Arts center to display Oscar-winner's otherworldly works

May 4--He has a world of imagination - and an imagination of worlds.

It's the cosmic truth: Doug Chiang - an Oscar-winning art director, accomplished artist, science-fiction author and all-around master creator - is happiest when he's concocting alternative realities. His imaginary planets are populated with denizens and scenes straight from his sci-fi-loving synapses: pipe-smoking regal robots, lop-eared talking monkeys, dinosaur-like behemoths, shiny flying saucers hovering above 18th-century-style tall ships, spider-like robotic armies on the march and much, much more.

The images are from "Robota," a film book (imagine an art-book tale told in a film-like fashion) that Chiang produced in collaboration with science-fiction author Orson Scott Card. The book - published in 2003 by Chronicle Books and graced with laudatory jacket blurbs written by cinematic luminaries George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis and James Cameron - is filled with dozens of Chiang's mesmerizing, otherworldly illustrations.

The original acrylic paintings from "Robota" will be on display in the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center's Hoag Gallery from Saturday through Aug. 12 as part of the "Zero Gravity" series of exhibits.

So how did the arts center connect with Chiang, an Academy Award-winner in 1993 for best effects/visual effects for "Death Becomes Her" and whose film resume includes the "Star Wars" prequels ("The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones"), "War of the Worlds," "The Polar Express," "Forrest Gump," "The Mask," "Terminator 2," "Ghost" and others?

By e-mail, of course.

Jina Pierce, the arts center's visual curator, had received "Robota" as a gift from a friend who knew about this summer's space-oriented exhibit theme. Pierce dashed off a quick e-mail to Chiang, who is currently immersed in intense production design work on Zemeckis' new epic film, "Beowulf," asking the artist if he'd be interested in displaying his paintings in Pueblo.

Chiang said yes.

"(Pierce's e-mail request) was really out of the blue," said Chiang, speaking by phone from his San Rafael, Calif., home. "But the timing seemed right. I've never framed all of the original art, and this gave me a chance to do that. I thought it sounded like a wonderful opportunity."

There will be 45 pieces on display - "about 90 percent of them are from the book," Chiang says - as well as a short film and a "Robota" sculpture mock-up by the artist. The pieces vary in size - some are as small as 1-inch-by-2-inches, which is not unusual for conceptual sketches.

"I like working really small," says Chiang, 44. "It really simplifies the composition and the idea to the simplest elements."

Says Pierce, "He is big-time. The best thing to me is the unique style, the unique voice, that Doug Chiang has. There's a lot of science fiction (art) out there, but he really uses his imagination to come up with a race, a world, that is unique to himself. And with his abilities - his technical skill, his dexterity with high-tech production - he's capable of anything." For Chiang, "Robota" represents an ever-evolving project that has been percolating since childhood. He was about 11 years old when one of his doodles produced an odd - and memorable - juxtaposition of images: flying saucers and tall ships, the future meeting the past. It was a drawing that lurked inside his ever-creative brain, finally re-emerging many years later to provide the inspiration for "Robota."

"Very early on, art was my escape," he says. "I spent a lot of time in the basement drawing and then, later, making super-8mm films. My parents moved here from Taiwan, and we were one of the few Asian families (in suburban Michigan) - so I was sheltered in some ways, kind of isolated."

But when he was 15, Chiang got out of the house long enough to go see "Star Wars" - "and I knew then what I wanted to do," he says. "I knew I wanted to make films.

"But it took a long time to convince my parents, who had a strong belief that art is not a career worth pursuing. . . . but they slowly agreed to indulge me. I had no idea where it would go, but it's been great. I've fulfilled a childhood dream."

Chiang wasted no time pursuing his filmmaking ambitions. After graduating from UCLA, where he majored in film production, he paid his dues: He made animated films, did storyboard work for industrial films, directed computer-graphic commercials and worked as the stop-motion animator for TV's "Pee Wee's Playhouse."

In 1989 he went to work for Industrial Light and Magic (where he became creative director before leaving in 1995 to be design director for the "Star Wars" prequels), and he's been in the movie-making mainstream ever since.

"On most films, the challenge is to help the director tell the story," he says. "The creatures I come up with have to reinforce the story, the vision. My role is to present a whole bunch of ideas and, hopefully, one will stick."

Chiang is in full workaholic mode these days, trying to come up with what he calls "a sixth-century world" for "Beowulf" while doing most of his work in San Francisco and Santa Barbara. He has little time for painting; most of his current efforts are digitally produced and work-related.

"I'd like to paint more if things ever slow down - it's probably been three or four years since I've painted," he says. "But I really like the tactile feel of painting, the coming up with happy accidents. Working with acrylics is tougher to do (than digital), but the rewards can be great.

"There's a lot of stuff I like to do: portraits, landscapes, naturalistic stuff, but most of the work I do falls into the science-fiction/fantasy genre. My two big passions growing up were science fiction and dinosaurs - and those are pretty much the same things that interest me now."

Hence, his continuing obsession with all things "Robota." Getting the book written, illustrated and published - a challenge that consumed most of Chiang's limited spare time on weekends and nights for years - was just the first step. He's now working with Sony Pictures Imageworks on a "Robota" video game, has already seen some of his characters emblazoned on a line of K2 snowboards (one of his hobbies) and, he quietly admits, is working on a screenplay - "like everyone else."

But there's still room for family in Chiang's congested corner of the universe. He's married and has three kids (the oldest is 9) and he notes with pride that they like to draw, too.

"Spaceships and monsters, just like me," he says. "But they're a lot further along than I was at that age."

IF YOU GO

WHAT: â??Robota'

WHO: Academy Award-winning artist Doug Chiang

WHERE: Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, Hoag Gallery

WHEN: Saturday through Aug. 12; galleries open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday

COST: $4 for adults, $3 for children, members free.

For more information on Doug Chiang, log on to www.dougchiangstudio.com .

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

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