Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Art & Flair of Mary Blair in San Francisco


I recently returned from an amazing trip to San Francisco with my boyfriend and friends! It was a beautiful trip...and the added bonus was taking in "The Art & Flair of Mary Blair" show at San Fran's Cartoon Art Museum. Above is a close-up of the main piece in the exhibition showcasing Mary Blair's work. If you're not familiar with who Mary Blair is, check her out: Disney Legends, Mary Blair Flickr set, Yesterland, & The Art & Flair of Mary Blair the book.




This brilliant painter, concept artist, and stylist was one of the first women to reach great heights of influence within the Disney canon, in the 1940's and 50's amazingly. Her paintings distilled mood and emotion into deceptively simple design compositions, therefore they were used as a loose guide for the animators when creating scenes for the films. Her expressive use of colors and forms can be seen in several Disney films, and her work continues to inspire artists and animators to this day. Her work is most evident in Disney's Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and DisneyWorld's It's a Small World attraction. Beyond Disney, you can see her work in several Little Golden Books from the period.




Here's another close-up of one of Mary Blair's pieces. I love these colorful and whimsical parrots! This piece was inspired by a trip Mary Blair made to South America, and it was later used to inform the style of a Disney short.


This is perhaps my favorite piece in the entire show. I love the design of the two girls.


Here's my friend Keiko, a very talented animator who met us at the exhibit! Check out Keiko's work, it's great!


Here's Me, Edson, and Keiko again...the following photos are more shots from our San Fran trip!


Me, Edson, and Carol at a park in downtown San Fran.


Here's the whole traveling group: Jay, Carol, Karina, Me, Edson, and Paulo. We're all sitting down for a big lunch at a cool little cafe we found.






I loved San Fran, and could easily live there. But once Edson and I set foot back in Manhattan, we were glad to be home!

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Did you know that Mary Blair was Tony Blair's mother?
Only joking

mar said...

Hey!!!
I hadn´t heard of Mary Blair before, But her style is everywhere!!! Beautiful work, always liked it... now I can actually name the person behind it. yey!
Looks like you had a great trip!
See ya soon

David DeGrand said...

Man, I'm so jealous that you got to see this show, Mary Blair is AMAZING! I would love to see her art in person. Take care Justin!

mushroommeadows said...

Luck you! Mary Blair is awesome. :)

Thanks for sharing all those lovely pics!

tirui said...

i love mary blair! we're going to sf to see the show in a couple weeks. boo, just missed you. i'm glad you had fun. i can't wait to see her work in person.

Hobo Divine said...

Wowie thanks for sharing!

JustMe said...

Hey everybody. Thanks. I'm glad to see there's lots of Blair fans out there.

Anonymous said...

aww lucky ! i heard about this show and thanks for the letting me see some of it as i will not be able to see it in person!

Ward Jenkins said...

I'm so late in responding, Justin! What kind of friend am I??? (Don't answer....) So wishing that we were there at the same time. So wishing that I had the chance to see the Mary Blair show with you. So wishing this, so wishing that....Ah, oh well. Things don't work out, life happens. But that doesn't mean that we won't cross paths again soon. I promise!

Great pics of the exhibit, by the way!

Duttyfree said...

It's a shame to live so far away! im a complet fan o Mary's works! Youre so LuckY! :D i hope to see her work one day here in Madrid!

Anonymous said...

San Francisco is a good place to visit, I like there because I had a pleasant experience. I was at a art gallery there and suddenly a girl came up to me and throw a tablet of Levitra towards me.

Boris said...

awww I wish the Cartoon Art Museum is still showing this exhibit :(

Archie Pavia said...

Great article. Never knew that opinions could be this varied. Thanks for the idea! -- carry on luggage size restrictions