Kim's Corner
Page 6 of 18

K & R - We asked him if the merchandise division at the DLR put any parameters on his work for either this exhibit or the product that was to be created from the images.

Eric - "No. Tony and Linda Votaw, when she was here, they have respected my intuition and my style. The want me to be free, they want to see what I come up with. So they never have ever said, ‘Look, we want a red Mickey with a black nose…’ They never did that because they love it when I do a yellow ear with a green shoe ad a red nose. They want that. And, if they limit me as an artist then I’ll just freeze in what I do for them… I’ve worked with people who have sent work back, saying ‘can you fix the eyes?’ or ‘Can you do?’ you know? But, nope, they let me have total freedom, any medium, any size, anything."

K & R - Was there one Mickey that you developed a special fondness for during the process? That you didn’t want to give to them?

Eric - "Yeah… there was one I did that I didn’t want to give to them, this is one of my favorites, it’s "Mouse in Motion" (MM071). I did this with two broken ankles, sitting on the floor, eating an In ‘n Out burger. And, I just love it, I don’t know there’s something about it. He’s looking this way, he’s looking at you, and he’s looking that way. It’s Picasso-esque, it’s got lots of emotion. I don’t know, for me, well… There’s also one called "Alphabet Soup Mickey" (MM0076)… when you see it, it’s Impressionistic, sort of a second read."

MM055 - "Off Model Mickey" is another of my favorites - for the art and the humor.
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A closer look at "Off Model Mickey" shows the animation model sheets decoupaged onto the canvas over which the Mickey was drawn.
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K & R - We talked art a bit, wondering if it matters, in the long run, what the piece is painted in or on for the people who will develop an emotional bond with an image and want to own it.

Eric - "Art is like that. For the non-creative it’s just emotion. Like, ‘You know what? There’s something I’m feeling. I really want that. And, I have to have that.’ And then there’s other people that’ll just go, ‘I can do that.’… I took my dad to MoCA, the Museum of Modern Art in LA once… and, he’s a left-brainer and I’m a right brainer… and we saw like a string hanging from a canvas with a dot on the canvas… And he said, ‘Son, don’t ever do that and try to explain to people that it’s art.’ But, it’s different to everybody. And some people won’t like all these. And some people will go, ‘Wow, he really pushed an envelope for us. Thank you.’ And some people will go ‘That’s a messy one.’ Or ‘that’s got a yellow ear, that’s not the way Mickey is.’"

Eric told us about a conversation he had with a guest at Walt Disney World while he was painting some Mickeys there, "Someone came up to me and said, ‘Mickey’s shorts are red.’ He was very serious about it. I said, ‘They are? No body told me. No way! ’ And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s a Disney classic, it’s a very important feature, the yellow shoes and the red shorts.’ So I said, ‘Oh man, I’m sorry. Can we scrap all these and start over?’ I was very serious… And since then I’ve been doing it every color I can think of… It’s fun. It’s fun. It’s fun to interact with the people. Because some people just love you and some people question you."

VIPs enjoying the 100 Mickeys Sneak Peak Special Event.
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