‘I’m not going to Mecca but I’m on a journey also.’

Porky Pig and Daffy Duck lured Lee Halperin from his Brooklyn home to a Hollywood animation studio when he was 20. He soon began searching for a more substantial art form to express his innermost thoughts. At 70 Halperin is still an animator working in Canoga Park on the cartoon “Ghost Busters, “ but his serious art comes from his home studio in Agoura Hills, where he sculpts as Hajilee. His polished bronze sculptures are on display at galleries in Rancho Mirage and Santa Barbara.

I went to St. John’s University and finished pre-law. It was during the Depression, and my parents wanted me to be a professional so I went along with them but my heart wasn’t in it. I waivered between the law and art and decided on art when I was 19. I went to Pratt Institute. In 1936 I got an opportunity to come out here and work at Warner Brothers cartoons. I came on a 30-day trial basis for the magnificent sum of $6 a week. Cartooning was very exciting. I had what they call animation disease to begin with. I said I would prefer doing nothing but animation.

I felt that the only way I could express myself artistically would be through cartooning. After 10 years or so, something was missing. I still had an inner yearning. I continued my cartooning, but at the same time I reached out to study the philosophical aspects behind art. I started studying with an elderly woman who was very deeply involved in spiritual philosophy. I became a member of a circle, nothing kookie; I don’t go for kookie stuff. I became involved in meditation.

In search for the truth I began to see clairvoyantly. I began to see colors and forms appearing. I found that my inner vision began to open up. I told my teacher, “I see colors, yellows and blues and greens and patterns and so forth,” and I said, “So What?” She said, “The ‘so what’ is this, record what you see; you may not understand what you’re seeing now but at some later date you will.” Every day over a period of 10 years I recorded all my experiences while meditating. I had umpteen steno pads full of symbols, colors and my interpretations.

It took me years to get to the realization of what I was recording. I looked back and I suddenly discovered something. What I had recorded on the 15th day revealed something about what I had recorded on the first day. I could analyze by comparing one to another. I went over it and culled out the significant symbols and colors and did a series of 18 paintings that embodied all of my studies.

Eventually I felt I wanted to do something more substantial in fine arts. I did my first piece of sculpture in plaster on my kitchen table in 1952. I became so involved in work that I didn’t have time to go further with it. The plaster model sat on my mantle for 10 years.

But I felt it had to come out of me. I had to do something of value. I finally took the great leap in 1984 and decided to invest money into casting my best models into a series of bronzes. I started exhibiting on Oct. 18 last year using the pseudonym Hajilee.

I was born Eli, short for Elijah. Lee is a nickname. I reversed the name Elijah and arrived at the name Hajilee. My wife said, “Do you know what Haji is?” I said, “What?” She said, “Haji means journey. The Arabs go to Mecca on their Haji.” I said, “Gee, that’s interesting, my name is Hajilee; I’m going on a journey also, I’m not going to Mecca but I’m on a journey also; we’re all on a journey. I’m a universalist. I love all people. People are human beings whether they’re Arab or Jewish or Chinese, or Greek or whatever.

My sculptures contain the basic principles within themselves, harmony, sound and so forth. I don’t give a darn for the bronzes per se, they’re just so much metal. But I want the significance behind the metal, the message, to be expressed through the bronzes.

Animation was a career to earn a living. My true love is my philosophy and the expression of my philosophy in some tangible form. I feel that my bronzes will lend themselves to that expression. When I fulfill what I’m doing, I will have accomplished the purpose of my being.