Essay on Examining the Image of Mary Robinson Blair Through Art

Art enables people to create an image of a story even if no words are accompanying the pictures. When someone mentions "Cinderella," the image created in one’s mind is that of a beautiful young girl is living with her mean with a fairy godmother and a charming prince. All these images are creations of artists who work on creating artwork to illustrate stories or even tell a story about an event. The purpose of the paper is to examine the image crated of Mary Robinson Blair by some of her prominent works of art.

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Mary Robinson Blair was born on the 21st of October 1911 in McAlester, Oklahoma, the United States of America. After high school, Mary Blair attended San Jose State College and majored in fine art, and later she got a scholarship to join Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. Her education in art played a huge role in developing her artistic nature, which led to her creating some of the most amazing artworks in the world. During her education at Chouinard, she met Lee Everett Blair, a fellow art student, and later got married in Los Altos, California.In 1940, Mary Blair got employment with Metro- Goldwin –Mayer Studios but worked there for a short period before joining Walt Disney Studios. Shortly, she left Walt Disney Studios and joined her husband at Ub Iwerks Animation Studios but later returned to Walt Disney studios as an Art supervisor. During her second time at Walt Disney, became prominent by working on the color styling of famous Walt Disney films Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. She worked at Walt Disney Studios until 1953 when she resigned to work on her own. Mary Blair has several awards to her name; the Disney Legend Award (1961), the ASIFA- Hollywood Winsor McCay Award (1996), and National Fantasy Fan Club's Disney Legend Award (2003).

During her artistic career, Mary Blair faced some challenges from her male counterparts because of her bold and daring illustrations. For example, during her first time working at Walt Disney, other people had to approve her work, making it hard for her to express her artistic nature because prejudice. Despite this challenge, Mary Blair continued with her unique form of art shown by her illustration in peter pan. She uses bold, deep shadows and high-contrast colors in her illustration in the film evidence of her artistic nature.

Mary Blair is a pioneer of modernist art style; her style entails using primary colors to form uniquely but intense contrast illustrations. Her illustrations in the book "I Can Fly" by Ruth Kraus show how well she uses artistic potraits to capture the reader's attention and tell a story. Most of today's designers and animators use Mary Blairs' unique bold and groundbreaking color designs as inspiration; the illustration in animation films use the color designs she created. Mary Blair is recognized for her color styling in Walt Disney films; Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland. Her accomplishment does not lie in with these films only after leaving Walt Disney; she worked on various big projects creating murals. She created paintings for a children’s wing at a medical clinic, she worked on projects with Walt Disney creating murals for "Tomorrow Land" and "It's a Small World." These two projects found in Disney World worldwide, show how unique her work is. Mary Blair was an accomplished illustrator, as well as a creative painter; some of her creative portraits include The Purple Madona, Girl And Cats, Ice Cream Girl The Gambler Band Stand, and Children's' Chorus.

First, the work of Mary Blair portrays her as someone original and creative; shown by the way she illustrates the characters in the animation film Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland. The use of primary colors shows her work's originality, and creating intense contrast shows her creative nature. Second, her work portrays Mary Blair as bold and daring, using various colors to illustrate and create murals that do not conform to the usual. Mary Blair can create her unique style, and she is not afraid to pursue her ideas even if they are different from what others expect. Her creation of murals in Disney world, such as Tomorrow Land and her color styling in Cinderella, was distinct from what others were creating at the time. Third, her art portrays her as someone emotional with a unique outlook on the world; the murals at Tomorrow Land show the opinion that Mary Blair holds about the future. The paintings show how optimistic she is about the future and how it is always changing. The illustration in Saludos Amigos also portrays her as someone touched by the experience of others. Fourth, the works of Mary Blair show her as someone who has a lot of love for children; most of her work is for the enjoyment of young children. Her work in the animation films for children at Walt Disney, her creation of murals for a children's clinic, and pictures for Disney World all point to her values the happiness of children.

Bibliography

Praffer, Steve. Behind The Scenes at Disney: Eric Carle Museum Offers A Retrospective On Seminal Illustrator Mary Blair. (2016). https://www.gazettenet.com/Archives/2015/12/MaryBlair-hg-122415

Timmer, Tracie. “Painting Dreams with Mary Blair.” (2016). https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/painting-dreams-mary-blair

"A True contemporary: The Life and Work of Mary Blair." Oh, My Disney (2016). https://ohmy.disney.com/insider/2016/06/11/mary-blair-history/

"Mary Blair (1911-1978)". Sullivan Goss (2017). https://www.sullivangoss.com/artists/mary-blair-1911-1978

Prusko, Scott. "1st Place:" Behind the Magic: A Research Collection on the History of the Walt Disney Company." (2017). https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=bookcollectioncontest