Whatever the reason it is a delight to have the
opportunity to view up close what I would consider a hidden Disney
treasure. To add to that thought is the fact that there is a tile near the
bottom of the mural that says, "To Doris and Jules Stein with love
Walt Disney." (Other tiles nearby give credit to Mary, a company that
executed the mural, and there is also a cluster of initials. All are shown
below.)
Seeing the mural made me want to know more about Mary
Blair. And that, led me back to the book, The Art and Flair of Mary
Blair. So, I took another look. I bought the book I thought was too
expensive. I'm glad I did. Mary Blair was so much more than those
big-headed kids singing that song. She was innovative, interesting,
stylish, fascinating, and a woman forging a place in a male dominated work
place where woman weren't always wanted. She was a pioneer, a very
talented pioneer.
The book starts out with a foreword from Roy Disney who
provides a personal Mary Blair anecdote. It then moves on to tell of
Mary's early years and her art training. It covers how she had a big part
in designing the "look" of many Disney films, which is a truly
fascinating portion of the book. The colors she put together, the concepts
and stylization she came up were like no other Disney artist.
This singular style and the fact that she was a female
made more than a few of the other artists at the Disney studios want her
out. Walt Disney himself stepped in to say she would stay. She was a
particular favorite of his. He appreciated Mary Blair's unique sensibility
and felt it brought something to the productions she worked on that the
other artists couldn't always see. I watch The Adventures of Mr. Toad
and Ichabod Crane now and see Mary's handiwork all over that film and
so many other films.
Eventually, Mary Blair left the Disney studios to freelance
for other companies. She designed milk ads, cigarette ads, paint ads and so
much more before her work led her back to the Disney Company and the 1964
World's Fair attraction called small world that we all associate her with.
it's a small world at Disneyland just
before it was closed to remove the holiday makeover
Despite my initial reservations, I'd now say that I highly
recommend this book. Any Disney fan would be happy to add it to their
library. I do have two minor problems with it I have feel the need to point
out. The first being, that I still think it's too small. I read the whole
thing and it just left me lusting for more information about Mary Blair.
It's not that the book is lacking for information, it's not. It's chock full
of stuff that is terribly interesting to read about. I just want more. I
guess that's a good thing. The book is filled with gorgeous pictures of Mary
Blair's watercolors, concept art and print ads. It has lots of pictures of
Mary who always looked quite stylish, which in an odd way lets the reader
kind of get a feel for who Mary Blair was and what she was like as a person.
As a whole, the book provides a nice glimpse into the life of an artist
unique to the history of the Disney Company.
A collection of close-ups from the mural
The second problem has to do with the mural. When I finally
gave the book the attention it deserves, I was delighted to see it speaks
about the Jules Stein mural. It shows Mary working on a full-sized mock-up
of the mural, which, for me, was so cool to see her standing in front her
work. On the page opposite that photo though is a full color reproduction of
what the book identifies as the completed mural. It's not. The completed
mural looks vastly different from that picture, which appears to be the
concept art for it.
As I read this book the thoughts, "Why is it that we
know so little about Mary Blair? Why is she just the small world lady,"
kept popping into my mind. Well, the book sheds some light on that question
and in doing so brings to the forefront a wonderful artist that the world
should know more about. Disney has a history of many fine artists to be sure
and when all those names come to mind, Mary Blair needs to be among them. I
know that I will never look at small world through the same eyes again. I
now have a real appreciation for it. The only other thing I could ask for
now is to please, someone stage an exhibition of Mary Blair's art. How
fantastic that would be. I'd really love to see some of her watercolors and
concept art in the flesh. One can only hope.
Until then, I've got this really nifty book and I'm probably
going to wear it out looking at it.
Besides the Canemaker book, Amazon
also offers a children's Golden Book illustrated by Mary Blair, I Can
Fly. The Mary Blair website offers a Jeanne doll (named after her
niece) that is inspired by Mary's design work (as shown above). A click on
the photo above takes you to the Blair website.
Amazon links to both
books are provided below, plus a link for the new Alice in Wonderland
Special Edition DVD. Alice is one of the movies that is considered a
showcase of Mary's unique style.
Some other Mary Blair
weblinks you may find of interest
(all will open in new browser windows):
Werner
Weiss' ever delightful Yesterland site (dedicated to past
Disneyland attractions) offers a page on the Tomorrowland tile murals
Artist
Michael Barrier has some thoughts on Mary
Author
John Canemaker has his own site
