Page 23 - Flathead Beacon // 8.12.15

artists who held the same reverence for Walt and excitement about the craft.
Every day was an adventure. While working on his television shows, he’d often be interrupted with the request for an entirely new cast of characters for an undeveloped cartoon about lizards or ele- phants or aardvarks or dinosaurs.
“I love dinos!” he’d exclaim, and start scribbling.
Occasionally, when talking about his goofiest work, he’ll give a dismissive snort. Still, the amused dignity in his voice betrays his belief in the characters that Walt’s creative genius produced. Even if – especially if – we don’t fully understand it. At the end of the day, there is a pride in that, in fulfilling the duty of keeping the great Walt Disney’s genius alive and well.
By 1990, when Skip was almost 40, the workload of overseeing the artistic production of five car- toons while concurrently creating hun- dreds of new characters and developing new programs caught up with him.
“My head was about to explode,” he said. “I was working day and night.”
So after five years, he stepped down. He didn’t want to leave Disney, so he answered Willie Ito’s call for charac- ter artists in the consumer productions
department, which manages companies like Applause that license imagery to make and sell souvenirs.
“He’s very, very talented,” said Ito. “We were fortunate to have him come over and join us.”
In 1992, Skip became the director for consumer products. His job was to make sure the products that licensees wanted to sell didn’t “compromise [the
characters’] character or personalities...I had to make sure they’d do it the way Walt would have approved of because he’s a god,” Skip said. He did this for 15 years, the majority of his career with Disney. The work satisfied him – he says he found just as much creative freedom as he did back in the art department.
“I feel that a lot of the stuff we did is still out there. People hand it down gen- eration to generation... that makes me feel good,” Skip says. He recently saw a cou- ple wearing T-shirts he designed in the ‘90s; it was the set where the woman’s shirt features a picture of Minnie, and the men’s a matching one of Mickey.
Finally, in 2007, he retired, grateful for his career and ready to claim his ben- efits. He stayed in Los Angeles for a few years, close to friends and his girlfriend of 10 years.
In 2014, he traveled to Glacier National Park. He stayed the night in Browning, and the next morning drove across the Going-to-the-Sun-Road. The park was foggy, and he couldn’t see much. Then the clouds cleared.
“I saw this beautiful country and there was something about it,” he said, express- ing a first reaction shared by many who move to the valley. “I just started think- ing, ‘I love this place.’”
the valley, looking at the log cabins, which he had liked since childhood. The build- ings from cowboy eras past reminded him of his hometown of El Dorado, Kansas.
In a Bigfork neighborhood, he came upon a fawn, which was standing by the side of the road.
“It was a Bambi,” Skip said, “[It was] saying, ‘What are you waiting for?’”
When he returned to California, he began calling real estate agents in Kalis- pell. Within a year, he had sold his home, convinced his girlfriend to move with him, and settled down into a modest home overlooking the valley.
Skip brought all his art tools with him and he has started exploring the artistic community here, excited about the pros- pects of the artsy edge at local farmers markets. He loves fishing, and though he shoots arrows, he prefers to aim at tar- gets. Who knows what familiar creatures might be hidden in the woods?
His new home hardly hints at the fact that its new owner spent a career creat- ing Disney merchandise. It’s the log cabin he always wanted. There is one golden frame in the dining room, though, that sticks out. It holds a portrait of Scrooge McDuck, striking a distinguished pose that captures the perfect, indefinable, Scrooge-ness.
[email protected]
23
He began driving around the towns in AUGUST 12, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM