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July 2009 |
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From Mickey to Phil, Finley’s passion for art continues to guide her through life |
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Written by Julie Ciaramella
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Monday, 17 November 2008 |
Nance Finley works on a drawing in her home in Punxsutawney. The drawing is of a stained glass piece; later, Finley will cut and assemble the pieces of glass to create the artwork. (Photo by Julie Ciaramella/The Punxsutawney Spirit)
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Nance Finley has led a varied life and a varied career, working on everything from creating shows for Disney theme parks to restoring Radio City Music Hall to working on feature animated films for Warner Bros. and creating four Phantastic Phils with her design associate, Jeff Marshall.
“I’ve always had a big imagination, and I was blessed to be in a job where that was one of the requirements,” Finley said.
Finley grew up in Punxsutawney, and she graduated from Punxsutawney High School in 1960. She had always been interested in art ever since she was a little girl, but her first job was in television. At the time, her uncle worked for WTVN-TV in Columbus. Finley moved to Ohio and began attending classes at Ohio State University while working part-time at the TV station in the promotion department.
Finley did not get her degree, which she said she has “always regretted,” but her experience in television, her life-long love and appreciation of art and her side job as a dance instructor at Arthur Murray paved the way for her career in entertainment.
“With those three things — the dancing, the television experience and the art — when I eloped to California I got a job at Disneyland Entertainment,” Finley said. “Because they said, ‘She dances, she’s an artist and she knows TV.’”
She started working as Show Development Secretary in the Disneyland Entertainment Division and worked her up to Creative Development Director with the guidance of her mentor, Robert F. Jani, who was the vice-president of entertainment at Disney when Finley joined the company in 1975.
Finley was part of a team that created all of the entertainment for Disneyland and Walt Disney World, including the famous “Main Street Electrical Parade” for the parks, which Jani created.
Jani left Disneyland in 1978 to form his own production company, Robert F. Jani Productions, and asked Finley to join his team as the creative development manager. Among their first projects was the restoration of Radio City Music Hall in 1978. They also created Radio City’s “Magnificent Christmas Spectacular,” a show that still runs today at Radio City and in a touring production.
The Radio City project was one of Finley’s favorites, she said. The hall was “pretty run down” when she first began the restoration.
“We restored the hall back to its original condition, with the original carpet and original wallpaper,” Finley said. “The first thing Mr. Jani did was have Radio City Music Hall be made into a historic landmark so it could never be torn down or used for office buildings, which the Rockefellers wanted to do at that time. The first six stories are landmarked, so that theater will always be there.”
She would fly back and forth from California to New York to get shows up and running.
“One thing about our boss — he never let us rest on our laurels after a show was over. We were always on to the next one, so we’d have one big dinner after the show with the whole cast and have a good time, but the next morning we knew it was onto the next project,” Finley said.
The production company also worked on President Reagan’s 1985 Inauguration, the United Way Centennial, Crystal Cathedral’s “The Glory of Christmas,” Super Bowl and Orange Bowl halftime shows, the 1992 Republican National Convention Gala and the opening and closing ceremonies for Singapore’s 25th anniversary.
Robert F. Jani Productions also continued to work as creative consultants for all the Disney theme parks, which includes Tokyo-Disneyland and Euro-Disneyland. The company created the events from top to bottom: The script, music, choreography, sets, props and costumes.
“We just designed everything, from the parades and the costumes and the music. It’s like coming up with a recipe for them,” Finley said.
Jani passed away in 1989 from Lou Gehrig’s disease at the age of 54. The production company closed in 1993.
Finley said working with Jani was a blessing.
“Everyone loved him. He was just the neatest person in the world and I am so blessed to have a mentor like him because he was so kind and creative. He just got the best out of everyone,” Finley said.
After the production company shut down, Finley became a digital color cel painter for Warner Bros., working on the feature animated films "Space Jam," "Quest for Camelot," "Osmosis Jones" and "Iron Giant." A digital cel artist paints the animation cels on a computer, compared to the old-fashioned method, which involved artists painting each cel individually by hand.
Finley had always wanted to do more artwork during her time in creative development, and due to Jani telling his employees to “always learn something new” and to follow their dreams, Finley decided to go after her dream.
“I learned so much at Warner Bros.; I also joined the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists union, and we got to study under the wonderful artists that belonged to the union and got screen credit. I went from live entertainment to animation for the last five years that I worked,” she said.
In 2003, Finley returned to Punxsutawney to take care of her mother, and she began to get involved with the local art community — specifically, the “Phantastic Phils!” public art project.
“They asked me to submit some ideas, and then the Festival Committee came to me and asked me to create a Phantastic Phil for the Groundhog Festival,” Finley said. She called her design associate, Jeff Marshall, in California, who had experience with sculpting, to help her create the Phantastic Phil. They first met when they worked together in California for Discovery Arts, a non-profit organization founded by Marshall’s sister that brings the arts to children in hospitals.
Finley and Marshall created four Phantastic Phils — Freedom Phil, Presby MacPhil, Fireman Phil and “Possi-Phil-ity” (the Phantastic Phil located at IUP-Punxsutawney) — and three bears for Clarion’s “Very Beary Summer” project.
“It feels rewarding every time we drive down the street to see someone taking a picture with one of our Phils,” Finley said.
Marshall said Finley taught him some valuable lessons.
“She always taught me to aim high and dare to dream,” Marshall said. “She used to always say that. She has no boundaries as an artist. She’s free-wheeling.”
Now Finley works mostly on artwork for commission pieces and gifts. Currently she is working on a stained glass piece, some oil paintings, “a little bit of everything,” she said.
“My art is my hobby — I just happen to get paid for it,” she said, laughing.
Finley added that art is an important part of life and the human experience.
“The ability to create art is a gift from God, and you should use it,” Finley said. “When art is taken out of schools, people say, ‘Oh, it’s not important.’ But it’s very important. Think of all the plays you’ve seen and the books you’ve read — some of your best memories are around some form of art that was designed or written. Life would be pretty boring without it.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 November 2008 )
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