Gerard Baldwin is one of the original three directors of the landmark television animated prime time series, Rocky & His Friends. Beginning in 1959, and continuing through 1967, Baldwin brought to the small screen the iconic and much-beloved antics of a diminutive flying squirrel and a larger-than-life bull moose.

Along with Lew Keller and Bill Hurtz, Mr. Baldwin worked closely with series creator Jay Ward to bring Rocky and Bullwinkle to life. The formula was simple: Rocky the Flying Squirrel (aka Rocket J. Squirrel) and his best friend, Bullwinkle J. Moose, repeatedly got tangled up in weirdly baroque adventures, full of dead ends, red herrings and nail-biters and were always pursued by the very same 'evil-doers', Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. However Byzantine the plot, good always triumphed over evil. Mr. Baldwin also contributed his artistic sensibilities to the other segments that made up that half hour of television including, George of the Jungle, Super Chicken, Tom Slick, Aesop and Son, Peabody and Sherman as well as Fractured Fairy Tales.

In addition to his time with the Jay Ward Studio, Mr. Baldwin worked at UPA creating the Mr. Magoo television series and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. After leaving UPA, Baldwin worked with Hanna/Barbera Studios from 1979 through 1985, animating two of their most famous television series-The Jetsons and Yogi Bear. In addition he served as producer/director for many of The Smurfs (series and specials), which were developed and produced by Hanna/Barbera Studios. His credits also include directing the 1971 Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham.

In 1989, Baldwin moved his family to Houston, Texas where he continued working in the animation industry as a free-lance director. This freedom gave him the opportunity and the time to follow his first love, drawing and painting his own original subject matter. "Painting," Baldwin says, "is closer to writing poetry than it is to film making; and whereas making an animated cartoon is a collective effort, when painting you are quite alone---not like conducting a symphony, but more like whistling in the dark." Baldwin currently teaches drawing and painting at a local community college not far from his home.

Out of the many paintings Baldwin has produced during the past 15 years there have emerged a series of paintings based on the animation characters from his past. These character studies have the unusual distinction of 'real world' placement; they have an edge, a dark side. Hiding in a cave, Fred Flintstone has reason to be afraid of a real Tyrannosaurus Rex; behind a tree Yogi Bear and Boo Boo keep well out of sight of the hunter in the valley below. Through the subtle inference of a brush stroke, Baldwin adds to the psychological portrait of these beloved animation characters and at the same time, reveals a part of himself.

Linda Jones Enterprises is pleased to represent original artwork by Gerard Baldwin.