6″x8″ acrylic on cardboard, 2013. This little Peter Rabbit from Eden Toys belonged to my husband when he was a child, and I have always considered it to be an absolutely perfect example of proportion and design in the realm of stuffed toys. Even though I’m somewhat desensitized to the charms of most stuffed animals these days, I still find this bunny to be completely adorable from every angle! I’ve even painted him twice… the first time was in 2009, when I was cobbling together my toy portrait business. Looking at the two portraits together, I’m struck by how my style has evolved over the course of nearly 400 paintings! 
Tag: vintage
Boop
8″x10″ acrylic, 2013.
Believe it or not, the nose on this classic stuffed Snoopy was intact when he was discovered in a collection of donated toys at a public library ONE YEAR AGO. It was loved off by Isaiah, three-year-old son of the formidable and hilarious Twitter and Instagram presence Michael, aka @DadBeard. The Snoopy, known as “Boop,” was in fact a replacement for the one Michael was given as a baby. Michael has four children, and he had passed down the original Boop to Isaiah, the elder of his two boys. Isaiah adored it and would tweak its nose to relax. When Boop was lost at a park, the family somehow stumbled upon an exact replacement at their library in Houston. When the new, equally beloved Boop’s nose was ultimately tweaked off, Isaiah moved on to scratching at the fur, resulting in the threadbare patch you see here. I hope this particular Snoopy will hold together for the next generation! If you participate in Twitter or Instagram, I highly recommend following @dadbeard and his family’s funny, quirky, and touching journey. Here’s Michael’s photo of Isaiah, Boop, and the portrait…
Adam’s Family
8″x10″ acrylic, 2012. For this custom family portrait, Adam had to decide which vintage Fisher-Price Little People best represent his family. So that’s Adam’s oldest son, Dean, in the front with the baseball cap, and his strawberry-blonde son, Jon, on the right. But Adam figured that his wife, Jen, most resembled a little freckle-faced girl Little Person he’d seen in a photo I’d sent him. “I’m informed that’s a kid,” he wrote me, “so perhaps you could put freckles on a brown-haired woman?” I love a modification challenge! The classic “mom” features and the cheery freckles combined nicely. And for Adam himself? “Non-descript dude (classic green-bodied ‘dad’) works for me!” The portrait will be a Christmas gift from Adam to Jen.
Jolene’s Little People Family Portrait
20″x24″ acrylic, 2012. You read that right — this painting of tiny little toys is quite huge! In fact, their scale is enlarged about 500%, according to my math-inclined husband. I’ve been taking some liberties with colors and style within the general design of the classic Little People to more closely represent the members of the family members in these custom vintage Fisher-Price family portraits . In this case, Jolene, who found me on Etsy, has been given a brownish head of hair that (as far as I can find) was not actually made in combination with a red dress. Jolene is planning her nursery decor for her baby twin girls, who will be born in December. Initially, she wanted to order a large print of my classic Little People trio painting, but loved the idea of having a piece specifically representing her family (and their dog, Rex!) I absolutely love the tension in scale of this painting — I never would have thought to paint such small figures so large, and the effect is amazing! Great idea, Jolene!
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.
Hot Wheels GTO Wagon
5″x7″ acrylic, 2012. What would you call the color of this Hot Wheels Classic Series 1966 GTO Wagon? “Spectraflame Blue,” of course! Jessica commissioned this painting as a gift for her husband, who collects Hot Wheels — this is one of his very favorites. Jessica, who found me through etsy, previously had me paint the Bert and Ernie Fisher Price Little People for her son. Their family has admirable taste in classic toys! Jessica herself produces sweet handmade stuffed dolls and toys for her own etsy shop… future classics, perhaps?
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. 
<
Ernie and Bert Little People
5″x7″ acrylic, 2012. You really can’t pack any more vintage, classic goodness into a toy than you will find in a Fisher-Price Little People Sesame Street figure! This painting of the Ernie and Bert Little People is for 22-month-old Andy, whose mother Jessica found me on Etsy. Jessica has gone out of her way to stock Andy’s toybox with vintage items wherever it seems that the modern incarnation is inferior in terms of design and craftsmanship (almost everywhere!) Andy is obsessed with Ernie and Bert and particularly loves the Little People versions of them. Jessica notes that there these two guys are some of the least annoying tv characters that a child could latch on to, so she considers herself very lucky!