Education
A.B. with Honors, Brown University, 1973
B.F.A., Center for Creative Studies, 1980
Larry Malone is returning to the fine arts after many years as a pioneer in computer animation. In the late 60's he studied with Vaino Kola and through the early 70's exhibited oil paintings and photographs in local shows and shops in upstate New York. At Brown he continued art studies with Ed Koren, John Udvardy and at RISD, photography with Bert Beaver. After graduating with an interdisciplinary major (Art/Philosophy/Religious Studies) he committed himself to the then-new Cibachrome process as a landscape/nature photographer, and was represented in local galleries in the resort towns of northern New York.
After a stint as researcher in an electrostatic photography venture he returned to school in 1977 at CCS in Detroit majoring in Industrial Design. Upon graduation he came to Los Angeles to design and build virtual objects for one of the first computer animation firms, Information International Inc. ("Triple-I"). Faced with a dearth of tools for building models, and even fewer for modifying them, he started programming in earnest, a turn that would redirect his career for the next couple decades.
In the early days one had to wear many hats and he did design, modeling, animation and programming for the groundbreaking films Looker (1981) and TRON (1982). In the next several years he worked on numerous films and commercials, and in 1987 directed the award winning short Stanley and Stella in Breaking the Ice. After freelance work on a few more films, by 1992 he was devoted exclusively to the development of software, which was sold as a modeling product and widely used, most notably for the character Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
All the while he kept modeling, often for testing purposes, with hopes of using the fabulous capabilities of the computer for fine art. In 2009 he started his present project exploring surfaces and quasi-natural shapes, and, excited by the tension between the calculated and the serendipitous, he has plunged headlong into printmaking.
Larry lives in Los Angeles with his wife, songwriter Michelle Krell, and a cat of no particular talent.
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