It Was All Started By a Little Mouse: The Cultural Influences of Disney

Today’s article is a guest post by artist Jon Westenberg from Sydney, Australia. Enjoy!

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“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” – Walt Disney

Disney is everywhere!

The iconography of that little mouse with the red shorts and yellow buttons has become relevant to more than just kids. It has a universal appeal that captures the imagination of all age groups, the kid in all of us.  When you spend a little time in the culture and scenes of street art and street wear you begin to see those mouse ears everywhere, from The Hundred’s 2008 direct collaboration with Disney to an endless number of bootlegged unlicensed designs and clever references.

Street Wear T found in Sydney

And it’s something I absolutely love. It’s charming but it keeps a wry sense of humour about it that sums up the playfully cool nature of street wear design.

The significance of Mickey is widely recognized, even itself lampooned. German graffiti artist Tobe, in his illustration of the mouse, brilliantly employs a pop art figure suddenly struck by his significance proclaiming “OMG I’m just a Pop Icon!”

Tobe Mickey Pop Icon Piece

Another artist who effectively and frequently subverts Disney in his work is the Parisian paste-up artist Combo, whose images of serious events, people, and situations are twisted by the addition of Disney’s imagery. His work, like this piece, can be found all over his home city. Combo uses the globally relevant nature of Disney’s art to comment on the violent and darker side of society, in one piece even blending Minnie Mouse with pornographic nudity.

Combo Paris Mickey pop art

That’s not to say there’s no innocence left in Disney. In Japan, Graff artist Suiko has employed Mickey’s look frequently, blending it with his unique and striking style in a way that just seems to celebrate colour and vivid imagery.

Suiko Japanese Graffiti Mickey

It’s not hard to see why these artists and designers would choose to express themselves through the art of Disney. Chatting to the owner of a Sydney based T-shirt store who sported a popular Wu Tang Clan T-shirt with a design of Mickey Mouse’s hands posed in a gang sign, he suggested that the appeal of Mickey in Disney stems from the global nature of street art.

“It’s just universally recognized all over the world…Mickey Mouse, the Disney hands…it’s all through street wear. I guess people just grow up on it and always get drawn to it, and it gives a design an instantly rich layer of pop cultural meaning”.

The Mickey hands are especially popular in designs; apart from the (New York Hip Hop act) Wu Tang Clan, they have been notably used by clothing label Crooks and Castles and by the L.A based artist Slick whose Mickey Mouse LA gang sign hands are one of my favourite Disney influenced pieces of all time.

Slicks Disney Hands

Wu Tang Mickey Hands

This movement in design is something that Disney themselves are obviously aware of. Their own collaborations with a number of street wear brands in the past few years have contributed hugely to the growth of the trend, from their stunning series with US brand The Hundreds, to their collaboration with CLOT. The latter included a series called “Traveling Mickey” in which artists from all over the world (including L.A based tattoo and graffiti artist and illustrator Mr. Cartoon) created their own versions of the distinctive CLOT X Disney three-eyed Mouse vinyl figure which were auctioned off in Pop-up stores.

Clot 3 eyed Mouse

Looking at the wide variety in the pieces that turn up, It’s hard to posit one particular meaning behind the huge body of Disney influenced work. Maybe that’s part of the appeal; Mickey Mouse can be a bit of a blank canvas, a simply designed character that can be modified and redrawn in an endless array of possibilities. Taking his international appeal, every artist makes him their own in a different way.

In the words of a young Graffiti artist I met sketching Mickey in a Sharpie pen while hanging out in an abandoned tram yard here in Sydney ,“The childhood memories that Mickey brings up have always grabbed me. Who doesn’t remember watching Fantasia as a child? I can remember that as being the exact moment that I realized art was more than just drawing. Basically, I think Disney just IS the spirit of creativity.”

As Walt Disney said, a mouse created the Disney legacy. Well, it was the mouse that roared and Mickey’s voice is heard in art and design in print, online and on streets all over the world.

Disney’s own Bloc28 project in fact was created specifically to draw out graffiti and street art interpretations of Mickey, bringing together artists like Slick, Suiko and Greg “Crayola” Simkins to add their vision to Mickey’s heritage. This is an especially impressive idea. It shows an open mind that many creative powerhouses should take note of. For Disney themselves to be so open to interpretation is inspiring. With that kind of support, it doesn’t look like the trend will be slowing down!

Overall, through the art, through every new reading of Walt’s work, I like to think he would have been pleased to see that Tugboat Willie is steaming on.

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Jon Westenberg is an artist and writer from Sydney in the far land of Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Campion College NSW, and has studied design, art and semantics through Griffith University. In his waking hours (of which, thanks to an over active imagination, there are many) he can be found blogging at www.paperandstring.com.au or scouting for new sneakers. His preferred medium is sharpie and lots of blank paper and he collects black and white photos. Often of Elvis.