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Aardwolf General

Good Enough…

GOOD ENOUGH…

CURT ENDERLE

8/21/23 – 12/15/23
Library Building

Kobayashi Animal Testing Balcony Sign from Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs , from the collection of Curt Enderle,


“Near the end of the recent Pinocchio film, the Cricket is told by the Black Rabbit that he’s had a good life. “Good enough,” was the Cricket’s response – a reflection back on everything that had come before.

In theatre, commercials and film, that phrase is often used to cut off the work. The variations. The what-ifs. We’ve run out of time or money or both, and what you see before you is going to be just fine.

As an “artist” looking back on a “career” for an exhibit like this, perhaps I see the good enoughs that could have been better, as well as the good enoughs from various projects that have actually resulted in a decent body of work.

As a collaborative artist, I have a difficult time pointing to the work and claiming it as my own. Sometimes I use the word artistic to describe my contribution, rather than Artist with a capital “A”. I have been part of creating works of art, but an artist? Hmmmm.

And am I able to separate myself from that work? Or is it the work that defines who I am?

Yeah, I’m not really sure. And so this collection of examples of things I have helped to create include process, artifacts of OTHER artists work, as well as images of the finished products. Some of it is obscenely rough, some of it is too finished for a step along the way to the ACTUAL art. But all of it examples of what, for a moment, was good enough.”

-Curt Enderle


Kobayashi Animal Testing Balcony Sign Detail from Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs , from the collection of Curt Enderle,


Objects from Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs , from the collection of Curt Enderle,


Trained as a set designer for live theatre and based in Portland Oregon, BAFTA-nominated Curt Enderle has had a role in generating over 13 hours of stop-motion animated content. Most recently, he worked with Guy Davis as co-production designers for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, a stop-motion feature produced at Portland studio ShadowMachine which premiered in London in October of 2022 and streamed worldwide on Netflix in December. In addition to the BAFTA nomination, the production design has been honored with Best Animation Production Design by the Art Directors Guild and Best Production Design – Feature by ASIFA’s Annie (animation) awards.

Past film work includes art directing Wes Anderson’s 2018 stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs and Laika’s 2014 stop-motion hybrid release, The Boxtrolls. He also served as one of the set designers (draftsperson) for the studio’s 2012 ParaNorman. Recent episodic includes the first series (sans pilot) of The Shivering Truth written by PFFR’s Vernon Chatman at ShadowMachine Portland for Adult Swim.

In 2001, Curt received a Primetime Emmy ® for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for his art direction of the “Phish Phry” episode of Gary & Mike, a Will Vinton studio stop-motion animated TV show and in 2018 was honored by the Art Directors Guild as part of the team responsible for Isle of Dogs.


Drawing from Inside the Mouth of the Dogfish from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio , by Jesse Greg, from the collection of Curt Enderle,


Drawings and objects from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio , from the collection of Curt Enderle,