Be sure to join us at the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery on Sunday, June 5 for a rare public appearance by legendary Seattle cartoonist Shary Flenniken. Counterculture Comics and the Semiotics of Disney Icons will attempt to clear the apocryphal haze from one of pop culture’s most intriguing episodes. Flenniken was a central figure in the Air Pirates comix collective. After meeting at a rock festival near Seattle in 1970, the group took up residence in a prop warehouse owned by Francis Ford Coppola in San Francisco’s Mission District. They created a sensation by appropriating Walt Disney’s signature characters as rendered by Floyd Gottfredson, only in a decidedly different context. The years of litigation that followed helped define the parameters of parody for decades to come. Flenniken went on to publish her wonderful Trots and Bonnie strip in National Lampoon, and later became an editor at the magazine. The artist will engage in conversation with bookstore curator Larry Reid and give a slide show on her work before conducting drawing exercises employing Disney motifs. This event complements the Henry’s current exhibition of monumental sculpture by Paul McCarthy inspired by Walt Disney’s Snow White feature, which was in turn an interpretation of medieval folklore.
If you have yet to view the current exhibition of original art by Simon Hanselmann at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, this Saturday provides a great opportunity as the Georgetown Art Attack presents colorful contemporary art throughout the historic district. The bookstore is located at 1201 S. Vale Street at the corner of Airport way S., only minutes from downtown Seattle. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206-658-0110. See you all soon.