Tyrus Wong

Tyrus Wong, who (I didn’t realise until today) was an early influence for me as an artist. Wong, a Chinese immigrant, created art that inspired the look and creative direction of Disney’s Bambi, the first animated film I ever saw. Because he and many of his fellow Disney colleagues were fired following an artists’ strike, he was only credited as a background artist on the film. Disney later honoured him; his work was exhibited at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco (Aug 2013-Feb 2014), followed by a career retrospective and hardcover book published by the Walt Disney Family Foundation Press.