How Did Mary Blair Influence Walt Disney World

Almost everybody loves Disney stories. Many of us were raised on Disney from films to rides. These stories engulfed our minds into new and exciting worlds. They broadened our imagination and helped us thin outside the box. But who is behind the visuals of these stories? In this article, we are going to go “down the rabbit hole” into the imaginative, genius mind that is Mary Blair.

In 1940, Blair joined Disney. She eventually became one of the strongest influences in Disney art. She brought a fresh, modern influence to Disney. Walt Disney adored her, and let her express her creative freedom, and she did not disappoint. He gave her the title of Art Director for “The Three Caballeros” and “Salads Amigos”. She continued to be a strong influence

She attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles in the 1920’s and 1930’s on a scholarship. When she completed her studies in 1933, Blair took a job at MGM Studios, rather than aiming for a job in the fine arts. In 1964, Mary fulfilled Disney’s request to help design the Disneyland ride “It’s a Small World”. This was the first attraction of many in which Mary had an influence. She continued to use her talents to assist in the design of exhibits and murals at DisneyLand and DisneyWorld. Her influence is not limited to California and Floria; she painted the rather famous murals at the Grand Canyon Concourse at the Contemporary Hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort in Arizona.

She is often noted for her sense of color. She used a lot of heavily saturated, primary colors. intensely contrasted with each other gave her works a vivid, vibrant, youthful energy. She was very mindful of the warm and cool colors, and used them intently. In addition to her famous color palettes, Blair’s work also steers aways from naturalism toward modern abstraction. She did not go very strongly into abstraction, where there are no representational shapes, but there are definitely many characteristics in her art that are not present in the real world. Her “angular cutouts are lopsided, domes and circles have egg-shaped profiles and arches are taller than they are wide and slightly unsteady on their stork-like legs” (D) Her buildings and structures have a collage-like feel to them. Her characters often have huge heads in proportion to their bodies. (D) While Mary still used some watercolors from her roots in her art, she also used gouache, charcoals, and black backgrounds which helped her achieve those bright colors. (E) Disney was specifically fond of her naïve illustrations, her color choices, and how her art told stories. And as we all know, Disney was an avid storyteller. He also liked how her art had a central theme of emotion while not being expressed too explicitly. (C) Her combination of vivid colors, abstraction, and modernism worked nicely together to create imaginative worlds, my personal favorite being