12″x12″ acrylic, 2010. A fun challenge from Wendy, who commissioned a portrait of her daughter Lilly together with her recently lost favorite stuffed toy! Poor Lilly and Froggy O’Froggy had been inseparable ever since she was born. Froggy is a variation on the very popular blanket/head theme in contemporary stuffed animals, but this is the first one I’ve encountered that consists of a whole animal holding a blanket in his hands — very clever and cute! Very thoughtful of Wendy to immortalize and commemorate Froggy for Lilly in this way… but I hope he turns up!
Category: Blanket-Heads!
It’s a blanket…with a head!
Freckles
11″x14″ acrylic, 2010. Freckles, a fine example of the genius amalgam of stuffed toy and security blanket, belongs to 2-yr-old Nadia. Her mother Jessica bought it for Nadia when she was too tiny to appreciate him, but she now turns to Freckles when sad, scared, or sleepy. Jessica says that when Nadia started daycare, Freckles made the transition easier (for both of them) with his presence as a familiar friend.
Bunny, Bunny, Quack Quack, and Mr. Elephant
11″x14″ acrylic, 2010. Sharon has 3 children with four favorite toys between them. There are two “Bunnies,” the largest belonging to five-year-old Luke. The second “Bunny” and “Quack Quack” are three-year-old Lilah’s blanket animals. “Mr. Elephant” belongs to 8-month-old Daniel. Sharon commissioned this portrait of the entire group to hang in her own bedroom! I love this idea — it’s like a sort of symbolic, metaphorical portrait of her children.
Dottie
8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. Ahh, another filet-o-stuffed animal blanket! I am beginning to feel like a neglectful parent since my own child does not have one of these things… they clearly inspire passionate devotion in those lucky children who possess them. Here is Dottie, a cute duck/blanket belonging to Avery, draped luxuriously over a cushion. See portraits of other blanket/animals here, here, and here.
Nora’s Bunny
8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. Three-year-old Nora and her brother Thomas, two, are my daughter Sonja’s first real playmates. They are the grandchildren of our friends across the street and we all end up hanging out on their porch almost daily. While I was working on this painting there were a few occasions in which the party moved into our living room. Nora’s grandma would point to the easel and say, “Nora, look what Sonja’s Mommy is painting! Who is that?” And Nora would shout, “BUNNYYYYY!” So I’m going to assume that in fact that is its name: Bunny. Oh, and my name is now Sonja’s Mommy. As in, “Um, Sonja’s Mommy, can Sonja come play in Papa’s pickup truck with us?” (No.)
Ned
8″x10″ acrylic on canvas, 2009. So this blanket-with-a-head trend is no joke! I would say that a majority of my recent work has been centered around intensely beloved blanket animals. So far the variations on this theme that I’ve encountered have included: Head at one corner, no arms; head in the center, no arms, and head at the center, arms. In this painting we have Ned, a blue blanket with a very cute white bear head (no arms) in its center and a matching blue sleeping cap. He belongs to six year old Henry, whose affection has worn Ned into a state of obvious contentment.
Dog and Duck Blankies
8″x10″ acrylic on canvas, 2009. Lily’s very clever mom had back-ups of these two, so she was able to send me the actual stuffed animals to paint from! It was a challenging project for a couple of reasons. First, these are tiny stuffed heads attached to what are essentially fileted flying squirrel. Continue reading “Dog and Duck Blankies”
