Joan C. Gratz

In 1941, Gratz was born in Burbank, California. Gratz's father was an electrical engineer and her mother was an English teacher. From a young age she had an interest in art.

While Gratz was a student in architecture, she began painting. Gratz was filming her painting process. In 1969, Gratz obtained a degree in professional architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles.[2] Before graduating, Gratz began to experiment with the possibilities of animation and started to explore the idea of "making paintings breathe" with a technique she explained as "clay painting". After graduating, she moved to Oregon, making a living by creating puppets and poster graphics.[1]

In 1976, Gratz was asked to work for Will Vinton in the new up and coming Will Vinton Studios,[1] and began working in the film industry during the production of Rip Van Winkle (1978).[3] During her time at Vinton Studios, Gratz worked on many films as an animator, but in 1987 she decided to work as a freelance animator and filmmaker due to issues involved with collaborative film projects, and not receiving the proper credit for her work.[1] In 1987, Gratz established Gratzfilm, her own studio to direct and produce her films.[2]

Once a freelance animator and filmmaker, Gratz continued to be represented by Vinton Studio,[1] and her success led her to receive commissions for commercials from large companies such as Coca-Cola.[4] In 1990, Gratz animated a commercial for United Airlines entitled Natural, which consisted of her clay painting technique.[3]

After eight years of planning and researching, and two years of working through the creation and animation process, Gratz completed her film Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase in 1992.[5] The title of this seven minute long film[6] combines the titles of Leonardo DaVinci's famous painting, the Mona Lisa (1503), and Marcel Duchamp's iconic modernist piece, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1919).[7] [5] Consisting of fifty-five[5] twentieth-century paintings, Gratz uses her clay painting technique to present her audience with the history and evolution of modern art,[8] beginning with Impressionism, and continuing until the Pop Art movement and Hyperrealism[5] through metamorphic transitions between each work of art.[1] The sound and music for the film were provided by composer Jamie Haggerty and Chel White.[5] It won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film,[5] and won many other awards at various film festivals around the world.[4]

In 1993, Gratz co-directed and animated Pro and Con with Joanne Priestly.[1] Using mixed media including writing and calligraphy, and creating through black clay on white backgrounds, Pro and Con illustrates a docudrama about prison life seen through the eyes of a prisoner and a corrections officer.[1]

Gratz is also an author. In June 2014, Gratz was a writer and illustrator of My Tesla: A love story of a mouse and her car, a disguised children book for adults.[9][10]

At the Academy Awards, Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (1992) won an Oscar for the Best Animated Short Film in 1993.[11][4]

• Clay painting
• Loving Vincent, a 2013 animated film similar in technique
• Will Vinton

• Joan C. Gratz at IMDb
• Joan C. Gratz at mostlymovies.ca
• Joan C. Gratz at austinchronicle.com
• Joan Gratz at nwfilm.org at the Wayback Machine (archived March 3, 2021)
• Women in Animation: Joan C Gratz Part 1