8×10 acrylic on cardboard, 2012. These two are long-time V.I.P. toys in our house, and this is my fourth portait of them! The first two versions were puchased off the walls of exhibits, and the third was commissioned by someone who had seen the second but didn’t get to it before it sold. My husband and I originally bought the foot-tall Hamtaro in 2004 as a sort of mascot for his Toyota Matrix, which we called “The Hamster.” We bought the little Totoro for Sonja, hoping she would love the movie as much as we do (and she does!) I got myToulouse Lautrec on with this portrait, which is painted on a piece of cardboard that has been calling to me from the back of one of Sonja’s activity books for weeks!