Book Description

This stunning, colorful, and vastly diverse art collection showcases 100 paintings of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by contemporary pop artist Tennessee Loveless. Explore Tennessee's fascinating methodology: a story about the power of art, overcoming obstacles, and following your dreams. When he was growing up in the southern United States, Tennessee Loveless didn't know that he was so different from other children in his grade school class. Then one day, he and his classmates were asked to choose a purple object in the room. Everyone else seemed to find this an easy task, while Tennessee slumped down, paralyzed with fear. He couldn't do it. His teacher picked him up, at which point he started crying. Tennessee's parents were called; tests were done; and Tennessee was diagnosed with limited achromatopsia, which is the state of being almost completely color-blind. Tennessee's inability to distinguish most hues has, if anything, made him obsessed with the formation of patterns, objects, and shapes. Early on, he became attracted to the destruction of white space and captivated with the idea of filling in anything lacking in form with a pattern. Later, he learned in color-theory books what hues complemented or contrasted each other appropriately and went on to develop his own numerically based color indexing system. In creating his Mickey Mouse art collection, Tennessee uses bold colors and patterns to evoke an immediate visual impact. He is driven by his passion for painting people, iconic images, and his own visual iconography in a way that strikes an emotional and nostalgic connection through command over the one thing he is blind to: color.