Jozef Szekeres (born 4 July 1970) is an Australian artist,

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

, writer, toy designer, sculptor,

creative director A creative director is a person who makes high-level creative decisions; oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos; and directs and translates the creative people who produce the end results. Creat ...

, arts lecturer, and a director of the Black Mermaid Productions creative team based in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He is best known for his doll creation Elizabet Bizelle, launched through his company Jozef Szekeres Dolls in 2003. He was a finalist in the 2011 Australian Cartoonist Association Stanley Awards, with nominations for Best Australian Illustrator and Australian Comic Book Artist. He co-created and illustrated the comic book series ElfQuest – WaveDancers and ''Elf-Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed.’’

Early life

Szekeres was born in Blacktown, Sydney, and grew up near Gosford on the Central Coast of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, graduating in 1988 from the Central Coast Grammar School in Erina, Central Coast. He attended the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) — formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, and known by the moniker "The Con" — is the music school of the University of Sydney. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious music ...

in the Music Composition School but did not graduate. In 1989, he moved to the Sydney central business district to work at the Walt Disney Animation Australia Studio, now known as

DisneyToon Studios Disneytoon Studios (DTS), originally named Disney MovieToons and also formerly Walt Disney Video Premieres, was an American animation studio which created direct-to-video and occasional theatrical animated feature films. The studio was a division ...

, and was the youngest animator employed there at that time.

Career

As a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

animator and

Animation Director An animation director is the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated or television film, or an animated segment for a live-action film or television show. Alternatively, the animation direct ...

, he created

television commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

for both Australian and international markets, most notably Finlandia Vodka Pulp, Mr Sheen, Strongbow Cider ''Cyborg'' and ''Blowtorch'', ''Cafe with Billy'' for Nescafe, ''The Fifth Finger'' for KitKat, and FantasticRiceCrackers for Fantastic.

Comic books

In 1993, Szekeres illustrated the comic book series ElfQuest – WaveDancers, which he co-created with Julie Ditrich and Bruce Love. In 1999, Szekeres worked with Joseph Michael Linsner, creating character designs for ''Dreams of Dawn'' Wizard #1/2, and ''Dawn: Return of the Goddess'' #3, published by

Sirius Entertainment Sirius Entertainment is an American comic book company that operated from 1994 to . Sirius Entertainment was founded by Robb Horan and Larry Salamone and was dedicated from the outset to publishing creator-owned properties. Originally based in ...

. In 2011, Szekeres again worked with Julie Ditrich on ''Elf-Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed.''

Illustration

Szekeres's illustration works have been featured in ''Stripped Uncensored'' and ''Completely Stripped'' published in 2009 and 2010 respectively (in Germany) by Bruno Gmünder. Szekeres also created illustrations for the 2007 Sydney Mardi Gras, and 2008 Sleaze Ball (which is also part of the Sydney Mardi Gras). For the 2008 Sleaze Ball, titled ''Villains Lair'', a collector card set consisting of 16 of Szekeres's villainous artworks created specifically for the event were distributed to members and partygoers. Szekeres released his own collector card set ''The Art of Jozef Szekeres: Mermaids & Mermers'' in 2008 collecting 100 artworks. They range from unpublished pieces early in his career to his most recent published works of that time.

Sculpture and Toy Design

Szekeres has had a fascination with figural

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

from childhood. Early in his career he sculpted maquettes for Disney's

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

and

Jasmine Jasmine (botanical name: ''Jasminum'', pronounced ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family of Oleaceae. It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are wid ...

, Dylandra, and adult

Wendy Wendy is a given name generally given to girls in English-speaking countries. In Britain during the English Civil War in the mid-1600s, a male Captain Wendy Oxford was identified by the Leveller John Lilburne as a spy reporting on his activit ...

. Szekeres further explored sculpture adding new sculptural elements to

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll, Bild Lilli doll which Hand ...

and

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), A ...

purchased toy parts. In 2003, Szekeres released his first fashion character/doll Elizabet Bizelle (with sister character Kotalin Bizelle) titled ''Dangerous Discovery'', the first Australian created fashion doll. In 2006, Szekeres released his doll editions Elizabet Bizelle ''Lady in Red'', and Kotalin Bizelle ''Birthday Bash''. In November 2020, Szekeres released his GlamourOZ Dolls Collection of 10 editions. It reintroduced his new sculpts of original caucasian characters Kotalin & Elizabet Bizelle. It also now includes two new characters, Asian Lucielle Lei and Indigenous Australian Bindi Merinda (which reflects Australia's cultural diversity). The Kotalin Bizelle doll "Ribbon Reveal" was the recipient of the 2020 DOLLS Award of Excellence Industry Choice Winner. Ten editions were released. Eight titled mainline editions were released, each edition numbering 375. Two variant editions each numbering 100, featuring hair colour variations.

References