Barry Jackson
About
My career as an artist in the record industry included working for artists as Neil Young, The Band, ZZ Top, and The Grateful Dead.
Later I went into animation and earned screen credits for such films as, Horton Hears a Who, The Nightmare before Christmas, Shrek, The Prince of Egypt, Ron Howard’s, The Grinch, Sausage Party, and many more.
Production design credits include the Weinstein’s, Escape from Planet Earth, Warner Bros, The Ant Bully, and Cartoon Network’s, “Firebreather.”
Awards include the 2011 Telly Award and Annie Award nomination for production design on the Cartoon Network CG feature, Firebreather. My animated short film, The Killer Buzz, won the Director’s Circle Award and numerous others.
Art for opening titles designs include, “The Great and Powerful Oz,” the mini-series, The Leftovers, and Mary Poppins Returns, and “A Crowded Room,” all done in concert with Yu and Company.
Writing credits include my first children’s book, Danny Diamondback.
My Ted x Talk on “Unlocking Creativity” can be found HERE.
I have now joined the TAG Gallery and plan to have a show of my oil painting in November.
Artist Statement
Throughout art history the human figure has always held a unique psychological power. When presented without a defined narrative, it becomes a vessel for the unconscious—summoning thoughts and projections shared from artist to viewer. Each composition in Public Strangers invites narrative interpretation, yet no two viewers will arrive at the same answer.
Created entirely from imagination and without photographic reference, the paintings in Public Strangers are acts of introspection. They offer glimpses into the artist’s internal landscape, where memory, intuition, and observation converge to reveal inner truths rather than literal realities. Oil paint possesses an innate ability to engage the viewer on a visceral level. Through its texture, density, and in some cases uncontrolled application, it can evoke such sensations as oppression, anxiety, harmony, and isolation. In this medium, emotion does not merely exist inside the painting—it emanates from it.