Mary Blair (1911-1978) was a concept artist for Walt Disney
Animation Studios, whose work shaped several of Disney’s
Silver Age films, such as Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella
This is Cinderella.
She looks a bit like me:
blonde and poised
despite.
In this one,
soap bubbles swallow
her reflection. Still,
she sings. Her song,
clean as glass;
no color is so clear.
In this one,
she dances
with her prince
because in such stories
women do.
It’s almost midnight.
That’s why I made
the sky so black
and their silhouettes
so stark and white.
*
This is Alice.
She looks a bit like me:
blonde and lost
in wonder.
In this one,
she is small
among huge flowers.
When I choose colors,
I mean it: see
how the starlit yellow
is overlapped by deep,
haunted purple.
For Alice blue
and white, because
she’s like the sky:
drifting, shifting,
ungrounded.
In this one,
she’s grown,
tower-tall,
and her tears: rain
she must learn
to swim in.
