There is
only one person who inspires me with his passion towards the world of animated
movies, and that is Glen Keane. This guy was my childhood hero and until this
day he still is my inspiration. Glen Keane was Walt Disney’s character designer
and animator who created many great characters including Ariel from The
Little Mermaid, Pocahontas and Tarzan.
My
passion for art and animated movies grew because I watched his characters in my
favorite movies, even before I knew who Glen Keane was. I used to watch all
these beautiful princesses and picked up my pencil and started drawing them. Then
at around the age of 12, when I started to use internet, I found out about Glen
Keane. Since then I am officially a fan.
In one
of his talks, while explaining about creativity he said “you gotta think like a
child. Kids play make believe. When kids play as fairies, they don’t
pretend to be fairies. They believe they are fairies.” Animators and creative
people should hang on to such spirits. It drives creativity when we are not
bound to the limitations of the real world. He said, “some
of us have forgotten what it was like to think like a child. I really believe
that that is the spark that carries someone all the way through their career.”
At the age of 25 and looking
back, in regret I have to say that life has brought me to the point where I
often forget to think like a child. I used to be very active and creative. I
drew, painted, wrote stories, and created things. Not a day went by without me
creating something. As I grew up, somehow it also changed. I went to school and
the score of my math exam was more important than drawing, so I stopped drawing
for a long time and focus on my study. After graduation, finding a university
was more important than writing stories. And I stopped writing stories for a
long time. Life continued. Study and work took over my life and I’ve forgotten
to think like a child.
It is sad to admit that. But
every time I browse through the internet and I look at Glen Keane’s works, the
fire within me lit up. I am reminded that people like Glen make a living,
become successful and make impact in other people’s live by simply thinking
like a child. I remember he shared his experience designing the character Ariel
and said “I really connected with Ariel. I was a 33-year-old man, and when
I was animating Ariel, I was a 16-year-old mermaid.”
The passion that he has for his
artworks is so beautiful and inspiring. He believed in creativity and impacting
other people’s live with art. I am proud to say that I am one of those people
he has inspired to achieve great things in life with the power of creativity.
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