Wendy Jackson Hall

The mannequins at the local art store stood with heads mournfully bowed and hats in hand this week, as if they, too, knew that Wendy Jackson Hall was gone.

“She was an incredible talent for engaging youth to be positive and share their creativity with one another,” said Jennifer Wood, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Bainbridge Island. “As a teacher she taught leadership skills, self-esteem and self-expression through drawing.”

Hall died Nov. 14 at Harrison Hospital in Bremerton after a brief illness. She was 32.

The animation teacher and artist had taught for over 15 years. While only four of those years were on Bainbridge Island, she left an indelible impression on hundreds of island students, those who knew her say.

Hall was born June 7, 1973 in Corning, N.Y., to William and Jane Jackson and grew up in Medfield, Mass.

She found her calling at age 16 when she took a claymation workshop taught by Gail Banker in high school. She became Banker’s assistant teacher the following year.

“I was instantly hooked,” Hall told the Review in a September interview. “I didn’t have to think of what to do with the rest of my life.”

She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1995 and lived in Los Angeles and Seattle. She settled on Bainbridge Island just a few months after marrying Porter Hall on Oct. 2, 1999 in Providence, R.I.

She taught workshops and served as artist-in-residence in schools throughout the Seattle area, enabling children to create their own animated films, and traveled around the country and as far as Barbados to give classes.

“She loved kids. Any time she could spend with kids, she went out of her way to,” her husband said. “She could interface with kids at any age, 4 or 14. She spoke their language.”

On Bainbridge Island, she taught claymation and animation through Bainbridge Island Television, Bainbridge Performing Arts, the school and park districts and IslandWood.She founded her own company, Animated Adventures, in 2003.

She was program director for the Bainbridge Island Arts Education Community Consortium from 2001-02 and started a popular “Friday Anime Night” to teach animation to kids at the Boys and Girls Club of Bainbridge Island.

“The thing I was most impressed with was the variety of kids enthralled with anime,” said Richard Nelson, owner of Oil and Water art supply store. “You had every style of kid and you wondered what they’d be doing if not anime.”

Hall also became known as “the puppet lady.” She organized a drop-in community art project for all comers to make giant puppets to march in the Bainbridge Island Fourth of July parade.

Nelson remembers her singlehandedly working with 30 to 40 people and never losing her patience.

“You could constantly hear ‘Wendy, Wendy, Wendy’… but she was always there with a smile on her face. And then after all had gone, she’d work into the evening to clean up and set up,” Nelson said. “I asked her, ‘Where does your energy come from?’ and she said she loves it and it gives her energy and vitality.

“In her heart, she was a teacher first and foremost. The impact she had on the youth of this island was tremendous. Because of the joy that she brought through her teaching, (students) respected her and she respected them. She was really an island treasure.”

Professionally, Hall was active in the international animation community as president of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of International Animated Film Association, a board member of ASIFA International and a member of the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce.

She participated in international animation festivals as juror, curator, lecturer, moderator and panelist. She also wrote prolifically for animation journals, as well as Variety and Wired magazine.

She also enjoyed spending time with her family, friends and dog, Cinder.

She is survived by her husband, Porter Hall of Bainbridge Island; her parents, William and Jane Jackson of Cataumet, Mass.; her brother, Andrew Jackson of Santa Barbara, Calif.; and many nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Nov. 19 at Seabold United Methodist Church.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to either the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council or the Boys and Girls Club of Bainbridge Island. Arrangements are by Kass and Cook Family Funeral Home on Bainbridge Island.