July 3: Compliment Your Mirror Day

As the fourth of July neared my excitement grew. What a theme for a post! It was just a matter of finding the perfect patriotic pin-up. With over 500 magazine covers, countless advertising illustrations and other works you'd think the only difficulty would be picking out the best example. But try as I might nothing came even close. No girls straddling sky rockets, no flappers in Uncle Sam garb, no WW-I posters. It almost seemed that Bolles had made a conscious decision not only to avoid any art linked to the Fourth of July, but with any overtly patriotic theme.
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It's possible that this absence was simply a matter of timing. Bolles was not among the rank of illustrators who would have been invited to participate in the civilian preparedness campaigns that J.M. Flagg and other artists figured so prominently in. And his career was coming to an end just as the WW-II pin-up became codified by Alberto Vargas.
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So as a fall-back we will be celebrating Complement Your Mirror Day, and in this case I have far more than enough material (don't forget the great Gay Book cover with a mirror theme that was recently featured). Perhaps another day we can reflect on the symbolism of using mirrors as a prop, but for now it's enough to ponder the meaning behind this improbable celebration.