1893, but spent the next decade living on the continent, in Venice, Dieppe and Paris. Returned to London prior to WW I, and became a leading impressionist, while turning from landscape to two figure paintings, beginning with Venetian prostitutes as subjects. After many affairs, in 1911, he married Christine Drummond Angus, the daughter of a Scottish leather merchant, and his pupil. When his wife, who was nearly two decades his junior, died of tuberculosis in 1920, he was inconsolable, exhibiting more and more eccentric behavior over the unacceptable loss. Married a third time in 1926 to Therese Lessore, a painter nearly a quarter century his junior and daughter of a French artist, and had a difficult relationship with her as well. His later works, however, were looser, brighter and more decorative, while working off of photographs, and moving beyond impressionism. From the 1920s onward, he devoted much of his time to teaching on the English seashore, and is considered one of the more important painters of the first half of the 20th century. Died at home after a series of strokes. Inner: Virile painter, with a great robustness to his work, as well as excellent craftsmanship, and a certain fearlessness in his willingness to experiment and fail. An adept printmaker, as well, he continually played with techniques, always looking for added depth to his work. Witty, charming and verbally adept, taking his art with great seriousness. Loved dressing up, and exhibiting himself in a variety of roles, including dandy, roué, and cultural master. Fascinated by gory crime, in his search for beauty in the depraved, and in some later circles was offered as a possible candidate for the mysterious Ripper. Constantly shedding his own past, be it friends, studios or different looks. Completely committed to his art, and little else in his life. Magnifying glass lifetime of looking for the aesthetic in everything he saw around him, be it good, bad or ugly

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS OFFBEAT VISUAL EXPLORER:
Storyline: The pictorial poet of the outsider maintains his artistic integrity, while continuing his mission as an uncorrupted portrayer of life on the outer edge, employing a fey humor and stark style to create a dual life’s worth of memorable images and ideas.
Jim Jarmusch (1953) - American filmmaker. Outer: Mother was a film reviewer for the Akron Beacon Journal before marriage. Father was a businessman with the Goodrich Tire Company. Middle of three children. Wanted to be a poet during childhood. His hair turned gray while he was a teenager, demarking him as an alien presence. Went to Northwestern briefly, then transferred to Columbia, where he majored in literature, before going to Paris in his senior year, which opened him up to the possibilities of film through his exposure to the world cinema he saw there. Accepted at NYU grad school of film studies on the basis of an essay, and became a teaching assistant to director Nicholas Ray, who was dying of cancer at the time. Worked as a factory welder, moving man and process server for Legal Aid, while honing his filmic talents. Spent 4 years at school, delving into the post punk scene of the East Village, playing in a band called the Del-Byzanteens, while making Manhattan’s lower east end his home. In 1982, he made his first film, Permanent Vacation, on a fellowship grant that was supposed to pay for his tuition. Given film stock, he shot a movie over a weekend, Stranger Than Paradise, which was later expanded into a hit cult movie in 1984, and helped pioneer the American independent film movement, thanks to its nonexistent budget and fey sensibilities, as well as being given the nod that year at the Cannes Film Festival as best first feature. Courted by Hollywood afterwards, but continued his own unique path, looking at the moments between drama, rather than the drama itself, while also using the stark contrasts of black-and-white, as opposed to color film in several of his features, to further his explorations into the thematics that fascinate him. In order to exercise control, he has also sought foreign financing rather than Hollywood money. Has had a longtime involvement with fellow filmmaker Sara Driver. Also directed videos, in a continuing career as a filmmaker of entertaining mood pieces where content is subservient to character, most notably in Dead Man and Mystery Train. Far more popular in Europe than the United States, thanks to a static camera and offbeat material, but with the ability to draw big name actors to his works. In 2005, he released his most commercial film, Broken Flowers, with a big name cast, although he continues to retain his own visionary sense as a seer in a world that has long forgotten how to truly look at things. Inner: Intensely private and uncompromising, with an offbeat eye for the unusual and the uncommonly commonplace, usually writing with specific players in mind. Enthusiastic bird-watcher, with a musician’s sensibility to his work. Gimlet-eyed lifetime of exploring the visual poetics of offbeat interaction, while maintaining his integrity in an industry known for quite the opposite. Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) - American artist. Outer: Born in the Montparnesse section of Paris to parents who were art students subsidized by a grandfather’s fortune made in the pork-packing business. His father was an inventor, as well as a painter-muralist, while his mother was a miniaturist. The family returned to New Jersey when he was 2, and settled in a posh neighborhood. His closest childhood friend would be Lloyd Goodrich, the future curator at NY’s Whitney Museum. Began drawing at the age of 3, and was forever teaching himself afterwards. Received his formal education at a military academy, then a prep school, before going to Yale Univ., where he roomed with cartoonist Edmund Duffy, whose work he admired. Found academic art extremely dull, although he flourished as an illustrator for the Yale Record. Red-haired, freckled, short and stocky, with the habit of speaking almost inaudibly out of the side of his mouth. After graduating, he worked as a freelance artist in NYC, and did caricatures and cartoons for the NY Daily News, where he produced a daily column of drawings of the nightlife of NYC. Studied at the Art Students League throughout the decade, with the thought of becoming a serious painter, elevating the ‘low life’ subjects of his sketches into fine arts. Among his teachers were John Sloan and George Luks (David Lynch). Found oils too restrictive, and ultimately settled on watercolor combined with underlying drawing to best capture his vision. At decade’s end, he also discovered tempera. Never had to worry about finances, thanks to his grandfather’s considerable estate. Married Betty Burroughs, a sculptor whose father was curator of painting at the Metropolitan Museum in his mid-20s, later divorced in 1933. An original member of the staff of The New Yorker magazine when it began in 1925, and continued with it until 1931. Went to Europe several times to study art, mostly through sketching old masters in the museums. On returning, he began to paint the gritty street life of NYC, with a particularly attraction for Coney Island Beach, and burlesque shows, as well as the derelicts of the bowery. Always focused on movement and performance as a means to elevate the commonplace and raise it to the level of art. Dissected cadavers, studied sculpture, and also painted nude models in his studio virtually every day, as a means to truly understand the human body. Married Felicia Meyer, a landscape painter, who was also the daughter of painters, in his mid-30s. Contributed to magazines, while his work throbbed with the restless life of the city in an unglamorous attempt at portraying its denizens as they were. Also taught at the Art Student’s League in NY, as well as the Moore Institute in Philadelphia. Did mural work for the Treasury Arts Program during the 1930s, but his most memorable oeuvre was in capturing the mean streets of NY in all their vibrancy. Always went out with sketchbook and camera in hand to capture the world around him. In 1945, he published Anatomy for Artists, based on his earlier pen and ink studies of old European masters. Died of a heart attack. Inner: Sweet and shy, self-described “self-contained monomaniac.” Likable, with great personal charm, and constantly drawing. Saw himself as a ‘starer,’ always looking and recording his milieu without passing judgment on it. Had a particular affinity for the lush female form. Tried to apply Renaissance techniques to the modern urban world, creating a unique body of work recognizably his own. Visual purist lifetime of using the commonplace life around him for inspiration, while serving as both teacher of art and student of the teeming existence of the city.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS CONTINUALLY CHRONICLING EYE:
Storyline: The diligent documentarian carves out unique niches for himself, although does far better as a nonpolitical limner of the past, after learning that limning the economic wrongs of the present, present him with little material support, and even less ultimate recognition.
Ken Burns (1953) - American documentarian. Outer: Father was a cultural anthropologist. Older of 2, younger brother Ric Burns, also became a noted documentary filmmaker. Had a peripatetic early childhood. His family moved to St. Veran, France when he was 3 months, then Baltimore, and finally at 2 to Newark, Delaware where his progenitor taught anthropology for 8 years. His sire was a photography buff and passed a love of that medium down to his sons. The family eventually moved to Michigan, where he went to high school, before getting his BA from Hampshire College in Mass. Studied with still life photographers there, and met his future wife, Amy Stechler, who would become his close collaborator on all his initial projects. Thin, with a bowl haircut. Co-founded Florentine Films on graduating, then worked for the BBC and Italian TV. Spent 4 years on his first project, the making of The Brooklyn Bridge, in 1981, establishing the style that would ultimately become known as ‘the Ken Burns effect.’ Liberally uses archival photographs, paintings and old prints, and plays off the details with slow pans and zooms, while utilizing voice overs and sounds effects, in order to give them movement and depth. In his subsequent oeuvre, he would serve as not only writer, producer, director and narrator, but music director as well. Married in 1982, 2 daughters from the union. Found PBS the perfect repository for his work and over the next decade, explored the Statue of Liberty, and former Louisiana governor, Huey Long (Joschka Fischer) among other shorter subjects. Produced his masterpiece, “The Civil War,” in 1990, an 11 hour documentary which broke all viewing records for the public TV network, while garnering a pair of Emmys. In addition, the companion volume sold 700,000 copies, despite being priced at $50, while the documentary became the first to gross over $100 million dollars. Divorced in 1993, he remarried a decade later, one daughter from the second union. Returned to long form with “Baseball,” in 1994, at a time when the game was in hiatus because of a season-ending strike, and then continued with shorter subjects. In 2007, his epic “The War,” on WW II, originally came under criticism for its lack of Hispanic recollectors, although he righted the omissions, adding to the 14 hour program. The omission also brought to light, a similar lack of Latino content in previous epochs on baseball and jazz. Lost his financial backing from GM in 2009, after 22 years, because of the country’s larger financial crisis. Inner: Innovative and totally absorbed with his calling, with work as his primary life focus. Illuminating lifetime of retelling the past, after earlier being swallowed alive by his reformist obsession with changing the world through his images, rather than merely chronicling it. Lewis Hine (1874-1940) - American photographer. Outer: Father was a Civil War veteran and mother was a teacher. His sire died in an accident when he was 18, forcing him to help support the family. Worked in a furniture upholstery factory, then as a janitor in a bank, all the while feeling extremely exploited. A mentor, Frank Manny, turned him towards education, and he took extension courses, studying sociology at the Univ. of Chicago, under master educator John Dewey, before settling in NY to become a teacher. Wound up at the Ethical Culture School, where Manny had become superintendent. Bought his first camera in 1903, as a means of documenting the dynamics of the school, but soon began to see much larger possibilities for photography. Started taking his classes to Ellis Island, where they photographed newly arrived immigrants. Came to see that his true metier was photojournalism, while establishing what would become known as ‘documentary photography.’ Got his master’s degree in pedagogy from NU, and between 1906 and 1908, he worked as a freelance photographer for “The Survey,” a social reform periodical, while publishing “Charities and the Commons,” a collection of photos of tenements and sweatshops, with the idea of bringing about social change and reform through his graphic images. In 1908, he took a position as photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, and documented child labor in America, in the hope of ending the highly exploitative practice. Never exaggerated or overly-dramatized his subjects in his pictures, preferring the simple truths of accurate portrayals as his most effective means of conveying his moral outrage. The same year he began photographing the steel-making districts of Pittsburgh for a sociological study called “The Pittsburgh Survey.” In 1916, Congress finally passed legislation protecting children under 14, while citing his efforts as a contributing factor in the new laws. During the WW I period, he documented American Red Cross relief work in Europe, focusing on France and the Balkans. On returning to America, he turned his camera on labor as his primary subject matter, making what he called “work portraits,” which detailed the human element of the industrial world over the next decade, in the hope of inspiring better safety laws. Focused on working conditions for women during this period as well, while publishing articles in various periodicals. In 1930, he was commissioned to document the construction of the Empire State Building, then the tallest edifice in the world, which was published in 1932 as “Men at Work.” Had a specially designed basket built for himself, and put himself through the same rigors the workers did, taking many dramatic shots of them on girders way above the street far below. During the Depression, he worked for the Red Cross again, as well as the Tennessee Valley Authority. In addition, he was chief photographer for the Works Progress Administration’s National Research Project, and also taught at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Towards the end of the Depression he lost his government and corporate patronage, and wound up struggling mightily financially, an irony probably lost on him, as America’s premier documentarian of 20th century workers. Lost his home after failing to make repayments on it in 1940. Ultimately died in extreme poverty, after an operation, although just before his death, a retrospective exhibition of his work was given, rescuing him from the anonymity into which he had fallen. Inner: Highly idealistic, with a complete dedication to his work. Refused to relinquish control of his negatives, which probably curtailed recognition the latter part of his life. Negative-shrouded lifetime of using his sharp eye to detail the wrongs of society, only to ultimately be ignored and suppressed by the very economic forces he so vigorously tried to expose.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS SELF-PROMOTER:
Storyline: The high profile pictorial polemicist courts controversy and commercial success through his ability to stir and stimulate public debate via his salesmanship, thematic selection, genuine filmic skill and unabashed camera hogging, in a self-celebratory desire to wake up a dormant public to its social responsibilities.
Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee) (1957) - American filmmaker. Outer: Of African/American descent. Great grandfather, William Edward Williams, founded an industrial school for black children in Alabama. Father was a composer and jazz bass player, with whom he had a tense relationship. Mother was a schoolteacher, supporting the family while her husband struggled with his music career. Had a middleclass upbringing in Brooklyn, while his brother Cinque also became a filmmaker. Lost his mother to cancer when he was in his late teens. 5’5”, slim and intense. Majored in communications at Morehouse College in Atlanta, and became interested in film there. Attended NYU film school, where his master’s thesis won a film award. HIs first feature, made in 1986, She’s Got to Have It was shot on a shoestring and proved to be a surprise hit. In his subsequent works, he has used a schoolmate for cinema-photographer, his father for film scores, and himself as a supporting actor. A desire to film black experience in America led to series of movies that quickly established him as a unique voice, culminating early on with his epic life of Malcolm X in 1992. Continually courting controversy by making himself a highly vocal and public persona, with New York City, and its diverse ethnicity as the visual base for many of his films, in which he continually employs both friends and family. America’s racial polarities have been his ongoing theme, attacking them through both comedy and drama in such works as Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever. In his mid-30s, he married a lawyer, Tonya Lewis, 2 children from union. Never averse to the spotlight, he has appeared in countless commercials, done videos, and explored all realms of expression in his self-appointed role as a dominant cultural figure of his times. Despite his prolific and impressive output, he has rarely scored a commercial hit with mainstream America, although his corollary merchandizing: soundtracks, videos and commercials, have more than supported him. A teacher at both Harvard and his alma mater, NYU, he has also produced several successful documentaries via his production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, including 4 Little Girls and The Original Kings of Comedy, all the while continuing to open doors for black talent in all reaches of the entertainment industry. Right after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he raced down to New Orleans with camera in hand and made a searing 4 hour documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in 4 Acts,” wisely staying in the background for once, and letting the city and its residents articulate the anguish of the catastrophe, in what may prove to be his finest filmic achievement. Did a follow-up in 2010, “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” to etch the city five years after its devastation, to equally telling effect. Two years later, in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing, when a black teenager was gunned down by a self-styled neighborhood watchman in Central Florida and then was not arrested, he tweeted the wrong address of the latter in his own vigilante attempt at redressing the perceived injustice, causing the innocent 70 year old residents of the mistaken house, extreme anguish, before compensating them for his foolish action, and personally apologizing. Inner: Extremely outspoken, self-assured and audacious, with an ego to match his high social and artistic ambitions. Vociferous sports fan, with front and center status at NY Knick games. Hey, Dig Me lifetime of carving an original niche in America’s filmic landscape for himself, as both artist and articulate polemicist for the black experience. Oscar Micheaux (Oscar Michaux) (1884-1951) - American filmmaker. Outer: Parents were freed slaves who became farmers. Fifth of 13 children. Grew up in poverty, and was known as “Oddball” as a young man for reading widely and holding high ambitions. Left home at 17, did low wage labor, then was a porter for 3 years on a Pullman train, before being fired for theft. 6’. Went to work a tract of land in South Dakota although the enterprise eventually failed. Became inspired to become a writer after seeing his first minstrel show. Fell in love with a white woman, but racial differences ended their romance, and instead he married Orlean McCracken, the daughter of a Chicago clergyman, who did not adapt well to farm-life, and after a stillborn child, she returned to her father’s house. In 1913, he wrote a memoir, The Conquest, on that theme, which he would continue to explore in much of his work, often giving the white woman rediscovered black blood, so that the romance would end happily ever after. Peddled the book at churches, social gatherings and schools, throughout the black community, continuing his self-promotion in that personal manner throughout his career, while adding an ‘e’ to his last name to give it a little more class. Wrote two more novels over the next several years, but after negotiations with a black film company failed, he shot one of his novels on his own in 1919, selling stock at $75 a share to finance it. Set up a pattern where he would shoot a film in spring and summer, edit it in the fall and then peddle it in the winter, selling it to black theater owners for display, while they sometimes gave him an advance for his next work, based on phony stills. Created about 41 films over a 3 decade period in this way, of which maybe a dozen survive. Constantly dealt in chicanery in order to move on from project to project. Gave Paul Robeson his first starring role in 1925 with Body and Soul. In the same manner, he was able to offer numerous stars from black show business their entrée into filmdom. Mostly dealt with exploitational matter, with erotic material unrelated to story, but some films he directly pictured the black middle-class experience in America, although none showed any distinct flair for filmmaking, with his earlier silent works far superior to his later efforts, thanks to financial concerns, and his complete indifference later on to his final products. Far more interested in storytelling than moviemaking technology, and had absolutely no contact with prejudicial Hollywood, while eliciting attention only from the black press. Most of it was negative, since he was viewed as a primitive. HIs second wife was actress/producer Alice B. Russell, whom he wed in 1926. She would be his muse, his star and often his co-writer, playing a very pivotal role in his life. No surviving children from either union, and he may never have divorced his first wife, making him a bigamist. Despite a natural flamboyance, he often had to act in secrecy to avoid creditors. Eventually was crippled with arthritis and confined to a wheelchair. Died in a hotel room on a speaking engagement, while trying to raise money for yet another film. Posthumously elected into the Director’s Guild many years after his death. Inner: Extremely self-assured, audacious. End-life reflected a certain rigidity to his ongoing self-absorption. Continually fascinated with ‘passing’ for white, as an ongoing theme of his works. Oddball lifetime of creating a parallel filmic reality to Hollywood, supported by and created exclusively for the African-American mass, a theme he would continue to play with in his next go-round as well.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS MASTER OF THE BIZARRE:
Storyline: The morbid monster maven neatly divides his reel life from his real life, putting all his strangeness and eccentricity into the former, while keeping the latter relatively clean so as not to interfere with his strong work ethic and need to release his twisted interior through constructive self expression.
Tim Burton (1958) - American filmmaker. Outer: Father was an ex-baseball player who worked for the Parks Department, moody mother at one time had a gift store devoted to cats. Had a lower middle-class upbringing in a Los Angeles suburb, with a younger brother. His parents were very stiff, and as a result, he used to recoil from touch until well into adulthood. Moved in with his grandmother at 12, and later completely disconnected from family. Often subject to nightmares as a child, spending his time alone watching cartoons and horror movies. Attracted to romantic morbidity from an early age. A cartoonist while in grade school, he won a Disney fellowship to study animation at the California Institute of Arts. 5’11 1/2”. Began working at the Disney studios as an animator at age 20. His first animated film, dedicated to a childhood hero, horror actor Vincent Price, won an award, and led to further projects for the studio. Later hired by Warner Brothers, he produced a string of hits afterwards, beginning with Peewee’s Big Adventure in 1985. Married Lena Gieseke, a German artist, in 1989, separated in 1991, and later divorced. In 1989, he also became a blockbuster director with Batman, and its sequel, showing a cartoonish bent for visually entertaining but emotionally uninvolving screen fare, while exploring alienated outsiders with no discernible inner life. Able to integrate his off-center view with a rare accessibility, making for his continued popularity, without ever stretching or challenging his audiences, through his ability to create interesting visual realities that are complete unto themselves. Hooked up with model Lisa Marie Smith, who later sued him for palimony rights over their 10 year relationship, beginning in 1991, after he became involved with actress Helena Bonham Carter, while working with her on a remake of Planet of the Apes, two children from the union. Eschewed marriage with her, while the two maintain separate London residences, as well as a common country estate. Continues in a hitmaker vein as a master of surfaces, ending the millennium with the well-received Sleepy Hollow, a take on the classic tale of the headless horseman, and continuing on into the next century in similar manner. During the first decade, he would do six features with Bonham Carter, tapping into a previous unrealized eccentricity on her part, culminating in Alice in Wonderland in 2010, a record-breaking product tie-in vehicle deliberately geared to maximize its profitability, while displaying his ongoing outlandish sense of the visual, and desire to present his partner in as freakish a manner as possible in their ongoing mutual exploration of their highly creative inner children. Inner: Cheerfully depressive, and unflappable under pressure, with a distinct taste for the bizarre and the unthreateningly weird. Uniquely well-liked by virtually everyone in the film industry. Alien absurdist, with a macabre sense of humor. Morbidly happy lifetime of huge audience support for his unique vision of a little boy’s sensibilities thrust upon a grown-up world. Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) - English artist. Outer: Father was a legal clerk, who ultimately became chief clerk at the Admiralty registry and Admiralty marshal, mother was the daughter of a draper. 4th of 12 children. Encouraged in his art from childhood on, and was rarely without his paint box afterwards. Won prizes for drawing at the City of London School, but delicate health caused him to drop out at 16 for a voyage to Australia, where he painted landscapes. On his return he studied at the Lambeth School of Art in London. Small, thin and bespectacled. Worked as a junior clerk in a fire office during the day from 1885 to 1892, and gradually expanded his artistic powers from the conventional to the highly imaginative. Adapted himself well to the photoengraving process, which would become his artistic mainstay, while joining a series of newspapers as a news and features illustrator. By decade’s near-end he had established a reputation for himself, with his faux woodcut style, which featured thick pen-and-ink strokes. His first big success were his illustrations for the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales in 1900. Gradually sharpened his line to meet improved printing techniques, which intensified the details of his drawings. Able to create a sinister, enchanted world in the tradition of the Germanic artists of the Middle Ages, with twisted and gnarled trees, as well as projected creatures of the forests - fairies, gnomes and the like - peopling his many pages. All his figures were rooted in the realistic, giving them an added fantastical cachet. Later added color to his works, although was muted in his choice of tones. Married an Irish artist, Edyth Starkie, in 1903, one surviving daughter from the union. The two maintained studios at their abode, and Starkie became a noted portrait painter. Became a celebrity, which he enjoyed, although lived simply and frugally, while frequenting London’s artistic and literary circles. Enjoyed the bohemian art world as well, although was never a reflection of it. Elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours and won many awards for his fine line drawings, with a gothic flavor to all his work. Habitually took his holidays in South Germany and the Alps, which he rendered in water colors, while seeing himself as an educator of the imagination, particularly to young children. Developed a particular fondness for both the German language and German literature, and looked to old German masters as his inspiration. Moved from London to Sussex in 1920, for his wife’s failing health, while the U.S. became the primary market for his work, thanks to a loss of interest in his fantastical oeuvre in a Europe depleted of its fairy tale imagination by WW I. Conformed to American tastes, although felt himself somewhat compromised by doing so. His last years saw both he and his wife in and out of hospitals Died of cancer, and his wife followed him to the grave two years later. Inner: Modest, cheerful, methodical, Germanic and businesslike. Often used his own face in his drawings, probably more for convenience than egomania. Divided lifetime of putting his imagination into his work, while keeping the rest of his life carefully controlled and out of its strange reach.

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PATHWAY OF THE FILMMAKER AS RANDY SENTIMENTALIST:
Storyline: The comedy chronicler uses his light touch and sweet & sophomoric sense of the ridiculous to limn the endlessly farcical entanglements of the sexes, while aptly reflecting the attitudes of his various times from his own droll male point-of-view.
Judd Apatow (1967) - American director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Outer: Of Jewish descent. Mother was the daughter of a record executive and worked at a comedy club, while his father was a real estate brojer. The middle of three with an older brother and a younger sister. His parents divorced when he was 12, and he wound up living mostly with his sire, while his siblings were elsewhere. Always fascinated with comedy, he hosted a comedy show on his high school’s 10-watt radio station, while interviewing comedians through his mother’s contacts. 5’8”. Took to the stage at 17 doing standup, then moved to Los Angeles to study screenwriting at USC. Hosted campus Comedy Nights, while honing his own routines in the process. Dropped out after two years, to share an apartment with Adam Sandler, while continuing to do standup, although he came to the conclusion, he didn’t have a unique comic persona, only good material. Began penning jokes for other performers, while also turning to producing. Had his first TV series with “The Ben Stiller Show” in 1992, which received critical acclaim, although was canceled the following year, despite winning an Emmy. Enjoyed his first hit in 1993 as a writer and producer for “The Larry Sanders Show” with Gary Shandling, as his work became more character-oriented, while garnering a half-dozen Emmy nominations. Began penning scripts for films, finding the initial phase rough-going, while meeting his wife actress Leslie Mann, whom he married in 1997. Two daughters from the union, who have both appeared in his films. Produced two TV series, “Freaks and Geeks,” and “Undeclared,” at the turn of century, once more impressing the critics, but failing to gain large-enough audiences for his efforts, which caused both to be canceled following a single season. Went back to film production and had a hit in 2004 with a Will Ferrell vehicle, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and the following year, he directed his first smash, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, followed by Knocked Up, although he still had difficulties in finding backing for his subsequent projects, before Superbad put him over the top, as a purveyor of both sex and sentimentality, with a wide-ranging audience for his brand of sophomoric humor. Formed Apatow Productions, and continues to crank out popular fare, while enjoying a status of not quite name-above-the-title, but the next best thing, as a recognizable brand of ingenuous humor. Inner: Likes working with longtime friends, and continually involves them in his projects. Hasn’t the heart to fire anyone, and is extremely well-liked within the industry. Slyly winking lifetime of taking his earlier sensibilities and reworking them to more adolescent tastes to once more prove himself a tastemaker, even in tasteless times. Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) - German/American director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Outer: Of Jewish descent. Both parents were Russian immigrants to Germany. Father was a tailor, who expected his only child to follow suit. Instead, he found his life’s calling in theater, and dropped out of school at 16. Forced to compromise by keeping the account books for the family’s business, he acted in cabarets and music halls at night. Joined Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater in 1911, and quickly became one of its leading stars, despite an unprepossessing 5’7” stocky physicality. Became a handyman at Berlin’s Bioscope film studios, to study the new medium, and made his film debut the following year as an actor, playing off of traditional Jewish characters. Began exploring comedy as a writer/director at the outset of WW I. Had his first international success in 1918 with The Eyes of the Mummy, and soon developed a reputation as a master of historical spectacles as well as escapist comedies. Married Leni Kraus in 1922, divorced 8 years later. His films would make it to America after the turning of the decade, allowing him to become a producer as well. Formed his own production company, and set sail for America in 1921, although found hostility there because of competition between the country’s filmworkers and soon returned home, although he had seen the promised land of filmdom’s future, and soon became an expatriate. Enjoyed both critical and commercial success with superstar Mary Pickford, despite personality clashes twixt the two, and got a three year six picture contract with Warner Bros out of it. Settled in Hollywood, and quickly established himself with sophisticated comedies over the next several years, although they failed to generate much black ink, and he went to work for Paramount. With the advent of talkies, he found musicals to his liking, and his commercial career began to parallel the critical acclaim his earlier films had received, although his blithe attitude towards sex raised hackles among American censors. Developed what became known as “the Lubitsch touch,” combining an excellent visual sense of story with his brand of sophisticated humor. Maintained his high standards with well-received comedies throughout the 1930s, and in 1935, he became Paramount’s production manager, the only major director to helm a large studio. Able to produce his own films through his position, although had difficulty in delegating authority, and wound up being fired after only a year. At the same time, he became a U.S. citizen, after the Nazi’s repudiated his German citizenship. Married minor British actress Vivian Gaye, one daughter from the union, who would survive a ship sinking by a German submarine at the outset of WW II. The couple eventually divorced in 1944. Moved to MGM in 1939, and directed two of his most popular films, Ninotchka with Greta Garbo and The Shop Around the Corner, while directing three different stars in Oscar-nominated performances. Suffered a massive heart attack in 1943, from which he never truly recovered. His later career would be with 20th Century-Fox, although a weak heart would curtail his final years, so that his penultimate directorial effort, which was with his favorite writing collaborator, Samuel Raphaelson, Heaven Can Wait, was in 1943. Acted in a supervisory capacity afterwards, before recovering to do one more film in 1946. Received a Special Academy Reward in 1947 for his contributions to the industry, and then passed away at home from a sixth and final fatal heart attack. Inner: Witty, mischievous, gracious, playful and a practical joker on his sets. Allowed his audiences to use their imaginations, while using film as a totality for his life, having little or no other interests outside making them. Always had a cigar planted firmly between a continual sardonic smile. Light touch lifetime of switching cultures in order to find the common comic thread between them, before finally being upended by an uncooperative heart, despite his own lighthearted view of the larger world.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS ARTESANO FANTASTICO:
Storyline: The moralistic muralist turns from the monstrous in the political realm to the mythic and monstrous in his own imaginative domain, as he transliterates his visual gifts for shocking his audience via the provocative but static images of wall art, to the electric panoply of highly moving pictures.
Guillermo del Toro (1964) - Mexican/American filmmaker. Outer: Raised largely by his half-deaf Catholic grandmother’s sister, whose fervent religiosity would perversely imprint on him, and give him an abiding love of demons and monsters, as well as make him an atheist. Became fascinated with film at a very early age, seeing the camera as an extension of his eye. Also began drawing, illustrating imaginary novels that he would begin but never complete. Played with his father’s camera, although didn’t have enough money for film until high school, when he made a short about a monster that crawls out of a toilet, looks around, dislikes what it sees, and returns to its commode abode. Used to play in the catacombs beneath Guadalajara, and explored the whole length of the city’s sewer systems, which reflected his own ongoing fascination with the subterranean. Had a sense of isolation as a youth, which would also be explored in his later filmic portrayals of innocents adrift in the darkness of the adult world. Studied at the Univ. of Guadalajara, and produced his first short, Dona Lupe, at 21. 5’10”, round-faced, blue-eyed and bespectacled. A dedicated cinephile, he amassed a huge working knowledge of filmdom, steeping himself in both technique and film his/story. Worked as a special effects make-up designer for the rest of his 20s, while forming his own special effects company, Necropia. Married in his 20s, two daughters from the union. Used Mexican television as his training ground where imagination trumped almost nonexistent budgets. Also co-founded the Mexican Film Festival in his native city, after beginning his directorial career with the modern vampire tale, Cronos. Made his English-language debut in 1997 with Mimic, an imagining of giant cockroaches inhabiting NYC’s subways, but rejected the film afterwards because of far too much studio interference, making it the least effective of his considerable body of work. After his father was kidnapped in 1997 and held for over two months for ransom, he became an expatriate, ultimately winding up in Los Angeles. Able to work in both the blockbuster mode, as evinced by Blade II and Hellboy, as well as far smaller films, while also alternating between English and Spanish. Certain images would continually repeat themselves in his work, most especially grotesque monsters, for whom he has a special affinity. Crucifixes, clockworks, insects and subways always feature prominently, but it would be misshapen mutants that would predominate, as projections of his dark view of the earth realm. His 2007 political fable of magical realism, Pan’s Labyrinth, made in Spain, and for which he wrote the screenplay, received a half-dozen Oscar nominations. Works closely with fellow Mexican directors, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, whose visual imaginations complement his, and has a particular affinity for actor Ron Perlman, his own personal ‘Hellboy,’ who has appeared in a goodly number of his films. Inner: Good-humored, and extremely visually oriented, feeling images create their own narratives. Huge fan of sci-fi, comic books, and horror movies. Image-besotted lifetime of transliterating his earlier fascination with the political into the cultural, while retaining his dark vision of humanity, and his desire to see great beauty where others only see the hideous. Jose Orozco (Jose Clemente Orozco) (1883-1949) - Mexican artist and muralist. Outer: As a youngster, his family moved to Guadalajara, and then Mexico City. Initially inspired by a satirical caricaturist with an affinity for skulls, who would work in public view. As a teen, while playing on the street with some gunpowder, it exploded, leaving him with no left hand, no hearing in his left ear, and poor eyesight. Bespectacled and slight, he originally wanted to be architect. Despite his handicap, and having little support for his desire to be an artist, he took classes at the San Carlos Academy of Art in Mexico City, before opting for an agricultural school for three years, for fear he would not be able to support himself. When he began painting, he was deliberately contemptuous of pretty pictures, and used both lurid colors and street and barrio life as his themes, in order to turn the harsh realities around him into exaggerated high art. Finally committed himself to his true vocation, and returned to the Academy in 1906. Stayed there the next four years, where he fell under the influence of a charismatic visionary and revolutionary teacher, with whom he fled to Veracruz, when the country erupted in revolution in 1910. Did political lithographs and caricatures for a radical newspaper and magazine, and joined a group that called itself La Vanguardia, after the Constitutionalist movement during the Revolution. Used his own emotional reactions to political realities, as a means of conveying them, rather than realistic portrayals, and wound up running afoul of popular tastes for having done so, forcing him to leave the country in 1917. Spent an unhappy exile, first in San Francisco and then NYC, where he opened himself up to the greater world and both its mythologies and its imagery. Found solace for his loneliness in American pop culture through vaudeville and Harlem nightclubs, becoming somewhat of an expert on NY nightlife of the time. On his return to Mexico in 1920, he found himself in favor with the new government, which was eager to sponsor his work. Discovered the genre that would best express both his vision and sensibilities, murals, through which he could depict the struggles of ordinary Mexicans. Returned to the U.S. in 1927 and stayed for seven years, basing himself in NYC, while continuing to explore earlier themes, as well as the dehumanization of the increasingly mechanized world. Painted murals for a variety of institutes, then went to Europe in 1932, to study what was being done there, before returning to Mexico, and continuing his mural work in Guadalajara, while also doing portraiture. Wound up a national hero in his later years for his broad celebrations of ordinary humanity in extraordinary times. Became much more mystical and abstract in his artistic undertakings towards the end of his life. Took part in a trickster’s raid with numerous other left-wing Mexican muralists on the Del Prado Hotel in 1948, where they restored Diego Rivera’s (Robert Rodriguez) words “does not exist,” which had been expunged by Catholic students, following the word, ‘God.” Died the following year. Considered one of the giants of the small group of Mexican muralists who came to full fruition following the 1910 Revolution. Inner: Intensely political, with an empathy for the downtrodden and long suffering, and an equal contempt for their exploiters. Moralistic muralist lifetime of accidentally doing permanent damage to his left, or feminine side, as well as his eyesight in order to work far larger than life, and explore his deeply masculine emotions in service of limning society’s grotesque imbalances.

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PATHWAY OF THE FILMMAKER AS CREATOR OF CULTURAL ICONS:
Storyline: The sci-fi maestro knows how to stoke the popular imagination of his times, be it with male or female emblems of power, as he explores his own interior through his creations, in a secret need to integrate himself through his extraordinary facility with creating fanciful worlds.
Joss Whedon (Joseph Hill Whedon) (1964) - American screenwriter, producer and comic book creator. Outer: Enjoys the distinction of being a third generation television writer, with his grandfather and father having done sitcoms in eras past. Mother was a high school teacher and novelist. The middle of five brothers with his two younger siblings, Jed and Zack also penmen. Grew up in a highly creative atmosphere, and was already flexing his imagination at a young age, with comic books in particular a strong inspiration for him. Went to Winchester College in England, before graduating Wesleyan Univ. in 1987. Moved to Los Angeles, where he did TV work and also served as a script doctor. Married Kai Cole, a son and daughter from the union. Wrote Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then transliterated it into a TV series and cult favorite which ran for seven seasons on two networks, per his desire to create an empowering female icon. A second series, “Angel” was spun off it, which ran concurrently for two seasons. Another film he wrote, Serenity, would also produce a short-lived sci-fi series “Firefly,” that was abruptly canceled despite a dedicated cult following who called themselves Browncoats. His fourth series, “Dollhouse,” also received the premature ax. In all of his creations, he won wide critical acclaim, but could not find the complementary numbers to maintain them on the small screen. Has also directed TV fare and made cameo appearances on his own shows. Wrote or cowrote a number of films, in addition to doing rewrites and drafts which were not used. Has penned several comic books based on his various creations, as well as contributed to anthologies and the Marvel line of superheroes, introducing several new characters while working on established series for them. In 2005, he released several online shorts as a tie-in to “Serenity,” while also creating a free webcomic called “Sugarshack.” In his ongoing eclectic output he also worked with his two brothers and the fiancee of one of the latter to create “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” with the desire to continue focusing on online material. Returned to filmwork at decade’s end, and set an alltime opening weekend record of $200m with The Avengers in 2012, shepherding a crop of Marvel comics superheroes through their paces for his very first blockbuster on the large screen, to make him a newly-crowned Tinsel Town player for the second life in a row. Ironically, John Carter, which was based on a character he created the last time around in this series of lives, lost that precise amount of money in its release just a short time before, giving him an odd double-life balance sheet on the two, of 0 for their combined openings. Inner: Strongly feminist and humanistic in his overview, and highly playful with language. Self-proclaimed absurdist and atheist, with an obsession around mind-control and human programming. Self-reclaiming lifetime of finding a balance between his inner male and female through his creations, after an oddly unsatisfactory go-round focusing totally on his maleness, until he wound up vampiring his own heart. Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) - American writer. Outer: Of English descent. Father was a wealthy manufacturer, as well as a captain in the Union Army, with a strong military bearing and a highly critical view of his famous son, predicting early on he would be a failure. One of 6 brothers, although two died in infancy, making him the family’s youngest. A poor student, who internalized his sire’s judgments, and was desperately self-destructive to prove him wrong. Spent 6 months at a cattle ranch in Idaho two of his brothers owned during a flu epidemic in his mid-teens, and loved the outdoor life, then finished his education at private school, where he proved a disciplinary problem, before attending a military academy in Michigan, showing himself to be a crack shot and expert horseman. Failed the entrance exam for West Point, and enlisted in the army instead, hoping for a commission, but a heart murmur ended that dream and he was discharged in 1897. After some desultory work including cowpunching in Idaho, he wound up at his father’s battery company in 1897, and welcomed in the new century by marrying his childhood inamorata Emma Hulbert on its first day. One daughter and two sons from the union. Remained largely unfocused with numerous jobs over the next couple of years, including railway policeman in Salt Lake City, and ultimately wound up selling pencil sharpeners wholesale, which brought pulp magazines to his attention as objects of ad placements. Decided he could do far better than what he read, and sold his first serialized story, “Under the Moons of Mars,” in 1912 after submitting it under the pseudonym Normal Bean. The same year he wrote “Tarzan of the Apes,” which quickly found a public, and he became a full time writer. Enjoyed inventing worlds, and worked in several popular genres, including science fiction, prehistoric fiction, horror, social realism and westerns, with his second most popular creation, John Carter, a space explorer. Tarzan would capture the public imagination, and he would exploit him in a host of media, including comic strips and films, although the first celluloid king of the jungle, Elmo Lincoln (David Hasselhoff), horrified him in his clumsy physicality. He had, however, already sold the rights to him, and had no say in further casting of his icon. In 1919, he bought a large ranch in a San Fernando Valley suburb of Los Angeles, and dubbed it Tarzana, which became the name of the town that incorporated around it in the late 1920s. Set up his own eponymous company in 1923, and printed his books through it, desiring total control over his product after the Elmo Lincoln debacle. By now a wealthy man, he divorced his wife in 1934, once his children were grown, and married Florence Gilbert Dearholt, a former actress nearly 30 years his junior who had been married to a friend, while adopting her son and daughter. The union ended in divorce in 1942, thanks to his drinking and distance, and favoritism towards her daughter. Moved to Hawai’i, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he became America’s oldest war correspondent in the Pacific theater. Increasingly sullen and ill-humored as he grew older, with an inability to enjoy those around him. Returned to the San Fernando Valley after the war, and spent his last years suffering a number of health problems including hardening of the arteries, before finally succumbing to a heart attack, while home alone and reading the Sunday comics in bed. The author of nearly 70 novels, which sold in the hundreds of millions in over 20 languages, despite his amateurish and clumsy writing style. Also had a large crater on Mars named after him. Inner: Athletic, manly and adventurous, with the feeling initially that writing was sissified work. Despite the fortunes he made, constantly pressed for money because of bad investments, as if he had a powerful need to make his father’s assessment of him true despite his many material successes. Identified with his characters, and felt self-education was the only true way to learn. Burroughed alive lifetime of inventing a cultural icon for the ages, while showing himself to be far too competitive and restless to ever find ultimate satisfaction in his triumphs, in his inability to traverse the thick landscape of his own interior jungles and martian wastelands.

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PATHWAY OF THE FILMMAKER AS GROOM OF FRANKENSTEIN:
Storyline: The splatstick spiritualist continues to explore a strong religious sensibility and fascination with gods, monsters and death, via a popcorn esthetic carved from the popular idiom, and bathed in the blood of art and artifice.
Tim Sullivan (1959) - American, director, producer and actor. Outer: Raised Roman Catholic, in an alone in the sandbox childhood. Fascinated with horror films ever since the age of 5, when his mother accidentally put on Dracula. Discovered his own Bride of Frankenstein soon afterwards, and became hooked on creature features as a favorite entertainment staple. Raised by his mother, after his father abandoned the family when he was 8, and showed little interest in him afterwards. Loved doing magic card tricks as a child, putting on shows as the Great Sullivini. As a teen, he became fascinated with special make-up effects, particularly around gore, as a horror film aficionado. Also harbored a secret desire to be an exorcist priest, wondering whether he would wind up at a seminary or film school. Opted for the latter and went to NYU, then worked as a production assistant afterwards. Began his career pumping fake blood for The Deadly Spawn, before moving to Los Angeles, where he taught church confirmation class for two years, while working for New Line Cinema, where he was a co-producer, culminating in Detroit Rock City in 1999. After five years with them, he formed his own production company, New Rebellion Entertainment. Always managed to manifest the right connections to move his career along, building steadily on his filmic expertise, until he was finally given the opportunity to direct in his late 30s. His first effort in 2005, 2001 Maniacs, which he also wrote, became a cult classic, as did its sequel, 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams, which he also wrote. Did the teen thriller Driftwood afterwards, while also working on the VH1 series, “Scream Queens.” An unabashed fan of horror, he created a talk and video blog “Shock N Roll” for the web, while quickly rising to the level of horrormeister through his unabashed fascination with the genre. Inner: Highly social, with a sexual preference for his own genre. Ham at heart, loves being in front of the camera, as much as being behind it. Sports a tattoo of two crossed arrows, an indigene symbol of friendship, which makes it into each of his directorial efforts. Has a preference for indie and R-rated fare, while viewing film as a cathartic means for exorcising fears. High priest of horror lifetime of continuing his longtime fascination with the supernatural as a self-appointed sacerdotal of pop culture’s subconscious. James Whale (1889-1957) - English/American filmmaker. Outer: Raised in a working-class milieu in the west Midlands. Mother was a nurse, father was a blast furnaceman at a foundry. 6th of 7 children. Forced to end his schooling in his teens to help the family financially, and began work as a cobbler, repairing and shining leather shoes, since he wasn’t robust enough for factory labor. Lettered signs and price tags for neighbors for additional money, which allowed him to go to the Dudley School of Arts and Crafts. Became a newspaper cartoonist, before being commissioned as a second lieutenant after joining the British Army in 1915, during WW I, only to be captured two years later in Flanders. Spent his time as a POW producing and directing plays for his guards and fellow prisoners, which opened him up to his true calling as an entertainer. At war’s end, he returned to Birmingham, and took to the stage, first as an actor, then a set designer, and finally a director. Deliberately shed his regional accent, while taking on the tone of an English gentleman, seeing money as the conduit to the type of existence he wished to lead. In 1928, he directed a relatively unknown Laurence Olivier in a WW I drama, “Journey’s End,” which proved his entree to Broadway and then to Hollywood, when he was asked to direct the play’s film version. Its transatlantic success ultimately led to his directing Frankenstein in 1931 for Universal. The success of the horror classic, starring Boris Karloff (Robert Pattinson) as the monster, identified him forever after with that genre, as he moved to Los Angeles to continue his output with The Invisible Man, another roaring success, which he followed up with Bride of Frankenstein, which many would consider his masterpiece. Worked effectively in other genres, resisting being pigeonholed in gothic melodrama, although his ultimate reputation would lie in his fey handling of the horrific. Openly homophile in an era that did not take kindly to same-sex affiliations, he had a longtime partner in David Lewis, a producer, which stretched from 1930 to 1951. Reached his cinematic peak in 1936 with the musical Showboat, before his career went into eclipse, following Nazi interference with his The Road Back, which saw him consigned to B-films afterwards. Directed his 19th and final film in 1941, and ended his career behind the camera. Dabbled in painting and theater, and traveling while living comfortably off of investments. His final romance was with a young French bartender, which ended his longtime relationship with Lewis. Towards the end of his life, he suffered a series of strokes, which both debilitated and depressed him greatly, and he wound up committing suicide by drowning himself in his pool. He would be portrayed by actor Ian McKellen in the 1998 film, Gods and Monsters. Inner: Had strong theatrical sensibilities, and was extremely class-conscious. Loved creating artificial worlds, and harbored a gallows sense of humor. Expressionistic, with a highly mobile camera, so as to create moving canvases, with a dualistic love of German culture and dislike for the larger political country. Lights, camera, action lifetime of totally reinventing himself while pursuing his longheld fascination with the supernatural in a new medium, giving expressionistic play to both his art and his refashioned existence. Sheridan Le Fanu (Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu) (1814-1873) - Irish writer. Outer: Of noble French Huguenot descent. Middle of three with an older sister and a younger brother. Mother was a storyteller, and father was a Protestant clergyman of the Church of Ireland, who was also the nephew of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Stephen Frye), from whom he received his middle name. Folk superstitions probably fed into his imagination, during his progenitor’s rectorship in southern Ireland when he was in his teens, before the family was forced to move to Dublin in 1833, where his father worked on a government commission. Raised in strict manner, enjoying his sire’s large library, while being privately tutored, before matriculating at Trinity College in Dublin, where he studied the classics. Won honors there, while participating in the school’s debate and historical societies. His father died in debt, leaving his sons nothing. Studied law at the King’s Inns in London, although never practiced it. Instead, he pursued a career in journalism, taking ownership of the Irish Protestant newspaper, “The Warder,” in 1839. The previous year he began publishing his short stories in the “Dublin University Magazine,” beginning with “The Ghost and the Bonesetter.” In 1861, he became both proprietor and editor of it. Also had a financial stake in several more Irish newspapers, in which he limned his conservative political views. In 1843, he wed Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a barrister, two daughters and two sons from the unhappy union. Began publishing his novels in 1845, which were all expansions on his short stories. His wife suffered from ill health as well as neurotic anxiety, while his finances were often precarious, so that when she died in 1858, at the age of 34 after an attack of hysteria, he was shattered, blaming himself for her suffering. Retired from public life afterwards in deep depression, and lived in seclusion, earning him the nickname of “the Invisible Prince.” Stopped writing altogether until his mother’s death in 1861, while becoming virtually an invisible figure in Dublin. Explored the ghostly and supernatural in his fiction, writing mostly at night with candles for illumination to become a major limner of the supernatural in Irish popular literature. Sold the “Dublin University Magazine” in 1869, which had become the main outlet for his works, and died four years later. Just before he did so, he produced “Carmilla,” a vampire novella, which would feed into that genre’s bloodlust appeal, and probably influenced Bram Stoker’s (Clive Barker) definitive “Dracula.” Enjoyed a renascence in the early 20th century thanks to the efforts of fellow ghost story writer M.R. James. Inner: Looked for a balance between the natural and supernatural in his works. More interested in subtle tone and effect than sheer horror. Invisible man lifetime of delving deep into his own considerable psyche after traumatic losses, as a means of dealing with death and the frailty of mortality, which he would continue to pursue in far more positive manner in lives to come in his ongoing fascination with the supranormal. Sergius III (Sergius) (?-911) - Italian pope. Outer: Eldest son of a noble Roman family of Tusculum, who were part of the ruling elite for two centuries, amidst a legacy of debauchery and profound perversion of power. Had an important patron in a military commander who was in charge of papal disbursements, as he rose steadily in the church hierarchy, through connections rather than any overt abilities. Accused in some sources of being a pagan high priest and indulging in all sorts of satanic activities, although the facts surrounding his life have been culled from those who viewed him in most inimical terms, seeing him as a blight on the papacy, with no redeeming features whatsoever. May have fathered an illegitimate son who later became pope John XI, through Marozia, an infamous noble beauty of questionable repute. Because of his opposition to the sitting pope, Formosus (Lynda Barry), he was made bishop of Cerveteri, in order to remove him from the Eternal City. On the latter’s death in 896, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the papacy and wound up excommunicated by the ultimate choice, John IX. Forcibly exiled by the nominal king of Italy, Lambert, while all official records about him were destroyed, during a period when the papacy was largely a pawn of rival aristocratic factions, with little real sense of spirituality around many who held its ruling seat. When an antipope seized the Chair of St. Peter by force in 903, his patron’s faction revolted, and the following year he was invited to be pope, adding the number III to his birth name. Immediately took action against his dead predecessor, Formosus, annulling all his ordinations, while honoring Stephen VI (Clive Barker) who had overseen the bizarre Cadaver Synod, where the former’s corpse was dug up, clad in papal vestments and found guilty of acts unbecoming, before being mutilated and tossed in the Tiber, only to be rescued by a monk and reburied with honors restored. Exhumed the Frankensteinian corpse once more, and after another trial, beheaded it, although the story may be apocryphal. Allegedly had his two predecessors, Pope Leo V and Antipope Christopher strangled in prison, although once again, the stories of his dark deeds may have been the sheer product of the overactive imagination of his enemies. Restored the Lateran Palace after it earlier had been shattered by an earthquake, and is the first pope depicted wearing the tripe-crowned papal tiara. Regarded as one of the worst ever to be raised to the pontificate, initiating a period known as the pornocracy or rule of the harlots, which wold last well into the next century, before reformers would undo their excesses. Inner: Violent, voracious and vengeful, if accounts of his enemies are to be believed. Sympathy for the devil lifetime of bringing his full darkness to bear, before constraining it later on to his imagination as a master of the macabre, thanks to a hidden past pushing the various limits of his times as prelude to turning them into sheer horrifying entertainment fodder.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS SIBLING VISIONARY:
Storyline: The futuristic fabulist combines his gifts for storytelling with his brother’s visual sensibilities to become the early 21st century’s premier fraternal cinematic oracles.
Larry Wachowski (1965) - American filmmaker. Outer: Mother was a nurse and painter, father was a businessman. Grew up in Chicago, and attended Bard College for 2 years before dropping out. Held a longtime fascination with ideas that challenge ordinary perceptions. Along with his younger brother Andy, deliberately evasive about his life, wishing to have their work speak for them, rather than their hidden personalities, and going so far as to stipulate in their contracts, no press junkets or interviews. The more talkative of the duo, he married Thea Bloom in 1991, later divorced after a decade. The brothers began their dual careers by writing the screenplay for a Sylvester Stallone vehicle, Assassins, which they both despised, then did Bound, a lesbian crime drama in 1997, to show their capabilities, before having a friend draw a 600 page comic-book which would limn exactly their dual vision for The Matrix, an extraordinary combination of cutting edge technology and storyline, combining otherworldly martial arts and dystopic commentary rendered in eye-popping computer graphics, which was released in 1999. The two sequels to it, would come out in 2003, to lesser and lesser audience approval, but he rebounded in 2006 with V for Vendetta, another spectacular futuristic vehicle, with a terrorist hero, as he continues to explore the philosophic themes of human destiny and the tyranny of the science of technology, which he did earlier in the previous century, employing the technological advances that have allowed artists ever increasingly more access to their direct imaginative vision. Lives near his brother in Chicago. Inner: Voracious reader and conversant with intellectual his/story. Great fan of “The Odyssey,” which he claims to constantly reread. Reputed transvestite with a taste for dominatrices. Full throttle fantasy lifetime of keeping himself well-hidden, along with his co-collaborative brother in order to focus entirely on their extraordinary ability to render their futuristic visions into high commercial art. Karel Capek (1890-1938) - Czech writer. Outer: Father was a country doctor, mother pampered him. Brother of artist Josef Capek (Andy Wachowski). Sister Helena also became a novelist. Suffered from a spinal disease his entire life, which usually indicates difficulties with father figures, or a sense of lack of support from the larger world. Began writing poetry and short stories while still in high school, then studied philosophy at Charles Univ. in Prague, before continuing his education in Berlin and Paris. Finally settled in Prague in 1917, after receiving his doctorate 2 years earlier. During WW I, he labored as a tutor to the son of an outspoken nationalist and as a librarian. An extremely prolific writer, he worked in a variety of genres in both fiction and nonfiction, taking on the serious and the silly with equal aplomb. In his fiction, he explored philosophic concepts, exploring themes of identity, fate and dystopia. Won early fame through his play “R.U.R.” which introduced the term ‘robot,’ which his brother coined, and he became a central figure in Czechoslovak literature and journalism, publishing short stories, plays, political and literary essays, and biography. Wrote extensively for newspapers, and also employed science fiction and the detective story as his primary modes for exploring the uncomfortable dreamscapes of modernity. Led an inner life very comparable to Franz Kafka (Edward Albee), although the latter wrote in German, making him ultimately into a world-class figure, while he lingered in obscurity after his death, thanks in large to the banning of his work by the subsequent communists who came to rule the Czech republic. Like Kafka, he had a longtime literary correspondence with his inamorata, actress Olga Scheinpflugova, although unlike the former, he eventually married her in 1935, after a fifteen year courtship. A democrat at heart, he viewed the rise of totalitarianism in central Europe with scathing insight. Died of pneumonia just months after the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia. Inner: Extremely cerebral and hypochondriacal, employing his physical discomfort as a spur for his own discomfort with the human race as he saw it. Visionary lifetime of being a large literary fish in a small pond, and transliterating his own painful physical existence into a metaphorical look at a corroded world, itching to do great war with itself.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS SIBLING VISIONARY:
Storyline: The hidden cameraman combines his gifts for the strikingly visual with his brother’s storytelling sensibilities to become the 21st century’s premier fraternal cinematic oracles.
Andy Wachowski (1967) - American filmmaker. Outer: Mother was a nurse and painter, father was a businessman. Grew up in Chicago, and attended Emerson College, before dropping out. Along with his brother Larry, he remains deliberately evasive about his life, preferring to allow his work to speak for him. Worked as a housepainter and carpenter, while holding a longtime fascination with Hong Kong martial arts films, Japanese anime, video games, biomechanics, gnosticism, and other assorted religious detritus. Began writing scripts with his brother, although despised the first that was produced, a Sylvester Stallone vehicle called, Assassins. Co-wrote and co-directed Bound in 1997, a lesbian crime drama to show they were capable of offbeat commercial fare, then presented a 600 page comic book layout of their next project, which would be the basis for the enormously popular Matrix trilogy, a dystopic look at the future that questions the very nature of perceived reality, rendered in flying feet and eye-popping computer graphics. The latter two parts, however, failed to live up to the promise of the first, thanks to an overload of turgid philosophy. Married and lives near his brother in Chicago, eschewing Hollywood, and its publicity machines as if they were drones of the matrix itself. Returned to spectacular form in 2006 with V for Vendetta, a futuristic tale with a good guy terrorist as hero, which he and his sibling co-wrote and produced, but allowed another to direct, although it, too, earned mixed reviews, as well as the condemnation of the comic book author who had originated the tale. Inner: Hidden martyred path at the hands of the Nazis at the core of his social thinking. Cutting edge lifetime of keeping himself well-hidden, along with his co-collaborative brother in order to focus entirely on their extraordinary ability to render their futuristic visions into high commercial art, while tapping into his victimization at the hands of the 20th century’s pre-eminent matrix-builders. Josef Capek (1887-1945) - Czech artist, novelist and dramatist. Outer: Father was a country doctor. Brother of writer Karel Capek (Larry Wachowski), very close relationship twixt the two. Sister Helena was also a novelist. The duo collaborated on Karel’s first book, written in 1916. Illustrated his brother’s work, and is credited with coming up with the term ‘robot,’ which was Czech for “slave labor,” for his sibling’s “R.U.R.” A skilled caricaturist, he is best remembered for his series ‘Hitler’s Boots,’ drawn during the Nazi’s ascendancy to power. Considered a major artist in his own country. Sent to a German concentration camp after the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia, and died there the same month that WW II ended in Europe. Inner: Sibling revelry lifetime of working in close tandem with his visionary writer brother, while using the turmoil of his times to hone his own strong visual skills, only to fall victim to the overwhelming oppressive political force that scarred the European landscape of his middle age.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST FINDING HERSELF IN TRANSLATION:
Storyline: The adroit daughter uses her childhood grounding to bring larger worlds together through her artistic vision, while slowly integrating herself around her sensibilities and emotions, in order to make them one with the world around her.
Sofia Coppola (1971) - American filmmaker. Outer: Father was film director Francis Ford Coppola. Mother was set director Eleanor Neil. Two brothers, including one who was killed as at 22 in a boating accident. Grew up on her parents Napa valley vineyard, and was often taken along on her father’s shoots, soaking up filmmaking while growing up. Appeared as a baby boy in her father’s first Godfather epic, unconsciously repeating a theme of her previous father’s wishes, from her earlier go-round in this series. Treated as an adult as child, and had a longtime fascination with wardrobes. At 15, she served as an intern in Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel atelier in Paris. Wrote a segment along with her father for Woody Allen’s New York Stories in 1989. 5’5 1/2”. Wound up in all three “Godfathers,” but was clearly out of her depth in a substantial role in the third, which drew such negative reviews, that she turned her talents to their true metier, behind the camera. Also went to art school, where she studied painting. Appeared in a few music videos and hosted a cable show, “Hi-Octane,” with Zoe Cassavetes, the daughter of director John, although began to feel like she was turning into a dilettante. In 1998, she produced a short called Lick the Star, about 7th grade girls wreaking vengeance on their male counterparts. Made her feature writing and directorial debut in 1999 with The Virgin Suicides, to excellent reviews. The same year, she married film director Spike Jonze, and the duo would go on to become the first couple ever separately nominated for a Best Director Oscar. Divorced in 2004. In 2003, she produced, wrote and directed, Lost in Translation, once again tapping into her previous Japanese roots in order to fashion a unique look at disconnected emotions. Won an Academy Reward for best screenplay for her effort, as well as a Golden Globe for best screenplay and best picture. Also served as creator of the TV series, “Platinum,” as she continues to build on the platform afforded her by coming into a powerful Hollywood family, with the added ability to make a name for herself totally on her own. Thanks to her fascination costuming, she began a fashion line called Milk Fed. Had two daughters with French rocker, Thomas Mars, and also upset French sensibilities, despite being allowed the run of Versailles thanks to her quasi-cult figure status in France, as well as her hidden past life connection to the royal family who once resided there, with her costumed take on Marie Antoinette (Lana Turner), which debuted at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Far more into the visual and the emotional, than the political, she has steadily impressed her fine eye on her times. Finally married Mars in 2011. Inner: Quiet, cool, unaggressive and uncompromising, as well as unruffled on all her sets. Likes working with old friends, including brother Roman, as second unit director. The daughter also rises lifetime of coming in through a powerful artistic force, and having the talent and ability to fashion her own unique place in the Hollywood firmament through her good circumstances of birth. Lillian May Miller (1895-1943) - American artist. Outer: Father was a career diplomat who served in the American embassy in Tokyo at the time of his daughter’s birth. Mother had been an English teacher with a Christian mission. Older of 2 sisters. Her sire had wanted a male heir, so she was nicknamed ‘Jack,’ and took on male characteristics. Athletic and fun-loving, like her sire, she joined him in his outdoor pursuits, although only learned basic Japanese. Her progenitor, however, encouraged a complete immersion in the culture, and at 9, she enrolled in a juku or private school, where she became familiar with the synthetic styles of the great Meiji painters. In 1907, she entered the juku of Shimada Bokuson, and immediately began exhibiting, eventually earning the sobriquet of Gyokka or ‘jeweled flower.’ Her father was transferred to Washington in 1909 to become chief of the Div. of Far Eastern Affairs, and she came to the U.S. and eventually went to Vassar, graduating in 1917. Affected male clothing, as well as kimonos, and had no known relationships with men. Worked as a secretary in a government job and promptly quit after WW I to return to her teacher in Japan. A large scale painting inspired by a Korean sojourn earned her a special merit, after which she turned to block printing, working in a decidedly Asian style, which proved highly successful. Also added verse to her repertoire. Missed the 1923 earthquake, because she was visiting her parents in Korea, where her father had been posted, although her studio, many prints and her first book, Grass Blades From a Cinnamon Garden, were all destroyed in it. Reissued it in 1927, wrote a play and decided to return to America at decade’s end. Gave talks, and exhibitions, sold prints, and continued working in both the print mode and in watercolor, while having access to the country’s cultural elite. A fierce defender of Japan during its 1930s military build-up, she developed a cancerous tumor, while internalizing her defensive anger, and had her ovaries removed. After a violent coup attempt, she and her mother moved from Japan to Honolulu in 1936, and 2 years later she returned to the U.S. via San Francisco. Felt completely betrayed by Pearl Harbor, and began working for American propaganda forces afterwards. Fell ill with jaundice and another malignant tumor was found in her abdomen afterwards, which led to her death several months later, in the midst of WW II. Inner: Outdoorsy, adventurous, enthusiastic. Extremely independent as well as indefatigable. Integrative lifetime of trying to bring the east and west and the masculine and the feminine together within her, while the larger world was doing quite the opposite. Princess Marie-Christine D’Orleans (1813-1839) - French sculptress. Outer: Youngest and favorite daughter of Louis-Philippe (Boris Yeltsin) and Marie Amelia. 9 older brothers and sisters. Her father became king of France when she was 17. Raised as a royal princess, she showed a talent for watercolor and his/storical compositions. Suffered from poor health her entire brief life. Largely indifferent to sculpture initially, because of the restrictions placed on women artists, who were not allowed to use nude models, but instead had to work with overly draped figures, keeping her ignorant of anatomical structure. Began by doing bas-reliefs of Romantic literary subjects, and as her technique improved, so did her enthusiasm for her craft. Her studio also served as a chapel for her, where she would often meditate. Received a few commissions, although most of her subsequent works have either been lost of destroyed. Best remembered for her statue of Joan of Arc (Petra Kelly) at Versailles. Married the duke of Wurttemberg, and died two years later of pulmonary disease. Inner: Admired by the public for both her piety and patriotism. Extremely devout, and also an enthusiast for Germanic literature. Privileged, albeit extremely brief lifetime of trying to lead an elevated life and serve as an artistic beacon for France, before being undone by a vulnerable heart, in her ongoing dance as a crypto-royal making her own highly noticeable artistic way in the world.

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