Jim Dultz

Artist Statement

  • 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.

Featured Work

“I love magic and illusions and have spent most of my life engaged in these pursuits: Beginning with puppet shows at age 5 (puppets can actually do nothing by themselves) then as a young magician (with the hat, cape and magic wand in hand) then directing and designing community theatre productions in my late teens and early 20’s (using scrims, forced perspective, black lights, turntables, wagons) and then as an art director in film (using smoke and mirrors, miniatures, matte paintings or green screen, rain and/or wind machines to create a turbulent, realistic looking, ocean voyage on a soundstage in Hollywood, for instance.)

My newest work uses clear acrylic rods placed over original computer designed archival prints to create "transformative" art which changes as you move from side to side. I call these works “Low-tech Lenticulars” because they are based on the lenticular technology used in 3D Postcards (whereby the print below the ribbed plastic sheeting has three different views, cut up and placed in a right, center and left sequence) so that you are tricked into seeing movement as you change position. There is a lot of trial and error in making a wonderful illusion, but when I find just the right pattern, coupled with the right diameter of the clear acrylic rods, it works as if by magic. Voila!

I hope you enjoy the show.”