disney concept art

The Walt Disney Family Museum‘s Magic, Color, Flair: The World of Mary Blair art exhibit in San Francisco closed last weekend, but I was able to go 3 weeks before it made its grand exit! I had been dying to go to this exhibit since they first announced it last year, so I made sure my bum got down to the museum because I’m completely in love and in awe of Mary Blair’s art! I’m sure I’ve mentioned what a huge fan I am of her on numerous occasions here, but I digress.

If you’re not familiar with her, she’s very well known for her bright and cheery concept art for Disney movies (Saludos Amigos, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan), designing It’s a Small World (yes, that ride that you either love or hate at Disneyland. And I wore a Small World inspired outfit for the exhibit too which included my It’s a Small World bag by LeSportsac!), and illustrating children’s books (notably I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss).

Magic, Color, Flair was a retrospective of her work which was utterly fascinating because I’ve only really ever been exposed to the art she’s done for Disney and children’s books. Her earlier work was gorgeous and vibrant, and a bit more realistic than the whimsical art that I grew to adore (you’ll see down below).

I went snap-happy with my camera and took pictures of EVERYTHING. So hopefully people who would’ve love to have gone but couldn’t make it may stumble upon this post. And I hope you all enjoy it too, my little ponies! 🙂

In case you’re wondering what the small text by her photograph says:

Mary Blair (1911-1978) was one of Walt Disney’s most original, beloved, and influential art directors. A protean and prolific painter, designer, and colorist, she found artistic expression in a variety of media, including film production designs; fine art watercolors, print illustrations and advertisements: and large-scale, three-dimensional theme park attractions.

The aim of Magic Color Flair: the world of Mary Blair is to reveal and explore Blair’s artistic process and development. The most obvious aspect of her body of work is sparkling graphic inventiveness and a brilliant color sense that dazzles the eye. But there is also in her art an emotional component – an empathetic identification with characters and situations — that appeals directly to the heart. Disney animation features director Wilfred Jackson’s comment touches upon that a special element in Blair’s creations. The exhibition investigates the sources of her art’s visual and emotional qualities — which melded together, make Blair’s work uniquely appealing.

The nearly two hundred works shown here offer a full and balanced overview of Blair’s almost half century of achievements before, during, and after her Walt Disney tenure.

– John Canemaker
Exhibition Curator

I’m not able to show you the nearly two hundred works that I took pictures of, but I did my best to include the pieces that I enjoyed and to also make it feel as if you saw the exhibit yourself 🙂

The clipping next to this horse design says:

Miss Mary Robinson, second year student at Chouinard Art School experienced the thrill of a lifetime when she picked up a current issue of a national magazine to find on the back cover advertisement her winning design in the annual Art Alliance competition.

The competition, which is national in scope, is conducted in the spring but this is the first time that the design had been made public by the company for which it was made. Miss Robinson’s work is called the Trojan Horse design and was made for bath mat, bath towel, small towel, and face cloth for a towel company. She received a $100 award and she competed with thousands of art students and professional artists as well.

According to Mrs. Chouinard, director of the school, the purpose of the competition is to build up interest among artists in this country in types of commercial and industrial design which heretofore have been done during have been done mostly by Europeans. This is the fifth time that a student of this school had won first prize in this competition.

^ This is the cover of a music book and I actually found a beaten up copy of it in my parent’s garage last year! SQUEE!!!

In 1962, Blair created paper sculptures for department store Bonwit Teller’s display windows. Below is one of the sculptures she designed.

Cheers,
Nina

walt disney family museum san francisco — The Walt Disney Family Museum is located in San Francisco’s Presidio.

Tim and I have talked about going to The Walt Disney Family Museum for HELLA days since it opened a couple of years ago in San Francisco. We ended going to Disneyland before we even made it there, which is weird because it’s a lot cheaper and closer to us than Disneyland is. o,O

walt disney mickey mouse museum — O hai thar.

The museum is dedicated to Walt Disney’s personal history and included tons of personal artifacts and information about his family, including comics and art he had drawn in his youth, antique jewelry he had given his wife and daughters, his father’s fiddle, part of his miniature collection, awards, etc. It was really interesting to learn about his personal history and humble beginnings. I knew some stuff about him beforehand, but not much. My level of respect for him has gone up a few notches. I a got a bit teary-eyed towards the end as they showed things about his final projects and how he passed away. There was even a wall full of art that printed in newspapers after he died — lots of sad Mickeys and such. 😦

The museum is a bit overwhelming though because there is SO MUCH writing on all the displays — it’s like a 3D history book. And I can’t even remember half of the things I saw! Plus I got really distracted after I realized that some man we were standing behind totally farted on Tim and I when we were looking at a display. We thought the floor creaked, but then it started to smell like poop. I looked at Tim and said, “Did that really happen? Is that what I think it is?” Oi.

I think the standout part of the museum for me was the model of Disneyland. I kid you not, I got a bit teary when I saw it. I just miss Disneyland, okay? 😛

mary blair helmet tiles walt disney family museum — Mary Blair’s helmet and tiles based on her art.

Taking pictures isn’t allowed inside the museum, which I thought really sucked at first, but then people would probably bogart every display and put a damper on the whole experience… but that didn’t stop me from taking pictures of some Mary Blair stuff near the coat check and restrooms! I mean, it was near closing time and no one was down there, sans one lonely janitor.

I am obsessed with Mary Blair’s artwork. She was a concept artist for Disney and worked on Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Little House, and a handful of other full length features and shorts. What she’s most famous for is designing It’s a Small World. Even if you hate that ride (and if you do, we can’t be friends), you have to admit it’s beautifully designed. And you see that helmet pictured above? It touched Mary Blair’s head. It possesses her DNA. With a healthy ovum, I can grow my own Mary Blair!!! Actually, I don’t know if that’s the real deal or a replica… I was too busy trying to be a rebel and forgot to read the note on the display case.

Mary Blair It's a Small World Mural Indian Elephant Walt Disney Family Museum — Art by Mary Blair

walt disney family museum mary blair cinderella bambi the little house — My loot!

The gift shop was just as overwhelming — I walked away with some Bambi postcards, a Lady & the Tramp button, and a couple of plastic folders imported from the Mary Blair art show in Japan. Afterwards we were hungry as fck, and we still wanted to watch Drive, and I conveniently had some movie passes with me, so we headed to Pleasanton (the halfway mark between San Francisco and Stockton, I guess) and ate some grub, and then got our Gosling-Mulligan-and Hendricks on. But mostly Gosling. *sigh

I’m a really sqeumish person, so I don’t like too much gore — Tim has already seen Drive so I asked if I’d be okay because I heard Ryan Gosling totally smashes some guy with a hammer. He said there was one part, but it wasn’t too bad and that I should be fine. LIES! I had my hands over my face quite a few times, especially during the part where Ryan Gosling’s character just keeps on kicking some dude’s head in. I was like, “OKAY OKAY YOU CAN STOP NOW!” Tim apologized for forgetting about all the bloodbath. But with all the that aside, Drive was a really good movie. The acting, the cinematography, the soundtrack… sigh

Tim and I are currently crushing on Ryan Gosling too (Tim said he has a “bro boner” for him, which sounds way better than “man crush”). And there’s this blog I recently discovered called Ryan Gosling Disneyland Cats — IT’S AMAZING! It’s just a bunch of silly photoshop’d pictures of Ryan Gosling at Disneyland with cats (hence the title of the blog). It inspired me to make this when I got home: