Attempted Bloggery

Back in 2005, five and a half years before I started this blog, I snapped a few pictures in the Disney Store and enthusiastically posted them on flickr. As it turns out, I did not keep posting on this site for long, but I did show an early (for me) interest in using the Internet to share with the world some of what I happened upon. Now, as Independence Day approaches, I am delighted to be able to recycle these pictures on a site I can call my own. Well, mine and Google's.

Minnie Mouse as the Statue of Liberty
The Disney Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City
December 18, 2005

Torch and Plush Versions of Minnie Mouse as the Statue of Liberty
The Disney Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City
December 18, 2005

More Merchandise Featuring Minnie Mouse as the Statue of Liberty
The Disney Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City
December 18, 2005

Minnie Mouse as the Statue of Liberty
The Disney Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City
December 18, 2005

0794

Well, this is a bit different. The eBay seller of this original unsigned artwork by Paul Degen states that it is a cover proposal for what was eventually The New Yorker's cover of June 9, 1980. In an inspired bit of understatement, the seller's description explains that the "final version was changed slightly."

I'm having a bit of difficulty seeing the relationship of this drawing to the published cover. Yes, both images show nearly unpopulated street scenes, evidently in Lower Manhattan. Both show a street curving off to the right out of sight. Both show small-scale though quite charming apartment buildings set against the distant towers of the New York skyline. Each shows one single parked automobile in approximately the same part of the street. Beyond that, there's not much these two images share. The buildings don't seem to be the same, and the street doesn't seem to be the same. There is little foliage in the sketch, and quite a lot in the published cover.

Still these may indeed be related, if more in concept than in actual location. It must have taken quite a lot of effort to get from this cover proposal, if indeed it is that, to the finished work. I suspect that there may have been a number of intermediate street sketches of this sort as the artist tried to clarify exactly what he wanted to record.