I grew up in Aspen at a time when the mountains were full of music, mischief, and wild imagination, the kind that comes from sharing a hometown with the likes of John Denver, Hunter S. Thompson, and technical wizards like Nick DeWolf. It was a strange and beautiful stew of gentle idealism, unruly rebellion, and early-day digital curiosity. You couldn’t help but be shaped by it, one day you'd hear Denver singing about sunshine and simple truths, the next you'd watch Thompson tear into the world with a fury only he could summon, and somewhere in the background Nick DeWolf would be tinkering with a piece of technology that felt like it came from the future. Aspen wasn’t just a town; it was a classroom, a playground, and a compass that pointed straight toward creativity.
Following that compass took me on a long, winding path through schools that stretched across the West, University of Northern Colorado, the University of Colorado Boulder, UCLA, and finally Pacific Northwest College of Art. Each place added its own brushstroke to the picture: the structure of academia, the experiment of art school, the promise of California, the rain-soaked curiosity of Portland. By the time I landed in Oregon in the late ’80s, I was carrying a lifetime of influence on my back, mountain skies, eccentric neighbors, and a deep love for storytelling that started long before I ever walked into a studio.
Portland welcomed me with open arms and endless odd jobs. I learned the craft from the ground up, working at Technifilm Labs, helping out at studios like Jim Blashfield’s experimental wonderland, and taking on commercial assignments at the legendary Will Vinton Studios. Every project was a chance to blend that Aspen spirit with the growing world of animation and film. By 1991, my wife and I decided to jump in fully and founded Happy Trails Animation, a company built on earnest storytelling and a little bit of mountain magic. Clients came from everywhere, Intel, Sears, WinCo Foods, Stanford Hospital, and every time a project wrapped, it felt like another postcard sent home to the Rockies.
In 2008, the studio pushed into new territory, developing a technique they called “Motion Comics,” long before it became industry standard. That opened the door to collaborations with Disney, Starz Entertainment, Lionsgate, BBC Worldwide, Universal Studios, and more. And somewhere along the way, the memories of those formative Aspen years, snow-packed streets, outlaw thinkers, gentle songs, and mechanical genius, came calling again. So Andy finally wrote about it, reflecting on the wonder and wildness of growing up in Aspen, and he wrote Growing Up Aspen – Adventures of the Unsupervised.
