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!
Tag: kitty
Annabelle’s Kitty
8″x10″ acrylic, 2012. Nothing makes a toy more irresitable than the magic a parent can work to bring it to life! Annabelle, who turns two next month, has loved this kitty ever since her father imbued it with a frisky, mischievous personality. Annabelle’s mother, Jessica, tells me that Kitty is a great comforter and travel companion — he’s been to Cozamel, Key West, Grand Cayman, and Disney World! Annabelle ends each day by snuggling Kitty to her in bed and telling him, “I love you to the moon and back, Kitty.” As I worked on this portrait, it occured to me that this is only the third commission I’ve ever gotten to paint a stuffed cat, our of nearly 300 toy portraits (excluding paintings of our family’s own toy kitties)… isn’t that odd? I have always thought that cat faces just don’t translate well into stuffed toys. There is always some curve or proportion that gets lost and leaves the toy cat looking sort of pinched and unpleasant. The minimalist perfection of Hello Kitty is an exception to this phenomenon, as is, of course, Annabelle’s Kitty.
Squishy, Take 2
5″x7″ acrylic, 2009. The original version of this painting is hanging in my current exhibit at Uncommon Grounds in Saratoga Springs, but someone purchased it while I was installing the show. He was kind enough to leave it up for the duration. So when another man phoned me expressing dismay that the painting he wanted to buy was marked “sold,” I told him that I still had the Hello Kitty squeeze toy handy and would be happy to paint another from the same motif. The new painting shipped within two days of his order, and he was able to give his Sanrio-crazy daughter-in-law the perfect gift!