R. Eric Disney

Eric Disney, from the time he was a chubby little red-headed boy living in the tiny town of Ft. Thomas, Kentucky, till the present,—the present being a freelance illustrator living in Kansas City, Missouri— has always been interested in drawing , painting—really anything art-related.

Eric attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he received his BFA in Printmaking. He worked at Gibson Greeting Cards in Cincinnati, Ohio for several years right out of college. His youthful wanderlust took over, and for two years he moved to the city of Lyon, France, to work for Young Life [Juenesse Ardente]. Upon returning to the US, he realized that greeting cards were still a passion, and where his artistic abilities seemed to best be suited, and he took a job with Hallmark Cards, Inc. in Kansas City Missouri.

Eric has recently branched out after a long [35 years] career at Hallmark where he was able to put his illustrative, imaginative and whimsical touch on all kinds of products which Hallmark produces. For Eric one of the best things about this time working for Hallmark has been the “education” he received in focusing on the emotional relevancy of the work he was creating—how fortunate, he believes, can one be to have a job that has the potential to touch the hearts and lives of countless people, people that you would probably never even meet???

It is important to Eric, as he embarks on his new life adventure, to carry over that sense of whatever he might be doing with his artwork, that it has the potential to touch, inspire—maybe even have a healing presence—for anyone who might happen to engage with it. The realization, as he has gotten older, that life truly is a journey—with ups, downs and all-arounds, with no one journey being the same as another’s—that has encouraged him to be mindful of the importance of giving back, of “paying it forward.”