Dave Zaboski is a classically trained painter, illustrator and animator who contributed his talents to Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. during the Second Golden Age of Animation. His credits include the traditional hand drawn films “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” “Pocahontas,” “Aladdin,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Hercules,” “Fantasia 2000,” and computer generated animation like “Stuart Little,” among others.
He has illustrated several acclaimed children’s books, including titles for Dr. Ken Dychtwald, Dr. Deepak Chopra, finance guru Ric Edelman and actor Paul Michael Glaser. Dave has created concept art for film and television, shown his fine art at galleries internationally, been the expedition artist in search of a lost temple in the Andes and painted for the Dalai Lama. Until 2024, Dave was a tech entrepreneur for a successful Silicon Valley startup committed to seeing Creatives flourish.
It’s not just how to make stuff
It’s how to make the maker.
Experience by design.
Experience is powerful, undeniable. If you want to move people with your product or service, you have to know how to design an experience.
If you don't control the narrative, the narrative will control you.
This global report found that 78% of respondents believed that creativity is key to driving economic growth and that businesses that invest in creativity are 3.5 times more likely to achieve revenue growth of 10% or more compared to their peers. -Adobe's State of Create Study
Dave has taught people and teams of all levels, from kindergarten to Global C-Suite executives, how to enhance their creativity. He has presented at conferences and companies around the world and teaches workshops at retreat centers like Esalen Institute, Summit and Rancho La Puerta. He has been been on the faculty along with Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil at Singularity University and was a Presenting Fellow on the Gartner Research Board’s 2023 report on AI.
Dave paints and draws daily, tells stories and delivers performances (some call them “Keynotes” but Dave doesn’t really know what that word means. He thinks about it more like a performance) on turning thoughts into things. Dave also teaches creativity, leadership, innovation and collaboration to entrepreneurs and organizations. He has a robust presence on social media and does the occasional art commission. Dave lives with his wife, Robin, and a small menagerie on a ranchette in Southern California.
“Creating is not just about the end result.
It is in the process of making where the truth of life is revealed.”
-- Dave Zaboski
