Experiencing Joy Through Art

   Good morning and Happy Friday! I am looking forward to the weekend, and I'm sure you are too. Last night I had the pleasure of spending the evening at Disneyland with two good friends visiting from Northern CA. While there, we decided to ride on “it’s a small world”…one of the most beloved and in some cases hated attractions at the Disney theme parks.

   The reason many people hate the ride is due to their admonishment that not only is the song annoying but that the ride is childish and saccharine. While I can see why people might think this, I feel it is largely due to some misunderstanding.

   This example gives me the opportunity to discuss with you the fact that if you look carefully you can find the art and creativity in anything. As I've said before, art is too subjective to burden it with rules or judgements of “good” and “bad”. The “it’s a small world” attraction at Disneyland is a kind of art piece if you know its history.

   Back in the 1940s and 1950s, there was an artist named Mary Blair who was known for her illustrations, especially for children’s books. Walt Disney became enamored of her unique style and brought Mary Blair into his studios to work on many of the animated features and  other Disney projects. Blair was known for her instantly recognizable use of color styling and design that was so distinctively hers. Her artwork influenced the look of many of the animated films, so it was no surprise that Disney brought her in to help design some of the attractions at Disneyland in the 1960s.

   Disney designed and built four attractions for the 1964/65 World’s Fair in New York, and one of them was “it’s a small world”. Blair came up with all of the concept drawings and Disney really gave her carte blanche to work her magic. 

   The ride, which was meant only to be a temporary World’s Fair installation, proved so popular that Disney decided to give it a permanent home at Disneyland when the fair closed. All of the interior sets were dismantled and shipped to Anaheim and Blair was tasked with designing a new exterior for the attraction’s permanent building. Hence she came up with the huge façade with working clock tower that we see in the park today. Like a giant piece of origami, it glistens with Blair’s unique take on design and shape.

   The interior is also rife with her artwork, her distinctive style showing at every turn. The way Blair used color and shape is truly hers and is very difficult to duplicate. It is easy to tell the original Blair designed versions of “it’s a small world” in Disneyland (CA) and Walt Disney World (FL) versus the newer version at Disneyland Paris. 

   Thus, if you look at the attraction not as a childish ride but an enormous Mary Blair art piece you begin to really see the genius of its design. When looking at any examples of Mary Blair’s work it is easy to see why Walt Disney was so taken with her. To see more, click here.