8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. These are the favorite toys of Paul, an old friend of mine and an ADULT! I’m extremely psyched to be asked to paint time-tested toys that have hung around so long that they have come to subtley exude their owners’ style and character. Trust me, this Grover does just that. Also, I’m pleased to get to paint a classic Sesame Street personality after recently tackling nkotb Abby Cadabby!
Tag: grown folks
8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. Now that’s what I’m talking about! This thing, whatever it once was (a monkey?), has been loved to pieces! It is the childhood toy of Logan, husband of Melissa. Click The Work Lion
8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. Certain people tend to anthropomorphize stuffed animals more than others, and those people are sometimes adults — adults who might happen to be married to me. And other people with the same tendencies might happen to be employed by my husband. And so a bizarro transaction took place involving this lion. Said employee had two identical lions. One was at home, and the other she kept at work because if they were together they “might fight.” Greg was concerned that some harm would come to the “work lion” if left there, and so he convinced the lion’s owner that he would give it a good life in the care of our Sonja. So far the poor lion has been working long hours modeling in my studio, but I think now I will set it free in the wilds of the nursery.
Hubert
8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. Hubert has been with me since I was a baby. He is about 2 feet tall and used to sport a black pince-nez. To say that he’s seen better days is an understatement — he’s kind of too dirty to cuddle, but is still awesome and might just continue to pose in the corner of my studio like this to keep me company.
an early toy portrait
29″x40″, oil on canvas 1996. I did lots of self-portraits in college and grad school because I was always available to model! Here’s one from 1996, and obviously even then I could not resist painting my stuffed animals. This picture features Tigger and a lion called Hubert — he was a give-away at a bank where my mom opened an account when I was a baby. Note the sweet mid-century modern furniture, which unfortunately did not belong to me but was fun to paint.
Crinkle Bee/Peter Rabbit
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8×10″, acrylic on canvas, 2009. Our baby-shower gift registry had one general preference listed: NO PINK! Yeah, that did not last past the first “Oh, he’s adorable!” And besides, no-one listened. One shower gift that we recieved that I almost threw in the trash in horror was this pink bee with crinkley wings. It had hard, lumpy, squeeze-activated, whiney music player that made me want to jump out a window. My mother covertly removed the music tumor, re-sewed its belly, and put in the hands of Sonja who of course LOVED it. Oh, well. In this portrait it is paired with my husband’s adorable childhood Peter Rabbit in order to balance good and evil.
This painting arrives wired for hanging and framed simply in pine.
$140 plus $7 shipping