Guns N Roses

One of my very first paid jobs as an illustrator was in the seventh grade at St. Kevin’s from a classmate I’ve never spoken to. I had a slight reputation as someone who was “somewhat good at art” but there was another superstar artist in my class whose craftsmanship was far superior than mine, which was why I was shocked when Pete approached me with a request to draw the Guns N Roses logo on his binder. He had chosen the blue denim variety to store all of his crinkly looseleaf papers in there instead of the flashier plastic Trapper Keepers so it was entirely doable. Up until that point I was strictly an anime doodle gal but I figured it’s time to broaden my horizon. After all, I had planned to apply for art high schools and I doubted the admissions board would be too impressed by various incarnations of Candy Candy drawn with a ballpoint pen.

Guns N Roses’ debut album cover, Appetite for Destruction, featured a cross, five skulls in elaborate headgear, and banners. My brother was a GNR head so I was very familiar with the image. I remember drawing it on my little desk in my room with a felt tipped pen and then presenting it to Pete the next day. I think he paid me $5 for the lot, not knowing that all these years later, I got to paint the original lineup in doll form. The whole time I was painting this, I listened to their music, which was something I hadn’t done in decades, largely due to the fact that the boys at St. Kevin’s ruined GNR for me. During one of the few talent shows, three boys in my class, only one of which actually knew how to play an instrument (which was a saxophone, but I digress), somehow got their hands on two guitars and a drum kit and proceeded to deafen the ears of everyone sitting in the gymatorium that night with their rendition of “Welcome to the Jungle.” They had turned it up to eleven and kept going. 

Now, years later, I had to appreciate how awesome the band was. These boys unlike the St Kevin’s ones, definitely knew what they were doing. It’s no wonder it took the band 14 years to write one album. 

This one is based on the band’s music video “Estranged” accompanied by a little dolphin.

Wednesday

…and 2024 is off and running. And not in a good way either. We were hit with some serious weather event featuring a devastating storm with a side of a tornado on Christmas night. It was not a silent night but it was certainly biblical. We were without power for several days and I am pretty sure I have PTSD. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if we weren’t also steeped in a heatwave. People were sleeping in tubs and out in their yards it is that hot!

But we’re tough Queenslanders. I complained, yes, but I also gritted my teeth and finished the Wednesday Addams set, which also took an inordinate amount of time to complete due to the lack of them. I had a very pleasant experience with this set despite the heat and the hunt for usable light source.

This set, fresh out of the hit Netflix series, consists of (clockwise from top) Wednesday, Enid her roommate, Hyde, Thing, Marilyn Thornhill, and Principal Weems.

I had a long think about how to paint Thing. In the past, my Addams Family set, I’ve always painted Thing perched on Uncle Fester’s shoulder. After taking down some measurements, I went on a hunt for doll parts and sifted through different sizes of hands as well as moulds (even though I’m not confident enough to use it), I found the perfect one! The Hubs helped create the stand and mounted it for me. Like I always say, team work makes the dream work.

Bjork Expansion Set

I have initially did all I could to discourage the buyer from requesting this set. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Bjork. What teen growing up in the 90s didn’t? Okay, I can name a few. But most people I know LOVED her. But making a Bjork doll, especially in her Alexander McQueen “Who Is It” bell dress is a time consuming process. I was already having a very trying year…several deaths in the family, a trip overseas after having not travelled since the lockdown, and yes, finally contracting Covid not once but twice almost in succession, some unpleasantness here and there that caused multiple disruptions in my life, plus an enormous amount of work stacked up in my to-do pile…I wasn’t sure I would be in the right mindset to make the bell dress. But it turned out to be quite pleasant indeed. After a hectic day, I forced myself to sit down and sew for at least half an hour and that was more therapeutic than anything I could conjure.

For this Bjork set, I’ve used the last of the medium round dolls that I’d been hoarding since they’re hard to come by now. It yielded 5 dolls instead of three so I got to make something I’ve always wanted, and that is Bjork in her quirky swan dress, the one she wore to the Oscars when “Dancer in the Dark” was nominated for Best Music/Original Song. She got a lot of flack for it, but come on, that dress suited her perfectly, wouldn’t you say?

I also added the simple orange dress she wore in “It’s Oh So Quiet.” There were so many options to choose from, but I always blasted “It’s Oh So Quiet” as a warm up when I was teaching dance. That, and the very inappropriate “I’m Just a Gigolo” (the David Lee Roth version). The video was so much fun to watch as well.

Clockwise from left to right: “Wanderlust” “Who is It” “Oscar Dress” “It’s Oh So Quiet” “Venus as a Boy.”

The poor buyer had to wait for nearly a year for this set to come to fruition. Not only was she gracious about it, but understanding and extraordinarily patient–something I will eternally be grateful to her for.

Creature Feature

My parents, bless their hearts, decided on a whim to yank me out of the public school system and plonk me smack dab in the middle of a nearby Catholic school I didn’t even know existed for sixth grade. My grade had about 52 students in all and they’d all been together since kindergarten. I was the proverbial interloper, the new kid on the block, the fish out of water. Recess was spent sitting against the chain linked fence and lunch was eaten alone for the first few months (until I became best friends with another girl who was introduced to me mostly because we both shared the same first name). The kids weren’t mean to me…they were friendly, and I am still grateful for that fact. But I was still the odd kid out due to the fact I had no shared history with any of them. 

I don’t remember how it came about, but I managed to secure a position as a library helper with the ancient and crotchety Sister Majella so I had a place to hang out during recess. On my first day on the job, she directed me to the horror section (how did she know?!) and I was to get rid of all the grubby fingerprints on the books with a damp towel. The first book I pulled out was a children’s version of Frankenstein, supplemented by still photography from the 1931 production. I flipped through the book, fascinated by the pictures. The next one from the same series was Dracula, then Bride of Frankenstein, followed by The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Every day I’d go back and thumb through the rest of the collection. The Mummy! Phantom of the Opera! The Wolfman! The Invisible Man! Those were popular books and were frequently missing from the shelves. That meant they were also almost always in the return bin, and my job was to return them to the shelves, thus affording me plenty of opportunity to look at the photos over and over. 

My formative years were spent watching old Japanese monster movies with my brother on Saturday afternoons, of which I was very familiar with. But I knew nothing of the old Hollywood horror genre and was anxious to get into it. The idea for this set came about a long time ago, but I had a hard time trying to figure out the sequencing. Who should be the first doll? Who should go last? Over the last few years I’d been making Shake ‘Em Out sets and this finally made it to the top of the list. I started painting this set in my spare time in February and was relieved that it was finished shortly before Halloween, which is perfect timing.

Clockwise from top: The Invisible Man, Frankenstein’s Monster, Gillman, the Phantom, Bride of Frankenstein, Count Dracula, Imhotep, and Larry Talbot as The Wolfman.

Happy Halloween!

Masha and the Bear

When I returned to NYC several years ago, I met my aunt for breakfast and, over a delightful pastrami omelet, she told me the truth of our lineage. The revelation wasn’t a complete shock, but it was still pretty astounding. I had thought all my life that I had only about an eighth of Russian blood coursing through me since my maternal grandmother was only half Russian. But some documents had come into light in the recent years and it stated emphatically that Grandma was full white Russian.

Well! I’d spent a majority of my life trying to unravel the mystery that is my hair. It is not the lovely pane of smooth black tresses that one usually associates with Asians, but a cloud of spiral curls prone to frizz and reacts poorly to humidity. Over the years I have experimented with a combination of anti-frizz unguents, balm, creams, emollients, lotions, sprays and creams will keep it from appearing as though it is defying gravity, and it was a long and grim process. I also wondered about the general state of my decidedly not-so-Asian countenance from time to time, something a sharp eyed Asian will observe straight away and informed me of my “foreignness” with an occasional air of accusation as though I had a direct hand in procuring.

As there were still doubts about Grandma’s true origin, I sent a DNA kit to my family and they proceeded to test her. What came back boggled the mind. The accompanying map bore the myriad countries of her ancestry. It speckled clear across Eastern and Northern Europe with a few splotches in Australasia, thus determining that she has no Asian in her whatsoever. Yes, of course I’ve seen photos of her when she was younger, but we thought her green eyes and her prominent western nose were possibly results of her dominant Russian genes. The fact that she went through great lengths insisting that she had Japanese ancestry in her had to do with her adoptive parents asking her to do so in order to protect her from being executed by the Bolsheviks, which is another story onto itself.

This discovery justifies my eventual evolution from simple 2-D illustration to something as niche as painting Russian dolls. Maybe deep down in my subconscious I knew. I am truly doing the work of my ancestors…although I have to admit I have never once painted a traditional matryoshka set–identical women in babushkas festooned with flowers.

I thought it was a fun coincidence that shortly after Grandma’s passing I was asked to paint characters from a Russian children’s program called Masha and the Bear, and Masha herself wears a babushka. It’s probably as close to a traditional matryoshka set as I’ll ever paint!

This set features Bear, She-Bear, Masha, the Wolves who live in an old UAZ ambulance car, and Rosie the Pig who is often forced to dress as a baby.

Grandma passed away a few months earlier from a prolonged bout in a twilight state so we are grateful that she has moved on to a better place. Her life was like an epic film filled with war and peace and drama and intrigue and romance and hardship. But she was gentle and kind and extremely sweet with so much determination packed into her tiny frame that was nothing short of impressive. She also passed her gifts onto her children and grandchildren. There are star athletes in our clan, brilliant musicians, dancers, writers, and artists, gardeners, crafters, and chefs. I am grateful that I have managed to receive at least one of these gifts and I consider it a solid tether between Grandma and me.

Rest in peace, Tatjana Vladimira Zolotuhina (1924-2023)

Frasier

It’d never been my intention to paint the cast of Frasier, but the opportunity arose and I took it and ran with it. This is for an art show/viewing party dedicated to the popular 90s series.

I was left to my own devices for this set so I painted the core characters: Roz Doyle, Daphne Moon, Niles Crane, Martin Crane, Eddie, and of course, the doctor Frasier Crane.

I’ve also chosen to make a “shake ’em out” set for this one due to tight time constraints. The best part about this project is that during the rumination period, I decided I needed a pair of headphones to go with it. As I have no idea how to make one that will stay on Frasier’s head and be easily removable, I turned to my unpaid intern (husband) with a rough idea involving magnets and he happily worked one out for me.

He designed the headphones and made it on his 3D printer and I made a very terrible version of it using a rubber sheet and a piece of plastic (not pictured) for the strap. He sighed when he saw it and took over the entire project and came up with (pictured) a much more glorious version where magnets were embedded into Frasier’s ears and the headphones themselves so they could be clipped on and off with ease and efficiency.

Thank you Jacob for this opportunity! I had the best time binge watching the reruns whilst looking forward to the reboot and thinking back to my old uni days were I’d work on my art projects on the bedroom floor in front of the tiny TV (complete with rabbit ear antennas) and watching the first run episodes of this delightful sitcom.

To get the full story behind this massive collaborative project or to participate in it either as a viewer, an animator or a contributor, check them out!

https://ourfrasierremake.framer.website/

The Queen of Pop

This one has been on top of my mile long wish list for so long I was going to file it away under: “Sets to paint after retirement.” Fortunately, a request came with no time constraints and I was able to carefully knock this one out over a few months, a luxury I don’t usually have. 

Once the dust cleared after a chain of trying events that could only be described as biblical in my personal life, I was able to sit down and put the final touches on this set. It was really cathartic, painting this set. I grew up when Madonna was in her ultimate prime, seemingly churning one album out after another at breakneck speed. This was also when MTV also played actual music videos so I was treated to a feast of Madonna while cranking out art projects for school in my parents’ basement. She was the ultimate boss lady and she inspired me to get myself out of this well of despair that’s plagued me for most of this year.

The largest is the famous Jean Paul Gaultier coned bra outfit for her Blond Ambition tour and the iconic high pony. Then follows the stark ensemble for her Madam X look with a pop of red. The last features her in that cute pixie cut that I, too have rocked from time to time for most of my childhood, the 90s, and early aughts.

The Wedding Party

Every now and then I’m asked to paint the entire cast of a TV show or movie, but never for “real people” This set features an entire wedding party of a dear customer of mine. The idea was proposed early on this year, but due to some unforeseen circumstances involving a spur of the moment trip overseas to visit my mom, a handful of projects to crank out, a bout of ill health, and some devastating news and events from cherished family members, I only managed to finish this set a mere 2 hours before it was due to be picked up. I really have no excuse to not finish this set in time since I had months to work on, so I shouldn’t be proud of myself for actually finishing it at all…but I am. I want to thank my cat for keeping me on task. The boy, who desperately wants to be fed, makes sure I don’t oversleep and thus I managed to stay on course.

The main doll is enormous, to reflect the work of a doll maker who had created the one my doll was modelled after.

The rest of the wedding party:

This also includes the three grown children who were obviously not in the wedding party but why not?

Happy wedding anniversary, Mark and Kat!

Way of the Samurai (Revised)

It’s not often I get to take a holiday but when I do, it’s usually to visit families. Fortunately for me, my family lives in places where it’s known for its food so I can’t complain.

This time round, I went to see my mother in Taiwan, where she is meant to spend a few months. While I was there, I reconnected with an old kindergarten friend. We actually saw each other again while we were in college but that was a LONG time ago. In any case, she purchased an old set of dolls I painted over a decade ago because she’s a wonderful and supportive friend, but I could not in good conscience send her something when I know I can do a better job of.

The Samurai set had always been one of my favourite to paint, but I never got a chance to do it again…until now.

The previous version.

The new version.

I hadn’t meant to paint a cat as one of the samurais, but her cat is incredibly photogenic and adorable that it’s a no brainer. As long as there was an animal motif going on, I decided one of the masks should also reflect the theme. The “hair” on the main samurai is meant to be a lion’s mane. I’m pleased with the outcome although it took far longer for me to paint this set than anticipated.

I’d made a banner for the original set and decided to give it another go with this one and had a great time working it out with minimal failure rate!

We Go Together (like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong)

It took a shockingly long time for me to get started on this Grease set. It seemed simple enough: A few core characters from the musical painted in pattern-free outfits. Simple pimple. But the first doll was what tripped me up. The first doll is the Greased Lightning. A car. I didn’t say no because Grease and the Greased Ligtnin’ go together. It’s like painting a set of Christine without Christine the car, right? I’ve seen some insanely creative matryoshka sets that are just cars, but I’ve never been interested in just outright painting a doll as a car. No, it had to be an actual car or else. And that is the part where I complicated things even further.

I’m no carpenter, so I had to dig an old art school friend out from the woodworks (see what I did there?) and enlist his help with just what sort of wood would work on this one. He’s a master with a jig saw, a tool I’m pretty sure I A) cannot find in my garage and B) that I will lose a thumb if I attempt to use one. First things first though. I measured up the dolls and looked around for suitable types of wood before settling on the two I know I could comfortably work with. Then I made some patterns and passed them off to my unpaid intern (husband). This turned out to be a stroke of genius because it turned into HIS project. He’s one of those guys who needs everything to be Exactly Right, unlike me, who would often allow a millimeter to slide here and there. He introduced me to types of glue I didn’t even know existed and sawed and hammered and even designed and 3D printed some fairly important elements like the wheels and the windscreen and even the headlights. I had in my mind some wonky looking wheels I was going to cut out of foam but these are even better!

While the car that I have outsourced was being made, I focused on the more traditional aspects of this set.

(Clockwise from top) John Travolta as Danny Zuko, Jeff Conaway as Kinickie Murdoch, Didi Conn as Frenchie, Stockard Channing as Rizzo and of course, Queen Olivia Newton John as Good Sandy.

The painting of the car took two nights. I had to put down several layers of white paint and create templates for the lightning bolts because if you, and I learned this from experience, attempt to put white on top of red, the red will always reign supreme and seep into the white and that’s when the crying begins. So the bolts had to be taped down and cut out first. Then the four layers of red, three of them different shades, were put down. A few harrowing hours were spent taking the tape off the bolts and cleaning them up. When all the external bits were glued on and everything was dry, I was able to put the entire set together for the first time!

In the seventh grade the popular kids in my grade got together and performed “We Go Together” for the school talent show, complete with appropriate costumes. This was rather sweet, except they went on right before the school band (me included in the flute section), where the horns section decided to empty their spit valves right after they tooted out the last note of “Little Brown Jug.” I still cringe every time I think of my classmates having to put their hands on the damp stage floor during one of the maneuvers. And get this, two of the boys in the performance also contributed to the spit-a-rama.