The Great Disney Art-Swap! °o° *•._.•* ‘ *•._.•* °o°

You may have read in previous postings about me that I consider myself an artist. I would like one day to have some of my work showing, or selling in one of the Disney galleries either off-site or in the parks themselves. My favorite medium is pen and ink, with which I do pointillism. This is something few artists do because it is tedious and time consuming, but I have always found the process hypnotizing and therapeutic, and I found myself getting quite good at it.  I truly love images that include a multitude of Disney characters from different movies which is something you never see in pointillism, but I also love the architecture of the parks and that style was made for architecture.  Here is a shot of my first attempt at a Disney building, The Emporium on Main Street (from Disneyland).

 (click to enlarge)

Lately, I have been trying to branch out from drawing exclusively dots.  I love them, but I love variety, too.  Some time ago, I sat down with a large sheet of drawing paper and composed an ink drawing that I titled “Doodle”, for lack of a better word. That’s all it is really… just on a larger scale, and organized better than most doodles. I have heard that it reminds people of an underwater scene, or bubbles. 

(click to enlarge)

I love this style and I have drawn other versions, playing with the “swirly” aspect, and noticing that it lends itself to a Christmassy, or magic-y look.  Here is what I mean.

(click to enlarge)

Well, for a few years I played around with the design incorporating it here or there, but always unhappy that I could not envision a way to make the design more than a fancy squiggle. Now I have names for the specific styles and a few months ago finally conceived of a way to USE the design as a focal point… 

...but before I share that drawing with you...   let me digress back to the title of this blog posting:  "The Great Disney Art-Swap!"... 

I have a friend who is also a (working!) artist, and she ran a photo captioning contest in which her prize was a credit towards a commissioned art piece (with limitations on size/design). Because she is a good friend of mine, this led me to think, what a GREAT idea it is to commemorate friendships with other artist friends I have. 

Enter my friend, Mouseketeer Sandy! 

(Sandy and Ken at my 40th birthday party)

I met Sandy working for a company that provided services to the Deaf and hard of hearing community. We became work-buddies, starting a daily morning ritual of catching up on Entertainment news and theorizing on how celebrities seem to die in groups of three (a belief I heartily subscribe to). We went our own separate ways, career-wise around 2004/2005 but always remained email and Facebook buddies… continuing our celebrity death-watch (sorry to sound so morbid, but I really do follow celebrity deaths and I will always hold a special place in my heart especially for our classic actors when we lose them).

Well, after our paths separated, Sandy went and found herself a small taste of success with her newly found talent of collage painting.  I followed her milestones over the last couple of years with her Las Vegas art gallery showing at the Wynn and watching her grow along the way. Reading her updates was surreal because I would read about her next commission and think, “wow, I KNOW her, and she is doing what I want to do”.

See her blog and online gallery here: http://www.sandypieper.com/

Then a few months ago, Sandy started posting comments that she her and her family was planning a relocation from the Phoenix area to Colorado, just because she was flat out tired of Phoenix. I immediately realized that she and I were on mirrored paths, about to experience the same bumps and pitfalls and exciting challenges.  The only difference was the destination.  That’s when I knew I had to ask her to create a piece of work for me to commemorate our friendship.

Here are some examples of her orginal work:

I asked her if she would be willing to create a piece for me, in her style that incorporated something Disney related.  I put no other limitations on it. She wrote back right away, saying she loved the idea but instead of charging me, she wrote back that she propose we each do a piece of art for each other.  Since her work is collage oriented, she asked me to mail her a package of bits and pieces that I wanted incorporated, so I sent her an old Disneyland admission ticket, a couple of fast passes, and a map of the park. From there, she worked her magic and we both finished our offerings and we met up at the end to May to unveil and trade the works that we both created with friendship in heart (and a little pixie dust in mind.)

I’m so honored to be able to own a bit of Sandy’s talent, for all the reasons I’ve mentioned above, and will always think of my friend when I stop to look at this beautiful piece of art. Here is the finished product, with a few close-up shots so that my Disney fans out there can appreciate the little hidden gems. Disney magic truly IS in the details.

As usual, please click on the image if you want to enlarge.

Sandy Pieper's version of "Living a Disney Life"

Below are several detail shots.

(Close-up Detail) 

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(Close-up Detail) 

Oh, and because you are still here, reading all the way to the end of the post, here is my artwork that I traded with Sandy. The piece is better in person than in photograph, because it is three dimensional.  The colorful background is watercolor, then the pieces of the Mickey head were cut out of art stock with an exacto knife, and assembled with a piece of balsa wood under each piece to give them dimension. It was all mounted in a shadow box. The finished piece is about 11" x 14". Sorry for the glare.:

(click to enlarge)

And here is the date of the trade:

Thank you Mouseketeer Sandy, we LOVE the new addition to our home and we proudly display it. Here's to BOTH of our families for Living the (Disney) Life, and having the courage to follow our dreams!  I love you.

Comments are welcome. Positive feedback encouraged!

Mouseketeer Ken

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A Very Merry “Un” Un-birthday to Me! °o° *•._.•* ‘ *•._.•* °o°

Today I turn 45. I woke up feeling great, which is a good thing, of course. How many of us hold on to the old feelings that come with realizing you still have to go to work on your birthday?  Well, I have a great bunch of co-workers, so it’s not so bad, and Mark and I will be celebrating all weekend with dinner out, cake, going to the movies (Superman!), brunch at my favorite new restaurant (Windsor) on Sunday morning, and PRESENTS.

Unfortunately, I will be spending the evening alone because Mark is in his finals week in school which will keep him out until 10pm, but I’m not sad… I have a lot to look forward to this weekend, and a lot to be thankful for…

I was driving to work, listening to one of my favorite songs “Light and Day” by The Polyphonic Spree, which always makes my spirits soar because of the crescendo of the score, the lyrics, and the abandon with which they sing, and all of these thoughts started popping into my head…

Where will I be on my next birthday?  My life will be completely different by the time my next birthday rolls around. If everything goes according to plan, we will be settled in a new state, a new home, and (hopefully) equally employed (I say “equally” because I got a nice raise at work this month, which makes it even more bittersweet to be leaving in 4-6 months).  However, I will be able to visit the Happiest Place on Earth for my birthday next year…  and any time I want!

Where was I on my last birthday?  I was just starting out on this blog, having been just a few months after Mark and I made the decision to move to be close to Disney World. However, we had no money in savings, so we were (and still ARE) cutting back on all spending to save the funds to make that possible. Now, we have the funds for the move. That’s a huge accomplishment to be made in just one year.

Where was I six years ago on my birthday?  I was 39, one year from the dreaded 40, depressed and working in a position in a theater that I thought was a dream job that had gone from great to bad to worse; I was actually let go (downsized from the company because of the declining economy) on my birthday.

Where was I fifteen years ago on my birthday?  I was 30. It was 1998. I was working at a non-profit organization that benefited the Deaf and hard of hearing. I had wanted to be a Sign Language Interpreter, but that wasn’t in the cards for me, so I worked there in an administrative role.  I was driving a tiny blue Ford Festiva that we used to call The Blueberry because it was so small. My partner (at the time) and I were saving all of our money to buy the house that I continue to live in to this day... the same house that will be put up for sale approximately 3 months from now.

I feel far more “wise” at 45 than I did at 30. I’m lucky in many, many ways. I may have a body that creaks and aches like it is 45 (or older!), but my mind is still young and I still marvel at things the way I did when I was 10.  I’m also especially lucky that people still don’t believe that I am out of my late 20’s yet!  Maybe it’s my child-like fascination with all things Disney.

Speaking of 10...  The year I turned 10 was 1978.  I had been to Disney World on family trips a couple of times, but by this age I have solid memories of the parks, like Adventures Thru Inner Space, The People Mover, Mission to Mars and getting vertigo in the America the Beautiful (Circle-Vision 360°) attraction. When I was 10, Space Invaders was released; Happy Days was #1 on TV and I used to watch The Wonderful World of Disney on my parent’s black and white television while they watched Three’s Company on the color set. There were no Disney animated releases that year, but there was “Return from Witch Mountain”, “The Cat from Outer Space” and “Hot Lead and Cold Feet”. I believe I saw them all in the theater.

I may as well go back to the year I was born, just for fun.  Gas was .34 cents per gallon, Disneyland turned 13, Walt had passed from lung cancer two years before, and Disney World was only three years away from opening day. A child’s admission to Disneyland was $3.50.  The Disney animated film “The Jungle Book” was released just eight months before I was born and “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” was in theaters six months after I was born. They also released “The Love Bug” in 1968.  I don’t even WANT to go into the fashions of that year. Things have much improved since then.

Just for fun here are some pictures of Disneyland taken the year I was born. Credit goes to www.davelandweb.com and www.disneydreamer.com; thanks for making them available.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Now, fast forward from 1968 to today… 45 years later, gas is running $3.50 per gallon, Annette Funicello (The Mickey Mouse Club) sadly passed this year from complications due to MS at the age of 70, and admission to Disney is just over $100 a day.  This is the year that “Oz the Great and Powerful” and “Monsters University” is released, along with other BIG upcoming Disney films like “The Lone Ranger”, “Saving Mr. Banks”, and “Frozen”.  Oh, and technically it was last year, but it’s still big news that Disney now owns the tiny Star Wars franchise!

Big things are coming, not just for the Disney Company, but also for Ken and Mark.  Big BIG things. Life Changing Events that are probably so far out of my scope of imagination that I can only give myself over to the universe and wait for what will be in store for us. I may be 45, middle-aged and past my prime, but I know for a fact that 45 and up will be even better than 45 and back!

Oh, one more picture for you... Ken at 25, trapped in the body of a 45 year old (please DON'T click on this to enlarge it :) 

Comments are welcome. Positive feedback encouraged!

Mouseketeer Ken

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