an afternoon with Woody, Wall-E and Carl

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. M and I trekked to Emeryville for yet another one of our silly adventures… this time we were off to hang around PIXAR Studios for the annual Cartoon Art Museum fundraiser. Getting inside the gates at PIXAR is difficult to do, unless of course you’re really good friends with an employee or you happen to get an invitation to a soiree of some sort, so we took full advantage of the event and signed up early on! We met people who had traveled from all over the country for the small event … all of whom were fully intent on filling their Christmas stockings with PIXAR-labelled everything from the exclusive gift store! We walked away with a bit of swag ourselves, but nothing that burned the bank too much (I’ll share photos later this week).

At the event, we got to mingle with PIXAR artists, explore the multiple art galleries on site, watch Toy Story 2 in 3-D in their main screening room (complete with an accurate LED starscape above) and interact with some of the production team afterwards, bid on original art in a silent auction, and eat lots and lots of petit fours and grapes.  But rather than ramble on about the awesomeness, I’ll share a couple of photos and hopefully they will tell the story instead:
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Mr. M starring up at the atrium above… with his favorite piece of UP concept artwork behind him.
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The large atrium at PIXAR (the main theatre is at the bottom of the screen) … with me standing right in the middle!

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Our new family portrait!  [p.s. funny story about that Sully statue… I actually had my picture taken with it back in the fall of 2001 before it was ever released. I thought he was adorable… and he was set-up next to a lifesize portrait of Kim Possible… also before it debuted on the Disney Channel. So happy to meet its acquaintance again!]
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Coffee is nice and cheap at PIXAR… I wonder why??? :)
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Two of the pieces of original artwork available for bidding. I really liked the birdie… but Mr. M wasn’t wild about him so we passed.
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We bid on #160… and were the high bidders until the last 15 minutes of the auction. At that point, a woman came over and bid $5 over my previous bid (nevermind that the rules stated she needed to bid $25 more). I proceeded to bid again, which I guess truly upset her. She decided to camp out at the bidding table, take the pencil from the table, and tell anyone that came near the sheet that, “this is for my 2 year old daughter’s birthday – I want it.” Luckily we had reached our maximum bidding level… but it was still extremely tempting to incite her with a yet higher bid. I still think it would have made the perfect nursery artwork… but Mr. M and I refused to play the pity game at the silent auction, and just let it go.

The painting on the right of Carl (from UP) was Mr. M’s favorite piece, but the bidding went above our limit early on. It sold for $2350.

I guess there’s always next year?

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Mr. M joins up with the Incredibles!
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And I do too!
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This is like looking at the backside of water… but so much cooler! :)
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So that concludes our afternoon at PIXAR. There were lots of cool exhibits and areas where cameras weren’t allowed, so I’m sad I can’t share, but I can tell you that it would be a very cool place to work! :)