Rip squeak

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History

       The Rip Squeak characters had an auspicious beginning when the first three paintings featuring the quartet of friends – Rip, Jesse, Abbey and Euripides – were shown in a Carmel, California art gallery. They debuted to immediate success, selling the weekend they were put on display and demonstrating that these delightful creatures – and their very human qualities – had an appeal that continues to transcend conventional demographics.

The Rip Squeak journey began in earnest in 1998 when the art was presented at Artexpo and the Licensing Show in New York. When representatives from the likes of Mattel, Disney, Sony and Children’s Television Network took notice, various investments made possible the birth of Rip Squeak Inc™ and the first Rip Squeak and His Friends was released in English and German as a coffee-table book. In 2001, accompanied by calendars, postcard books and bookmarks, the first children’s book – also titled Rip Squeak and His Friends – was published by Tallfellow Press and was soon on the Los Angeles Times Children’s Bestseller List.

In 2003, a second Rip Squeak children’s book, The Treasure, was awarded the Independent Publishers Association finalist award. The year also saw the release of a second coffee-table book entitled Pirate Tales and More and A Good Day For Abbey, the first in a series of board books for the pre-school audience. Crowning a productive season, the Rip Squeak family of characters became the featured artwork for the Los Angeles Times’ annual Festival of Books in April of 2003. The Rip Squeak artwork and books also debuted a prominent role in “Every Picture Tells A Story”, a touring exhibit of children’s book illustrations which began at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and continued until 2008 in children’s museums throughout the country. The exhibit was described as a “celebration of diversity and tolerance as portrayed in illustrated children’s books”.

During the holiday season of 2005-06, the Delaware Art Museum – home to such greats of the art world as Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth and John Sloan, hosted a retrospective exhibition of Leonard Filgate’s original illustrations from the Rip Squeak series. Also in 2005, the first Rip Squeak and Friends Galleries were opened in California: Carmel-by-the-Sea, Cannery Row in Monterey and San Luis Obispo.

Over the years, the Rip Squeak characters have been sold in all their various formats – original art, limited edition prints, books, stationery, clothing and figurines – in art galleries, gift stores, bookstores and department stores across the United States. To date, 10,000 Rip Squeak limited edition giclees have been sold. The first book in the Rip Squeak series has been translated into four different languages (German, Greek, Spanish, and Faeroe). Almost 200,000 books have been distributed worldwide and the saga continues, with a new series of books on their way. At the heart of Rip Squeak and his Friends is a philosophy founded on tolerance, diversity and, above all, imagination.

The Characters

Rip Squeak is a character whose desire in life is to become a great adventurer. He is shy at heart, yet anxious to learn and experience new things. He has an innate cleverness and is therefore a good problem solver, a skill that will come in handy as the stories progress. Rip is also very loyal to his family and friends and very protective of his little sister, Jesse. He is compassionate and introspective, a staunch supporter of right over wrong. Upon first meeting Euripides, the frog’s gregarious personality overwhelms Rip, but at the same time Rip admires him and wants to be like him. Rip has never met anyone as interesting as Euripides. Rip goes from a somewhat quiet life – with only his little sister, his parents and his imagination to keep him company – to an extraordinary life full of adventure and discovery. Rip had once thought of himself as cautiously curious, but as he becomes better acquainted with his friends, he becomes more outgoing and daring – doing things he would never have expected to do. He eventually takes on some of Euripides’ more flamboyant qualities and develops some that are uniquely his own.

Jesse is Rip’s little sister. She is the most child-like of the group -- genuinely innocent, sweet and loving. Jesse has an underlying sense of daring, unpredictability and determination that she comes by naturally. She is wide-eyed, curious and bright. At first, Jesse appears shy and cautious, but she’s actually quite outgoing and impetuous – in some ways, more so than her brother. She becomes more talkative as the stories progress and she often says what she thinks. Jesse can show extreme emotions, going from scared to brave and back again in a flash. She is always quick to forgive, never holding a grudge, and she recovers from scares and disappointments almost instantly. In Jesse’s eyes, Rip is the best brother in the whole world. She really loves and looks up to him. She adores Abbey and Euripides too, and thinks they are the greatest things to come into her and her brother’s lives. Jesse is seldom seen without her doll, Bunny, and shares all of her deepest secrets with her.

Abbey was always different from her brothers and sister, not a typical cat, especially when it comes to her culinary tastes. She is very gentle, yet fiercely loyal to her friends and determined to follow her convictions, even if it means exclusion from other cats. Though she seems passive, her undeniable strength is not being swayed by the status quo. Although Abbey is the most cautious of the four characters, her innate protectiveness makes her quick to throw caution to the wind when it means saving someone from harm. Abbey is distressed over the separation from her cat family, but her friendship with Rip, Jesse and Euripides becomes her salvation. She does not dwell on her loss and makes her new friends her family. She takes great joy in doing things for them, even if she knows she will get wet or dirty. Although Abbey is the quietest of the bunch, she is always the one to have an “idea.” Abbey also has a love for humor and she likes nothing more than to make her friends laugh and to keep them happy.

Euripides is a frog who wears many hats – literally and figuratively. He is dramatic – an actor, a singer, an orator and a teacher – and can often upstage his young friends, but that is part of his charm. His good heart, fun-loving and gregarious nature, and upbeat outlook on life are enlightening and add a dimension of fun and magic to the lives of his friends. His worldliness gives Rip, Jesse and Abbey a lot to ponder and a desire to discover and experience new things. A lover of make-believe and music, Euripides is also full of surprises and mysteries, loving to set the pace for adventure. A change in the day’s agenda almost always requires a costume change for this magical amphibian.

Creators

Leonard Filgate – Artist and Illustrator
For nearly 40 years, Leonard Filgate has worked as a professional artist. His career began when, at the age of sixteen, he sold his first painting. He is self-taught, with no formal art training. The majority of his art education came from life experience, his own studies of the great masters and his unwavering determination and diligence to learn and succeed. In 1977, Leonard met Susan Yost. Two years later, she became his wife and collaborator on many artistic endeavors, which eventually led to the creation of Rip Squeak and Friends™. Before starting on the Rip Squeak project in 1997, Leonard had sold numerous paintings to individuals, including commissioned work. He exhibited in many galleries and in shows throughout the United States and occasionally taught art privately and in schools. The subjects of Leonard’s paintings have included marine art, fantasy art, landscapes, and cityscapes, toy still-life paintings, theatrical backdrops and reproductions of traditional Japanese screens. He completed several commissioned paintings for the United States Navy, one of which became a limited edition print; he worked on props for a Warner Bros. Television pilot and created storyboards and backdrops for commercial video and television studios. After the birth of his daughter in 1984, he developed an interest in children’s book illustrations and created imagery for his wife’s stories.

Prints and originals of Leonard’s Rip Squeak illustrations have been sold worldwide through the more than fifty galleries that have carried his work. He was the featured illustrator at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in 2003, has had work in a traveling exhibition of children’s book illustrators whose books promote tolerance (organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance and Every Picture Tells A Story in Los Angeles), and in 2005, was honored with a one-man show at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, Delaware. Creating art with a childhood theme and whimsy has brought Leonard great pleasure. He and his wife, Susan, developed Rip Squeak and Friends™ out of a need to create characters that would express Leonard’s philosophy that art should imitate the best life has to offer, whether it be real or from somewhere deep within the imagination. His desire and intentions are simple: that his art make the viewer smile and feel good.

Susan Yost-Filgate – Author
Author of the Rip Squeak™ stories, Susan Yost-Filgate was born and raised in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. She long had a love of art and literature and spent her childhood creating short stories, poetry, drawing, painting and making things from fabric, paper and found materials. In 1976, Susan received a bachelor’s degree in Art Education – with a concentration in Museum Education – from Pennsylvania State University. Her main creative efforts during those years were in soft sculpture, however she also studied painting under the late Harold Altman and others. Soon after completing college, Susan traveled to San Francisco in search of a new adventure. While there, she met her future husband, Leonard Filgate, and found work with Determined Productions, Inc. Susan gained insight into the world of publishing, licensing, and products for children from this experience. After the birth of her daughter in 1984, Susan began focusing on creating stories and products for children. She had long felt that her husband’s incredible artistic talent could be directed to illustration for children. She has been focused on the Rip Squeak project since 1999. Before 1998, Susan had worked as an art teacher, a museum docent, a graphic designer, and a paralegal. She was very involved in her daughter’s education, serving on parent/teacher boards for three or four schools. She had also started both visual and performing arts programs in her daughter’s elementary school. Getting along despite differences is a value Susan feels strongly about including in the Rip Squeak™ stories. At the same time, she likes to create stories that have a sense of adventure – the kind that could be found in your own backyard , with your best friends and a healthy dose of imagination and chance encounters. Susan has worked closely with Leonard on Rip Squeak, writing and editing the stories, offering her ideas and suggestions for the book illustrations and designing the layout of the books.

Artists

Julia Harnett Harvey
Janet Harnett Harvey was born in Essex, England, and her father – an artist in his own right – was her first art teacher. After graduating from the Southend College of Art, she worked in the commercial art field in both England and Canada. Inspired by another Harnett – a recognized tromp-l’oeil painter of the mid-nineteenth century, William Harnett (1848 – 1892) – Julia continued her fine art studies in Toronto where she was among the select few chosen for the prestigious Master’s works program at the Royal Ontario Museum. It was during these years that Julia first became involved with the motion picture industry, an involvement that lasted seventeen years and established her position as one of the pioneering women in animation. During this career, Julia became an integral part of the Hanna-Barbera Studios in Hollywood, California, working on television classics like Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, Scooby Doo and the feature films, “Charlotte’s Web” and “Heidi’s Song”. Simultaneously with her animation career, Julia owned and operated a popular studio gallery in North Hollywood with her husband, the artist Maurice Harvey. There, she divided her time between teaching classes in painting and life drawing, producing design and illustration for Walt Disney publications, and editing the art instruction book, Landscape/Seascape in Acrylics by Maurice Harvey. After many busy years, Julia and her husband sold their gallery to concentrate on their fine art careers. Julia Harnett Harvey now resides and paints in her Carmel Valley home and studio.

Chris Hopkins
Artist and illustrator, Chris Hopkins was chosen to work with Rip Squeak, Inc. because of the excellence and integrity of his art and his ability to maintain those same qualities in developing original works based on and consistent with the Rip Squeak brand as created by artist and illustrator, Leonard Filgate. Chris’ art and illustration has run the gamut from government to sports, to the entertainment industry. His talents have been eagerly sought by many to commemorate, portray, advertise, and/or immortalize the people and events of our age. Chris graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, when he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979. By the time he established the Chris Hopkins Illustration Studio in 1984, he had already distinguished himself with numerous awards and honors from the art and entertainment communities. Acknowledgements have come from the AIGA, the Society of Illustrators (Gold and Silver medals), and many others, including nominations for a Grammy Award for Album Package Design. Chris Hopkins was also a finalist for the Prestigious Cleo Award.

Anthony LoSchiavo
As a talented child of ten, Anthony LoSchiavo began his formal art training at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and continued advanced study, on scholarship, at the School of Visual Arts and the Cooper Union in New York. He also attended the Arts Students League as well as private study at the Cape Cod School of Art, founded by Charles W. Hawthorne.

Jim Kosvanec
Jim Kosvanec was born in Lincoln, Rhode Island, and raised in Kennebunk, Maine. Art was his passion from a very young age and by ten, he was enrolled in weekend adult classes for figure drawing and oil painting at Rhode Island School of Design. In later years, he attended Butera School of Art, Rochester Institute of Technology and the American Academy of Art. Jim is also the owner of Giclee by the Bay, printing the giclee prints on canvas for Rip Squeak, Inc.

Gallery Locations
Rip Squeak and Friends Galleries:
Carmel: Ocean Avenue (between San Carlos and Dolores), Carmel by the Sea, CA
Maui: 699 Front Street, Lahaina, Maui, HI 96761
Monterey: 685 Cannery Row, Monterey, Ca 93940
San Francisco: Pier 39, Beach and Embarcadero Streets, Space K 106-A, San Francisco, CA 94133
San Diego: Seaport Village, 849 W. Harbor Dr. Suite B, San Diego, CA 92101

Future Locations:

References

External Links www.ripsqueak.com


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