More than 60 Seconds with Gary Baseman

FC: Your name is actually part of the Teacher's Pet title. Not since Walt Disney himself has an artist had his name in the title of a Disney movie. Did you have to fight for that?

Baseman: Oh, yeah. Nobody gives you anything. They respected my work, but no company is going to give you anything without you fighting for it.

FC: Is it having a good agent?

Baseman: No; you know better than that. It's the individual pushing. Hopefully you can have somebody helping you get into the right door, but generally it has to be you saying, "This is what I want to do. This is where I want to go." Even coming to Disney was just because of a former coworker who introduced me in LA. No one's going to say, "Here, I'll make you a star," and then you're a star.

FC: How much of Teacher's Pet is yours?

Baseman: I came up with the concept of the little dog, and the artwork is mine. And then you work together -- the writers, the animators, the director -- on how you want to tell the story. When I do my own paintings, I'm trying to keep myself inspired. With this, I'm trying to keep all my artists inspired. Instead of just copying what I do, I'm inspiring them to do better than I ever could.

FC: That sounds like Irvine Welsh: "Good art affirms and reassures. Great art inspires and leads."

Baseman: That's where I'm going from. In projects, too. From concentrating more on the gallery work to now creating these figures and toys.

FC: Yeah, are these toys or art? They seem a little bit of both.

Baseman: Both. Depending on which ones. Some of them are much more limited edition collectibles, and others are more for the everyday audience. It's a balance between art and commerce. I know that when I create something, it's going to take a little bit of time to digest what I do. But the satisfaction in succeeding in that is greater than just giving people what they already expect.

Fast Company: Let's talk about the gore. How did you get away with sq

Gary Baseman: We had to be very playful. And we had a certain sensibility. Like with Day of the Dead, it isn't about death, as in morbid, but celebrating life. We're telling people not to be afraid to take chances, to open up and take risks.

FC: Because you've come through that?

Baseman: I'm still going through it. Over and over again. I always see this as the beginning. People are going, "Wow. Is this the highlight?" And I'm like, "No. This is the beginning." To me, this is the introduction. Any success, any award is incentive to do better work, not to sit there in the glow.

FC: It seems like Disney gave you more freedom than you were expecting.

Baseman: Our media executives really respected what we did best. I wasn't just the hired gun art director who came on to this thing. I created the project, so I could argue -- and sometimes win and sometimes lose -- why something should be a certain way. Disney has certain really big strengths. Voice talent, access to these wonderful actors like Nathan Lane and Kelsey Grammar and Jerry Stiller -- something we're so grateful for. They're so gifted -- they add so much to the script and to the acting. And also with music. Disney has a strong professional approach to the songs. Sometimes it was the Disney executives who played up the creative additions.

FC: So what are your influences? What are the roots of pervasive art?

Baseman: Hieronymous Bosch, mixed with Day of the Dead, mixed with my Eastern European roots, mixed with a certain sensibility of cute Japanese pop art, mixed with my love of Americana?

FC: Hieronymus Bosch?

Baseman: I always try to take little chances. When I was doing the cover for the New York Times Book Review, I had a character running through different panels that represented different sections of the book. Gardening, fiction, sports, arts. I was using little details from paintings that inspired me; one of them was from Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights." I drew this little detail on my hand and [my coworker] said, "What's that?" I said, "It's a detail from a Bosch painting." He said, "What's that in particular?" And I said, "Oh, that's a flower sticking out of a man's ass. But it's in the Bosch painting -- it's fine art." He looked at me and he goes, "When Bosch does it, it's fine art. When you do it, it's a flower sticking out of a man's ass."