Inspiration: It All Started with a Mouse

(From Disneyland.com)

So obviously I have to write about my biggest inspiration and obsession... Disneyland.  I  love it for many reasons.  An important one being that it was the first place I actually experienced art as a child.  Its the first place many children experience art for the first time, sure its not exactly a museum but from a young age I adored the craftsmanship and ornamental designs that went into creating the place.  I have done many paintings based on the Theme Park as well as its characters.

But the park's attractions have also inspired me to use some of the special effects found within them.  For example, in the Haunted Mansion a classic illusion is used called the Pepper's Ghost trick.  It has been used by magicians and live stage productions for centuries now.  It involves the use of a sheet of glass, with some kind of figure on one side.  In most cases this figure is an actor but in the Haunted Mansion they use audio animatronics.  The figures are painted white and are hidden in a dark room.  On the other side of the glass is some type of backdrop, whether its the setting on a stage or a ghoulish ballroom being looked down upon by guests in their "doom buggies."  Then the figure in the dark room is illuminated by a spot light that shines directly on them and their reflection appears in the glass creating ghostly, transparent images.

Here are some photographs of the hidden animatronics that create the illusion in the Mansion:

(Images from Davelandweb.com and LongForgottenHauntedMansion.com) 

And here is how they appear in the glass for riders to enjoy! 

(Davelandweb.com and DoomBuggies.com)

For a recent project in my sculpture class I decided to experiment with this trick for myself in a piece meant to reveal the magician's secrets. I called this piece "Seeing is Believing."  I started with a lot of research on how exactly to make the illusion work and then a trip to Michael's where I bought a 5x7 sheet of glass and a couple plastic figures to play as my ghosts.  I found a queen and cat toy which I was going to use for an Alice in Wonderland scene where I also constructed the Queen of Hearts' castle.  But my professor Francisco Perez talked me out of the idea, saying I may be referencing too much Disney in one piece.  I thought that was fair so I went with an eerie forest scene as my backdrop instead.  With this I was thinking to reference history and the ghost of Anne Boleyn, beheaded wife of King Henry VIII, who was accused of being a witch.  Instead I decided to keep it simple and allow people to create their narratives since the important part was the illusion.

Here's what I ended up with:

The Queen and her kitty in the creepy forest.

I cut what is the "floor" of the wooden box used to create the maquette at a 45 degree angle to hold the glass in just the right place.  This caught the reflection of the figures while viewers could see right through to the backdrop.

These are a couple of ways the Happiest Place on Earth has inspired the work I create.  Another piece I would like to share is my "Disneyland Death Map," a tribute to those who have lost their at Walt's original theme park.  These accidents happened due to rides going rouge and/or irresponsible cast members.  I read of these incidents in a book well-known by the Disney Enthusiast community called Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look At Disneyland.  This book by David Koenig has an entire chapter dedicated to the tragedies that have taken place at Disneyland from its opening in 1955.  

(Image from Amazon.com)

I started the piece by painting watercolor panels of all the rides in sweet, pastel colors.  I left all the rides empty to create a melancholy type of mood.  The only figures in the paintings were lonely animatronics featured in some of the attractions.  Once those were done I wrote my own obituaries based on the information provided in the book and glued them onto the panels of the rides they dealt with.

Here's an image of the final map:

Although the theme park alone provides enough inspiration for me, the story of the man behind it all plays a big role too.  Knowing the life of Walt Disney and all the hardships and failures he went through to make his company as successful as it is today has always been uplifting to me and keeps me doing what I do.