INNOVATOR RETROSPECTIVE // Renowned Artist Al Jarnow Keeps It Moving

Jarnow; 1975 -- Courtesy: The Numero Group

Chances are you didn't know it, but if you grew up in the 80's and were reared on 3-2-1 Contact and Sesame Street, then you grew up with Al Jarnow. A multimedia artist who's animated shorts became archetypal on public television, Jarnow helped define an aesthetic that nostalgists now pine over.

Though for Jarnow, his career has always been about motion--from early panoramic paintings and public TV animations to short films and software development.  We consider ourselves serious appreciators of Jarnow's work and recently caught up with him in an effort to (re)introduce you:

"To me it's always been about moving forward," he says. "I've worked with everything from 16 millimeter film to digital. It's all been a progression."

Jarnow claims art is something he's always done. "My parents thought I would be a lawyer, but on some level, I knew I'd be an artist." In the early '70s, he was putting that conviction into practice, painting landscapes of beach and cityscapes. "The paintings show the movement of time and light," he says. "And I always go back to the beach. I just found this great blank canvas in the beach."

POW 2 - gouache. 9" x 12", 1971

During the '70s, Jarnow also got his big break doing the shorts for public television. "That allowed me to get an education," he says.  

Here's one from 3-2-1 Contact you may remember:

Eventually, he created the experimental short film "Cubits":

Along with a series of "Splits," where he'd use snapshots and Xeroxes to create paintings with a perpetual, paneled feel:

One Hour Photo--gouache on Xerox transfer, 10" x 25", 1982

In 2009, Al's filmmaking got a boost when soul-revival label The Numero Group released Celestial Navigations. a DVD compilation of Jarnow's early work for public TV along with some of his more experimental short films. By then though, Jarnow had moved on to software and "beach sculptures." Using found beach materials, the sculptures reflect a primitive beauty that serve as a direct contrast to the patterns, games, puzzles and museum kiosks which inhabited his simultaneous focus on software. Though to Jarnow, this is all just part of his evolution. Most recently, he returned to film to work on a video with OK Go that's now destined for Sesame Street.

"I can't say why I've made a living at this while other artists haven't been able to," he says. "If I may be immodest, it's talent. But it's also continuous exploration. I tried writing for a bit, but that's best left to my son [the Brooklyn-based Jesse Jarnow]. There was a time when I thought I'd have to drive a cab, but I don't think I'd like that very much. I've been lucky that I've been able to make a living doing art, but I'd do art either way." 

Keep in tune with all of the mind-blowing work Jarnow continues to produce right here.

 --Layla Schlack