«Disney Dreams»

Disney Dreams, original painting

Mickey Mouse first appeared on screen in Steamboat Willie, which premiered on 18 November 1928. On 1 January 2024 that earliest version of him entered the US public domain, and people argued about what that meant. Characters we grew up with feel like shared memory. Legally they are not.

That tension is where this cartoon pop art painting starts.

A young woman presses both hands against her head, purple hair slicked back. One eye is red and the other blue. Her face is cut into horizontal strips that slide out of line, with black bars over her forehead, nose and cheek.

The cartoons live on her body. A mouse in a red polka-dot bow sits on her chest next to a tall dog in a green hat and a blue creature with big ears. A duck peels off a banknote, another has dollar signs for eyes. A fawn, chipmunks, a lion cub, a green one-eyed monster and a mermaid fill her sleeves, and her lapels carry a luxury-style monogram pattern. These are my own paintings of familiar cartoon figures, with no connection to any studio.

The surface is thick and rough, with drips running down her neck. The coloured blocks at the upper left nod to Mondrian's Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow of 1930.

Roy Lichtenstein's Look Mickey, from 1961, was based on an illustration in a children's book about Donald Duck, and he considered it his first pop painting. I wanted to turn that around. In my cartoon pop art, the cartoon is a layer on a grown woman who is coming apart.

This original pop art painting is 120 x 90 cm, oil and acrylic on canvas, made in 2023, from my collection The Artists Are Silent. As contemporary pop art it is loud and dense, statement wall art for a big wall.

Most of my original paintings are already in private collections, but I paint originals to order in any size. To ask about this one, message me on Instagram or by email. A hand-finished lithograph of it also exists, and you can order that the same way.