Dinosaurs are this couple's muse

FOR "dinosartists" Tess Kissinger and Bob Walters, "Jurassic Park" was almost like a home movie.

"We've been drawing dinosaurs forever," Kissinger said. "Since the Triassic Period," Walters chimed in.

And the Philadelphia residents have been together for seemingly as long - professional and private partners for 33 years.

They formed Walters & Kissinger, a/k/a "the complete dinosaur art studio" (dinoart.com), in 1995. Their work has graced the walls of museums such as the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University on Logan Square, as well as books, TV series, movies and even a theme park.

Yes, they provided designs for Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios in California. They came by the job naturally enough, having drawn the Spinosaurus for "Jurassic Park 3."

The pair also lead art workshops at Field Station: Dinosaurs, a North Jersey park where animatronic dinosaurs roar in outdoor settings. (See Page 30.)

They are creating a dino-themed website, dinosaurchannel.TV, where they intend to put "real science . . . and get it out to people," Kissinger said. "I would like it not to be a mystery, to kids, especially."

It all started 60 years ago this month, when 4-year-old Bob Walters of Wilmington glimpsed his future on the cover of LIFE magazine. "It was Rudolph Zallinger's painting, 'Age of Reptiles.' I knew then that's what I wanted to do. I was hooked," the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts grad recalled.

Dinosaurs are popular among youngsters now, but in Walters' day, third-graders were more likely to bring worms to show-and-tell. He brought his dinosaur drawings.

It wasn't so elementary for Kissinger, who was a Neshaminy High School senior when she realized she wanted to be an artist. That was her major at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Kissinger and Walters met at a science fiction convention here in 1980. He was illustrating sci-fi; she was a fan of the genre.

"It's embarrassing, because I'm such a cynic otherwise, but it was love at first sight," Kissinger said. "You wouldn't think - two people who are into science. [But] he said, 'Hello, my name is Bob,' and that was it."

They discovered a shared interest in "the area where science and art overlap," and Kissinger quickly became enamored of dinosaurs, too.

"When you hold something in your hand that no one has seen for 100 million years, you are hooked, I tell you," Kissinger said.

Paleontology is enjoying a golden age, she continued, with new dinosaur discoveries almost weekly.

"Bob and I get to be the people who bring them to life first," she said enthusiastically. "Every artist wants to live in a renaissance, and we are in a renaissance of paleontology."

The couple share and alternate the drawing and coloring work for illustrations and murals, models and scientific illustrations - the artistic equivalent of finishing each other's sentences.

They draw from source material such as fossils and bones, studies and visits to archaeological sites. They are in frequent contact with scientists.

Walters and Kissinger have dozens of prestigious exhibitions and installations to their credit. Their series of large-scale murals for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh in 2007 included a 180 foot-long piece that's been billed as "the largest dinosaur mural in the world."

For this and other work, the pair have twice received the John J. Lanzendorf Prize - the paleoartist equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize - from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

They've introduced kids to the world of dinosaurs through their illustrations in children's books such as Bernice Miller's Dinosaurs: The Terrible Lizards.

"Right now, I'm writing a dinosaur puppet show," Kissinger said.

So why are "terrible lizards" so much fun? And why are they so popular with kids these days?

"It's their mythic quality," Walters offered. "They look like traditional dragons, but dragons aren't real. Dinosaurs were."

"And they look cool," his partner added, calling dinosaurs the Corvettes of the Cretaceous Period. "Little kids look at them and know nobody told them when to go to bed or do their homework. There's that rebellion fascination about them."

The artists aren't always happy with the way dinosaur facts are muddied, on TV especially. But they had high praise for filmmaker Steven Spielberg and his cohorts on the "Jurassic Park" films.

And goofy science didn't dim their enjoyment of the "Ice Age" movie series. "I liked them - very cartoony," Walters said. Added Kissinger, "They're charming."

The artists agree on many things, but they do lock horns on occasion, "mostly over color," Kissinger said. "Bob thinks mine are too bright. I think his are too dull."

Diplodocus-like diplomacy?

"We are creative thinkers," Kissinger said, "and we enjoy spending an evening together, with a glass of wine, and just talking with each other."

There is much to talk about, including their plans for their website and a series of illustrations Walters is doing for the recently discovered Auroraceratops.

They're in discussions on a project with the Smithsonian, too, though Walters declined to reveal much. "I never count my dinosaurs before they hatch," he said with a chuckle.