Friday, October 21, 2011

Google Doodle: Tribute to Mary Blair

Search giant Google on Friday marked the 100th birth anniversary of American artist Mary Blair - best remembered for her work with The Walt Disney Company - with one of its patented Doodles.

Visitors to Google's homepage were greeted with a stylized logo reminiscent of Blair's art style.

As in the past, clicking on the Google Doodle will take the visitor to a Google search results page on "Mary Blair."

Mary Robinson Blair was born on Oct. 21, 1911 in Oklahoma and worked in the animation industry, according to an article on Techie-Buzz.com.

She began her lifelong multifaceted art career in the 1930’s as a member of the prestigious California Watercolor Society, according to the MagicofMaryBlair.com website.

By 1940, she was working for Walt Disney and in 1941 her passionate “explosion of color" style began to emerge during the Disney Studios “South American Goodwill Tour."

She continued to make extensive contributions to the “world" of Walt Disney off and on for over 30 years. Some of the films she influenced include:


  • Johnny Appleseed, 1948
  • Cinderella, 1950
  • Alice in Wonderland, 1951
  • Susie the Little Blue Coupe, 1952
  • Little House, 1952
  • Peter Pan, 1953

    Her passion for painting children began at home, with her own two sons – Donovan, born in 1947 and Kevin, born three years later in 1950.

    In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she worked on multiple commercial art projects in her home studio in Great Neck New York.

    In the 1970s, she expressed herself through texture, color and collage art.

    Techie-Buzz said Blair won several awards, including:

  • 1991: the Disney Legend award
  • 1996: the Winsor McCay award from ASIFA-Hollywood.