8″x12″ acrylic on fiberboard, 2013. Like most of us, I wear many different hats. One of my other “hats” is actually a pair of headphones, as I’ve worked as a dj playing house music in clubs and at raves for the past 14 years. Consequently, I have a default fondness for the turntable motif (despite the fact that actual turntables are practically obsolete in modern clubs!) I’m very fortunate that my mother saved some of best 1970s Fisher-Price toys, including this classic wind-up record player. Can’t you just hear “Edelweiss” and “Camptown Races?” I couldn’t resist painting a pair of them side-by-side as a wink at my “other job.”
Tag: cardboard
Wind-Up Hello Kitty
5″x6″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. A couple of years ago, whenever then-two-year-old Sonja was asked what she wanted for Christmas, she would only answer “A wind-up kitty.” My husband, who loves an internet hunt, ordered an assortment of waddling, jumping, and spinning cats. Sonja did not actually show much interest in any of them when she found mechanical kitties under the tree… I suspect that, to Sonja, a “wind-up kitty” sort of represented a Victorian, classic idea of what children recieved as gifts in books such as “The Night Before Christmas!” In the years since, we’ve gathered quite a collection of wind-up toys and have fun staging races and parades. This Hello Kitty is one of our favorites. Check out my wind-up monkey portrait here!
Wind-Up Monkey
7″x8″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. This cymbal-crashing monkey regularly leads a parade around our house… he is followed by wind-up robots, waddling chickens, swirling teacups, disembodied walking heads, and countless cats which showed up the year Sonja decided all she wanted for Christmas was “a wind-up kitty.” He’s always seemed pretty innocuous to me, but, upon seeing this painting, a friend just reminded me of the menacing monkey from Toy Story 3 and it’s sort of hard for me to look at him the same way! This portrait is currently featured in my exhibit at Uncommon Grounds in Albany.
Luke and Leia Legos
8″x10″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. When Star Wars meets Lego, it’s just impossibly, deliciously nerdy. While I was painting my Luke and Leia 1970’s action figures a couple of weeks ago, I kept giving these two the side-eye… they belong to my husband Greg, of course, who has all manner of plastic geekery on hand. This will hang next to its action figure counterpart in my current show at Uncommon Grounds . The show is selling well, so I’m busily painting new pieces to re-stock! Click here to see my portrait of a Lego Boba Fett.
Donatello, Ninja Turtle
9″x10″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. Another classic toy for an upcoming exhibit… this 1990 Donatello Ninja Turtle features a hinged storage shell for his tiny ninja throwing stars, fish knife, “killer pizza,” and shark-fin hatchet. He also comes equipped with two bos. My husband had several Ninja Turtle toys as a child, but explained to me that some of the turt;es in his collection were been produced with the wrong coloring. He assures me that this guy has all the correct details. Greg has proven to have a bottomless supply of material for me in the way of plastic toys!
Leia and Luke
8″x10″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. I have a couple of exhibits to stock this summer, so I’m taking a break from commissions to paint some classic toys. I was seven in 1977, so you know I was IMMERSED in Star Wars mania! I often wore my hair in side-buns and played Pin The Blaster on Luke at my birthday party that year. These Luke and Leia action figures were some of my most-played-with toys in those days. I’ve selectively depicted wear-and-tear in this portrait: Luke’s light saber is shown in it’s broken-off state, but I’ve “photoshopped” my cat’s bite marks off of Leia’s face!
Blaster
8″x10″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. This particular “Blaster” Transformers toy has quite the tale to tell! For the sake of context, I’ll explain that I’ve been a house music dj since 1995, and it was in this realm that I met my husband Greg, another dj. In the heyday of the Albany “rave scene,” there was a fantastic record store (remember those?) on Lark Street called Audio Underground, which was run by our local techno godfather, DJ Dames. AU was the heart of the circle of creative and interesting people who were involved in the music at the time… everyone gathered there to enjoy each other’s company, talk shop, and fight for tracks when a new shipment came in! A glass case at the counter held all our mixtapes for sale, and Greg contributed his vintage boom-box Blaster Transformer to the display. In April of 2001, a fire struck the building which housed the store. Most everything in it was destroyed and it marked the end of an era. Years later, a friend who’d had a hand in sifting through the wreckage returned the sooty, scuffed toy to Greg — it had survived! Here’s a (terrible photo of a) huge painting I made in 1997 which includes many local djs and scenesters, and perhaps conveys the Audio Underground vibe that meant so much to us. 
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Asa
6″x8″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. This painting, the second of two portrait gifts for Kathleen from Paul, features their three-year-old son Asa. I have experienced Asa’s ardor for trucks and trains first-hand, as Asa and Sonja sometimes get to play together. He imbues them with vigorous, joyful personalities, and expresses his deepest good will by offering his favorites to his playmates to borrow. It was such a pleasure to paint his sweet, striking face, which in person is incredibly animated — Paul tells me that it was nearly impossible to get him to be still long enough for a decent photo! Here are my recent portraits of Sonja and Asa side-by-side:
My Little Pegasus
5″x7″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. A collection of portraits of classic toys would not be complete without a My Little Pony! Between commissions, I’m building up a body of toy paintings for an upcoming August exhibit. This tiny Pegasus came from our amazing local thrift store, which had a whole basket of Little Ponies. Judging from my daughter’s delight and immediate confiscation of my “model,” we will be going back for more!
Fisher Price Family
6″x8″ acryic on cardboard, 2012. Here’s a symbolic portrait of our family, each of us represented by a vintage Fisher-Price Little Person. My husband’s incredibly sentimental response to the piece was, of course, “Where’s my hair?” If you’d like a Little People portrait of your own family, please be in touch!