Ghosts Of Old Friends ( Lost and Found, No. 16 )

                                                    An original mixed-media, on illustration board

                                                    3.5x5" unframed, (mat size, 8.5x10")

                                                    $65.00, (plus $7.00, pack and ship)

     This one was a more surrealistic, second version of a previously posted piece 

called Old Forgotten Friends (Lost and Found, No. 15).  In this version, I played

around with creating shadows which couldn't exist but are perhaps visually intriguing.

The Surrealists, such as Dali and Magritte, were famous for creating impossibly 

long or exaggerated shadows in their work, which they sometimes used to describe 

contours of land or walls, for example.  But in the case of this little painting, it is the 

central shadow of Mickey Mouse which could not exist, because he was only a 

two-dimensional, cover-illustration on the front of the little, children's card-game box.  

So.any actual shadow would have been that of the box, rather than that of the spirit 

of Mickey.  

     Disney himself was fond of using shadows for great effect, particularly in his more

spooky or eerie animations.  The one which comes to mind is the sorcerer's apprentice

section, of his Fantasia film, in which Mickey borrows his master's magic wand, as well 

as some enchanted spells, without knowing how to control the power he unleashes.  

This of course, ends in disaster, with hundreds of marching brooms, and hundreds of

monstrous, marching shadows accompanying all, including Mickey.

     Back in the days when that film was being made, Mickey was three-dimensional

only in the minds of his animators.  They would have been amazed to see the great

dimensions which Mickey would eventually achieve, in the world of business and

entertainment, and the long shadow he would cast..  Mickey was truly the mouse 

that built an empire.