Art Unboxed Mickey Mouse?

In our Art Unboxed articles, we normally look at tools and techniques to improve our art. Today, I would like to talk to you briefly about a different way of seeing your art. As an example, I’d like to offer my pencil sketch of Mickey Mouse, and talk about another sketch of him.

Between three and five million dollars, that was an estimate in 1995 for the first drawings of Mickey Mouse, which was almost thirty years ago now. If you valued it against the whole worth of the Disney company, my guess is, it would be worth a lot more. More importantly than the money I’m sure, to Walt Disney, was the opportunity to care for his family.

Today we tend to think of the Disney Empire as a corporation or conglomerate, which it is today, but it started out as a man with an idea. His ideas excited him, but in a very real way, he had felt the impact of finances on a family. I mention this not only as an artist, but as a husband and a father. The value of our art, isn’t only how much it can make in dollars, but as a vehicle for our families.

We don’t know much, if anything about what a number of artists from the 1500’s thought, but we have their pictures. Their families have something that can not only be handed down physically, but they can see what they saw. For some, art provided for their families as a means of learning as well.

For example, I know from my Mom that my Great Grandmother Shelton could draw anything she saw. I have a copy of a drawing that she did before I was ever born. I don’t know much about her, but I understand that for me, art goes back generations.

What you draw, paint, or write, may or may not make a fortune, but it can supply some very important things for your family. I hope that you take a look at your art in a new way today, as a gift you can give those you love.