"As a teacher, I love being able to share my knowledge and experience to cultivate talented artists," says Visiting Associate Professor David Mattingly, who teaches digital matte painting in the Department of Digital Arts. To nurture Pratt digital arts students' creativity in perpetuity, he and his wife, Cathleen Cogswell, have made a bequest to establish a digital matte painting endowed scholarship, which will provide full tuition to an outstanding undergraduate digital design student with financial need.
Mattingly's 30 years of experience in special effects include heading Walt Disney Studios' matte department, where he oversaw the creation of effects that combine painted imagery with live action plates. Used in classics like The Wizard of Oz, the technique has been revolutionized by advances in technology, and demand for skilled artists in the field is growing.
Gifts like Mattingly's help shape Pratt's future, and this particular bequest reflects the joy he finds in teaching and in seeing his students go on to successful careers at leading special effects houses. The generosity of Mattingly's own mentors is never far from his mind. "When I teach," he says, "I draw on all they taught me, and pass on time-honored techniques and skills. By setting up this scholarship, I am honoring and preserving that teaching legacy."