Kim's Corner
Page 3 of 18

Eric works on the canvas for MM 057 "Angie' Mickey" - during Disneyland's 45th Anniversary media event - more than two years before the 100 Mickeys exhibit opened.
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It’s A Cinder-fella Story

Earlier this month Rebekah and I had the chance to sit and chat with Eric. Let's just say that talking with Eric is a lot like looking at his art - sometimes very focused, creative, often disjointed, occasionally sidetracked and always fun. He is - in turns - boyish, charming, intellectual, self-deprecating, funny, the quintessential laid-back Native Californian, a Valley guy and bit of a buttoned-down Bohemian. He’s a very rare combination in the Disney marketplace - a UCI graduate with a degree in Economics, a writer/film maker, a former Imagineer and concept designer, a well-established, big-money artist with a huge Disneyana fan base, an art teacher at the Art Center College of Design, the school from which he graduated who still blushes when you complement his work.

Kim & Rebekah - So, who pitched you the idea?

Eric Robison - "It’s pretty interesting how it morphed… I first was asked by Tony Garrison, I’d shown him some Mickey Mouses I’d done just for fun one day. And he said ‘Hey, can you do 45 of those for the 45th Anniversary of Disneyland?’ And, I said ‘Yeah, sure I could do that.’ So, along comes July whatever-it-was, you know, the anniversary, and no body called… and I’m like, wait a minute, I’ve got 45 of these. ‘You know what, we’re not going to do that, we’ve got a better idea.’ that’s Linda Votaw and Tony Garrison. And Linda called and said, ‘Tony wants to know if you can do a hundred of those for Walt’s 100th birthday?’ And I thought ‘Wow’, I never say no… to anybody, I love to work."

"So, I said, ‘Yeah. I can do that. But, when do you need them?’ ‘Well, you’ve got a year and a half.’ or whatever it was. So I said, ‘Yeah. I’ll do it.’ Yeah, that’s how it happened. Garrison. Tony is really an amazing guy. A visionary. Not just Disney, but art. He loves art and he understands it… great guy for me to work with. It was his idea."

Eric's style is known for his use of bold brushstrokes - but anything from chopsticks to dinner forks can be used.
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K & R - How long did it actually take for you to do the first Mickey?

Eric - "The first one - well, like I said I showed Tony a hand-full of Mickeys, and so, that’s before I even got the gig. And, when he saw those he was inspired. "Hey, can you do some more of these?’ So, to tell you the truth I worked on those before I even got the assignment… I had never really done a Mickey. I did a couple in Florida but I was saving it for something, for some reason."

"I had done one called Kabuki Mickey. It’s actually a hundred Mickey Mouses on that one canvas. I’ve used it as a background for one of the Mickeys in the 100. So, if you look at that one carefully, there’s a lot of little Mickeys there. That was my idea for a hundred Mickeys kind of thought. But, I said, ‘Wait a minute. This could be bigger then that.’ So, I just put a Mickey in front of that one - and that’s one - OK? That ended up being, really, my inspiration for doing a hundred in a crazy way."

MM090 - "Cellar Suspense" - Acrylic on canvas.
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You can see the fork-marks on MM090 "Cellar Suspense". Eric used just about anything he could think of to give each piece some style.
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