KIDZ HOME Founder/Teacher - Kenny Mirman
PHOTOS (SPIRAL CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM RIGHT) OF TEACHER, KENNY MIRMAN, HOLDING THE HAND OF BEA - HIS AMAZING 101 YEAR-OLD MOM; PAINTING HIS RED TREES SERIES OF SCULPTURES IN THE DESERT WILDERNESS TO HONOR THE INDOMITABLE COURAGE OF THE INCARCERATED TEENAGED GIRLS HE TEACHES WRITING TO EACH WEEK IN JUVENILE HALL JAIL; BELOW GROUND IN AN ANCIENT INDIAN KIVA WRITING HIS MEMOIR; KENNY SELF-PORTRAIT AS RANGER TUDDY (HE PROTECTS KIDS FROM BULLIES) IN HIS ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN’S BOOK THE SEARCH FOR THE SABRE TOOTH FROG; WITH HIS MOM IN HER 90’S; PHOTOGRAPHING STORY PORTRAITS OF TWO VERY SPECIAL CHILDREN;: HIS FAMILY HE LOVES AND FEELS BLESSED TO CELEBRATE LIFE WITH; KISSING THE FOREHEAD OF BEA; WITH HIS DEAREST FRIENDS IN THE WORLD (FELLOW CAL-ARTS ALUMNI) ON ONE OF THEIR RECENT ANNUAL REUNIONS; HEADSHOT OF KENNY
“Kenny is a very special human being. He is a natural teacher and healer, like an angel. He is able to reach into the heart of a person and see them with such clarity, then offer life-transforming solutions to them within minutes for the obstacles they’ve been facing for years. He does it with such amazing insight, compassion, love and generosity, and it’s given in such abundance. Really, I take notes when he talks he is so gifted. I am very emotional about this because all my life I’ve suffered, and I’ve never thought about the things that he’s now shown me, and so he’s changed my life forever. He saved me. He’s the most amazing teacher and person I’ve ever met, and I don’t even have the words to express my gratitude for how he’s given me a new way of seeing, and a new way of living.”
“Im (sic) thankful for Ken coming and teaching us because we be going thru a lot and this is the only time we get to let things out. Im thankful because Ken don’t gotta come here. Im thankful because he cares even though society might think we aint wourth (sic) nothing he thinks other wise. He’s one of a kind.”
“Dear Kenny, I want to thank you for being such an amazing person. Thank you for taking the time off of your life to come & talk to us and teach us. After the (writing and drawing) workshop I felt way better after being able to vent and express myself. I am very thankful for you. I will never forget this class or you Ken. Thank you God for making Kenny.”
Writer-Director, Artist, Teacher
A uniquely gifted, multi-dimensional artist and breakthrough innovator, Kenny Mirman is a 5-time Clio Award-winning animation director, writer, illustrator, visual artist and master teacher.
Through the interconnection of narrative storytelling, computer animation, visual effects, live action filmmaking, children’s book writing & illustrating, virtual reality, and a variety of visual arts media & groundbreaking technologies, Kenny seeks to inspire, educate and empower viewers, students, and kids of all ages.
He was a senior animation designer-director on Disney’s original motion picture TRON, Visual Effects Art Director on James Cameron’s TITANIC, and designer of IMAX’s first 3D computer animated ridefilm, "Race for Atlantis". As one of the early pioneering innovators of experimental computer animation design, he invented numerous animation design techniques and directed a list of breakthrough, award-winning TV commercials that helped to inspire a new world of contemporary animation. As a live action director, Mirman wrote & directed #1-hit music videos on MTV, VH1 , The Disney Channel, and BET Networks for multi-Grammy, multi-Platinum Record recording artists for Sony BMG, Capitol Records, LaFace Records, RCA, EMI, and others.
As a veteran and devoted educator, Kenny Mirman is a visiting lecturer & teacher in art schools, universities, film production companies, animation studios, monasteries, children’s hospitals and jails, including Walt Disney Feature Animation, Hammer Museum, ArtCenter College of Design, USC School of Cinematic Arts, CalARTS, Otis College of Art and Design, UCLA Center for Digital Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, Osaka Visual Arts College, and the California Museum of Science & Industry/Science Center.
For the past 14 years as a volunteer teacher with InsideOUT Writers, Inc., he has been a weekly life-story writing teacher, advocate and mentor to over 2,500 inner-city teenaged girls incarcerated in Los Angeles’ Central Juvenile Hall jail. Kenny uses the art of emotive truth telling, profound insight, autobiographical writing and art-making as tools for transformational self-healing by helping these teen girls who have faced a lifetime of abuse, gang warfare and domestic violence find a path to self-value, self-empowerment, hope and love.
Education:
California Institute of the Arts, MFA program, Visual Arts
University of Vermont, BA, Studio Fine Arts/Psychology
Resides and works in Los Angeles, California
Contact:
kmirman@charter.net
Some of Kenny Mirman’s Work
RedTrees Series 2010-2020 Artist: Kenny Mirman
They may have burned us down, but nothing can stop us from being the radiant, triumphant spirits we are and forever will be. Even behind bars, our hearts and spirits can never be crushed.
Kenny seeks out burned down, charred and ravaged, blackened trees in fire-devastated forests and wilderness territories, and paints them RED. Painting burned down trees this vibrant color is one of his ways as a lifetime artist and teacher, of symbolically and silently honoring the indomitable hearts and courage of the incarcerated teenaged girls who have been his writing students in jail each week for the past 14 years.
OVER 2,500 TEENAGED GIRLS (AGED 13-18) INCARCERATED IN LOS ANGELES CENTRAL JUVENILE HALL JAIL HAVE ATTENDED KENNY’S WRITING CLASSES & WORKSHOPS BEHIND BARS EACH WEEK. THESE GIRLS OF COLOR HAVE WRITTEN AND SHARED HOW THEIR LIVES HAVE BEEN DEVASTATED FROM A LIFELONG HISTORY OF ABUSE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, MOLESTATION, SOCIETAL OPPRESSION, BIGOTRY, AND GANGLAND WARFARE. LIKE THE FIRE-DEVASTATED TREES, THEIR LIVES HAVE BEEN BURNED DOWN. BUT WITH KENNY’S TENDER ENCOURAGEMENT AND UNWAVERING SUPPORT IN HIS CLASSROOM, THESE YOUNG LADIES LEARN TO USE WRITING AS A TOOL FOR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION, SELF-EMPOWERMENT AND HEALING FROM THE INSIDE OUT. AFTER HIS JOURNEYS INTO THE WILDERNESS, KENNY SHARES PHOTOS AND VIDEOS OF HIS RED TREES WITH THOSE YOUNG WOMEN IN JAIL TO SHOW THEM THIS POWERFUL VISUAL SYMBOL THAT NOTHING CAN STOP THEM FROM BEING THE RADIANT, TRIUMPHANT SPIRITS THAT THEY ARE AND FOREVER WILL BE.
“Kenny Mirman has a great gift. If I had to put it into words, his gift is profound empathy and a mystical awareness. There are certain individuals in the world that are wired into the Universe, the source and the soul, and he is absolutely one of them. His wisdom, awareness and teachings are so deep and evolved that they appear from him spontaneously as if from an ancient Chassidic Rabbi, and as far as I’m concerned, I believe Kenny’s soul is the reincarnation of one of the great ones. He has the innate ability to resonate with individuals in a way that provides them a view of the beauty and truth that is already within them – but maybe had been lost from their life until now. It’s proven to be a life-changer for the many individuals he’s touched. As a teacher, the insight that he provides his students is big and transformational – such as when he helps his teenaged students incarcerated in jail to see life in ways they’ve never imagined. It is an honor to know him and to study with him.”