I remember where I was at age 10 of being in my front yard and my dad coming outside to tell me that Jim Henson was dead. I always thought the world of my hero and idol Jim Henson! I did learn later on from articles about him and meeting his daughters at a puppetry convention, that he was human and had flaws like the rest of us! I have heard various stories about his flaws as a skirt chaser womanizer and how he spent more time at work than he did with his family, he didn't live with his wife, they lived separate lives from each other and she was on the east coast with the kids while he was living in London for many years! I think they had divorced, I can't remember, but he was known for being a ladies man! He passed away from an infection, that could have been cured easily but he believed in Christian Science where you don't go to the doctors! Some puppetry people I used to know speculated that he died of overworking himself. That theory could be true to a point, just look at everything he made, directed, produced, performed, or oversaw! He accomplished more in his lifetime as a filmmaker, puppeteer and artist than 10 to 20 very talented people combined all together! I used to have a fixation about his puppetry as a kid and teenager. I had dreams from age 15 to 21 of being the next Walt Disney or Jim Henson. I know neither of these two men couldn't ever have done it all alone, that they hired people to create and collaborate for them their ideas and visions of something grand and something new! I realized at age 22 that I wasn't going to be a master puppet builder or a famous puppeteer! I realized at age 23 or 24 I wasn't getting hired by Disney,and that my dreams and pursuit i tried to make happen of being a famous Disney animator and story concept artist just were not happening! I tried to send my stuff out to Disney and Pixar over 8 to 10 times between age 19 to 31. If it were meant to be it would have happened! I used to also think I was going to become big or successful as a special effects creature shop artist and work for or own my own creature effects studio one day, that didn't happen even if I did apply for interviews and tried to network and all that! Much of professional special effects is just glamorized assembly line factory work. I'm happy making the art and monsters I want to make that just come out intutiively and naturally without me really thinking about it, I just start drawing or sculpting in clay and what happens to pour out of me is my results. I sure wish that my art could sell and find an audience. I give a lot of what I make away to others for free! I'm not holding out for ever being an art star or millionaire artist. I know a few art stars who were my peers or friends back in art school years before they hit the big time stardom. If i have not started a following yet, it's probably not realistic for me to expect fame and a fan following to happen to me!
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