So today on the podcast, we continue our story of Disney legend Mary Blair.

Mary's work with Disney is arranged largely in the 1940s and early 1950s, and then again

into the mid-1960s and early 1970s.

With this episode, we are now up to Mary's second long period with the Disney company,

which is really where her name and reputation are solidified as a key public artist for Walt.

Some of her most famous projects occur during this period, and this is also the period where her home life

begins to unravel. So I'd like you to see her life from this perspective for a moment. In terms of

her art, she is often drawn to idealized representations of children who express warmth and joy, but in terms of her own

complex life, elements of warmth and joy are beginning to unravel, at least in certain

corners of her existence, leaving a fairly wide gap between what populates her formal imagination

and what she places into art that she creates for Disney and others.

I've mentioned this once before, but it's probably useful to bring it up again, especially

at this point. I know that some families tend to listen to

this podcast together, but also we're moving into episodes that include elements of alcoholism,

drug use, and adultery, which were also noticeable cultural markers in general for American society

in the 60s and 70s.

As always, there will be nothing gratuitous in these episodes,

but I did want to put this out there for listeners in case this mattered to them.

And also I wanted to put it out there so listeners can begin to notice the wide gap between Mary's

personal experience at this point in her life and what she wanted to communicate through art,

including some of her best known and most influential projects. And with that, I think,

we are all ready to roll.

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