Mary Blair

This piece depicts some of the life events and works of Mary Blair, an American artist who produced concept art for the Walt Disney Company. Her assignments included murals for Tomorrowland and It’s a Small World, while her film assignments included Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Cinderella. She also created illustrations for advertising and children’s books, such as the Little Golden Book “I Can Fly.”

She began working in Disney’s Character Model department in 1940, garnering Walt Disney’s attention in 1941 during a three month trip to South America. Although intended as a trip for Disney studio artists, including Mary’s husband Lee, she approached Walt and asked if she might come as well.

Her work transformed during this trip, evolving from a realistic, painterly style into a vibrant style with more simplified shapes and bright colors. Disney was enchanted. “Walt said that I knew about colors he had never heard of,” she later proudly recalled. She thus became one of the first women to function in an independent creative capacity at the studio, rather than as an inker or painter of cels.

Individual motifs for this quilt were sketched in pencil, colorized in Procreate for iPad, then composited in Photoshop on a Mac. The resulting image was printed on cotton fabric, batted, and stitched.

Mary Blair was an American artist best known for producing art for the Walt Disney Company, including concept art for Peter Pan and Cinderella.

Cotton fabric, batting, Madeira Polyneon thread