Jim Dultz

Artist Statement

“I have been fascinated by illusions for as long as I can remember and have incorporated them in my art, as an art director and designer of theatrical productions, television shows and feature films in Los Angeles.

For my most recent work, I have been experimenting with a variety of prismatic elements (glass and acrylic rods, triangular prisms, prisms over prisms, dichroic glass cubes) to refract the underlying images in surprising ways so that the images appear to move and change colors as you interact with them.

 Much time is spent designing unique underlying graphic patterns involving rectilinear shapes with vibrant and engaging colors, which are then altered through a variety of lenses above"

My goal has always been to amuse, delight and entertain through the art I create.

“I hope you enjoy the show.”

  • By the age of 5, Jim was already putting on marionette puppet shows in his backyard, doing magic tricks in a cheap top hat, black cape, white gloves and cane and drawing crayon portraits of his many aunts and uncles on square cards which he then inserted into his handmade shoebox camera, simply to reveal, after a convincing charade, an “instant photo” of his unsuspecting mark. “Say Cheese!” ”Voila!” Jim found hours of inspiration from all his View-Master 3-D stereo-scope reels (in all their flat 3D, multi-layered beauty), loved his “Give-a-Show-Projector” and looked forward to the next “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” with it’s great Mary Blair-like style, good humor and endless bad puns.

    Then he made a living out of his childhood hobbies, designing puppet TV shows and movies (“Muppets Tonight”, “Greg the Bunny”, “Team America: World Police”, among others) with funny, talented artists, low-tech theatrics, and endless bad puns.

    Between jobs, Jim drew hundreds of cartoon puns that have been subsequently published nationally in “The Funny Times” and have graced numerous covers and pages of “The Foolish Times” locally.

    Throughout a colorful career in pictures spanning four decades, Jim received an Emmy Award for the TV series “Muppets Tonight”, an Art Directors Guild “Excellence in Production Design Award” for the movie “What Dreams May Come” and “Cable Ace Award” for the TV series “Fallen Angels.”

    In 1996, Jim was invited into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and in 2005, into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Now retired from film, Jim has moved to Carmel Valley where he lives happily with his wife Ellen, and his (mostly) poodle pup, in beautiful surroundings, while enjoying making art for art’s sake.