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The Bittersweet Taste Of Posthumous Fame
My mother Sterling Sturtevant is finally being acknowledged for her work that changed animation forever
I’ve written before on Medium about experiences I’ve had regarding my mother’s artwork, and women and art in general. It would seem that it is more of a rule than an exception that women’s artwork is downgraded, ignored, hijacked, or stolen by men. This tradition dates back hundreds of years. In the case of cave paintings and rock art: tens of thousands of years.
My mother Sterling Sturtevant was one of the first female animation art directors. In response to a studio-wide contest at UPA in the 1950s, she did the successful redesign of Mr. Magoo. She won Academy Awards, Cannes Golden Palms, and many other industry awards. My mother didn’t invent Magoo, but the Magoo everyone knows and loves was not only designed by her, he was based on my father.
I never knew her. My mother Sterling died of pancreatic cancer when I was three months old. I was also born three months prematurely.
I was both a late and an unexpected baby. Many times, I wonder why on earth I am here. I wonder if my mother had not stopped taking cancer treatments upon learning she was pregnant with me, whether she might not have lived many more years and created many more memorable cartoon characters and much more beautiful art.
What Does Recognition Mean, Anyway?
I worked for someone who was obsessed with public recognition and awards. My former boss wanted me to make a Wikipedia entry for her. On a daily basis as well as for short-term and longer-term goals, her primary motivation was receiving some type of recognition or award, either for herself, or organizationally.
I know a lot more about what my mother did as an animation art director by talking with animation historian Amid Amidi, corresponding with my mother’s friend Bill Melendez, the producer of the Peanuts cartoons, and being interviewed by Mindy Johnson, who is an expert in animation art history and who is writing a book about women in animation.
Mindy dropped the information on me that my father’s second wife Barbara, a lady I had barely known, was also an…
