The Art of Mary Blair

When I was a teenager, probably about 14 my sister was living in Cardiff in Wales to get her degree. One of the perks of this situation was that she lived very close to the city's Disney store! I had never been to a Disney store before and the one in Dublin would not open up for another 6 years. With that being said you can imagine my excitement at the thought of her living so close and my extreme delight when she would arrive back for a visit with gifts from the store for me! On one of these visits she brought me home a Special Edition 2 Disc DVD of Cinderella. A movie that always reminds me of her as it was her favourite Disney classic growing up, she wouldn't always watch Disney with me as she was 5 years older than me but whenever Cinderella was on she was more than happy to, which I loved.

I had gotten really into the animation of Disney around that time, especially people like the Nine Old Men and how they came up with the fantastic characters and masterpiece background designs they created over the years. So, I was so happy when I discovered that there was a Behind the Scenes documentary on Mary Blair. A lady I had never heard of but immediately upon seeing the Disney work she did, I realized I may not have known her face but I was more than familiar with her legacy. The documentary went on to tell of her influence on the animation of such 1950s Disney classics as Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty and of course Cinderella and of the lasting impression she would have on all future animators and imagineers and the stories they would work on in the years to come.

Mary Blair was born in 1911 in McAlester Oklahoma U.S. As a child she showed an immense interest in art, drawing her own little comic books while at school to entertain her family and fellow classmates. At the age of 20 Mary won a scholarship to the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles where she moved to and attended the institute alongside her brother-in-law Preston Blair. In the early 1930's, Mary began working as a colourist and animator at MGM for a short period, she became well known among her fellow animators for her wonderful use of colour in her work. Following her few years at MGM, Mary interviewed at and landed (luckily for all of us) a job in the animation department at The Walt Disney Company in 1940 and thus her fairy tale began. Walt is said to have adored her innovative style and use of bright dramatic colours and so he decided she should take part in the animation of the studios "good will" South America inspired productions of Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros as an art supervisor. She then went on to do some of her best and most inspiring work on the concept artwork for several of the company's best features including, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Towards the mid 1950's Mary left her work at Disney and became an artist, graphic designer, and illustrator for the advertisements of many major companies including Maxwell House and Nabisco during the height of 1960's advertising. Several years after Disneyland had opened, Walt Disney wanted to create a ride in which visitors to his magical land would be able to be treated to a whimsical and magical trip through several of the world's countries including Japan, Sweden and Brazil. He of course recruited the help and artistry of Mary Blair to achieve this dream. She created murals representing each country in a colourful and exciting way as well as animatronic puppets that donned garments representational of their respective country. Each country was unique and had that signature Mary Blair touch. The ride went on to be called "It's a Small World After all" and it featured a song of the same name that is etched into the memory of all visitors of the ride. Mary then moved back to California where she continued to work on her art and had a gallery. She passed away in 1978 at the age of 66 from a cerebral hemorrhage. In 1991 she was more than deservedly made a Disney Legend and her work was celebrated and has been since her passing by the studio.

Mary Blair's work for me is so important because it signifies a change in the type of animation Disney did and it completely represents the studios innovative ways of adopting new styles and ideas. Her use of colour and very modernist styles particularly in concept art for Alice in Wonderland is beautiful to look at. One scene that was mentioned in the Cinderella documentary I referred to before was the scene in which the stepsisters rip Cinderella's pink dress from her when she tries to attend the ball with them. The colour of the background of the scene changes gradually to a wild jungle red as the sister's behaviour becomes more violent. This was described in the documentary as "pure Mary Blair". Only a fantastic story teller and imaginative animator would come up with such a fantastic approach to art and colour in a scene, which is why she was so important to Walt. I believe he saw in Mary another person who believed that animation could be seen as a real form of high art.

You can see more about Mary and her work at this website: http://magicofmaryblair.com/

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