What inspired Wayne Thiebaud?
Thiebaud’s style and choice of subject matter were inspired by what he was, who he was, and shaped by his education, and how he grew up. Raised Mormon and working his first job form Walt Disney provided him with core values of hard work, perseverance, and preference for choosing a realistic style painting subject matter that serve to bring back fond personal memories from the past. He had mentors, like Allen Stone, who modeled humility, encouraged his sense of humor and his dedication to hard work in the pursuit of artistic excellence. Thiebaud was born to Mormon parents in Mesa, Arizona, U.S.A.. His family moved to Long Beach, California when he was six months old. One summer during his high school years he apprenticed at the Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Studio making ‘in-betweeners’ of Goofy, Pinocchio, and Jimminy Cricket making $14 a week. The next summer he studied at the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles. From 1938 to 1949, he worked as a cartoonist and designer in Ca
