Serenity Now!

These past few months has been just awful for my mental state. Not only are the council workers right out in front of the house, digging up huge holes and literally pounding the pavement six days a week from 6 AM on, but there’s also construction going on across the street where an enthusiastic band of tradies delights in operating the loudest equipment they can find from sunrise to sunset. I don’t have to tell you what the sound of the backhoe backing up each morning can do to one’s meridian.

In cases like this, it’s time to call on the Om Faery and let her wield her magic on me!

As soon as she made her appearance, I was told that the council is going to be done wrecking my street in two weeks’ time! Until then…

Ommmmm….

Let’s Do the Time Warp Again!

I’m only going to do one Halloweeny set this year…that is, in time for Halloween anyway. The first Halloweeny thing that popped into my head was Dr. Frank-n-Furter and his cohorts in…

The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

Dr. Frank-n-Furter, the Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania.

Riff Raff the handyman.

Magenta, a domestic.

Columbia, a groupie.

Rocky Horror, a creation.

The movie was great fun. Can you believe I never went to a midnight showing? However, I did manage to catch the live show at the Circle in the Square Theater in 2000 with a most fantastic cast…featuring Dick Cavett as the Criminologist, Lea Delaria as Eddie and Joan Jett as Columbia, to name a few.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

The Shriner Parade

All right, so Shriners may cause lots of trouble like driving their little cars through hotel lobbies and carrying on into the hour of the night when it’s no longer acceptable to whoop it up, but they do a lot of wonderful services to the community—most notably the non-profit Shriner Hospital for children.

Unlike the Freemasons, Shriners have a completely different outlook. This is a fraternity that is intentionally designed to be fun. And why not? They’re always the highlight of any parade!

“Putting a little of the boy back in the man.”

This is a particularly small set of five. The biggest doll measures to be about four inches high. I don’t even want to tell you how small the littlest one is!

…but I can show you!

The best part was making the fez hats!

 

The Royal Tenenbaums

“Family isn’t a word, it’s a sentence.”

“The Royal Tenenbaums” is a fantastic movie about former child prodigies and their reunion as adults after their father announced he had cancer. A request to immortalize them in doll form had me scrambling for my brushes and paints.

The highly insensitive patriarch of the family, Royal.

Etheline Tenenbaum, mother, archaeologist, author. She was based on Wes Anderson’s mother…in fact, the glasses Anjelika Houston wore in the film belonged to Mrs. Anderson.

Chas Tenenbaum, who is obsessed with safety and his sons Ari and Uzi, after the death of his wife.

Margot Tenenbaum, who was adopted. She ran away from home for two weeks when she was 14 to meet her family and came back with half of her finger missing. Her look is based on singer Nico.

(The missing finger)

Richie Tenenbaum, a tennis prodigy who had a nervous breakdown on the day of Margot’s wedding to a neurologist.

Pagoda, friend and servant to the family. He was also an assassin in Kolkata.

Ari’s Dalmatian mouse.

As with some of my dolls, it’ll be sad to see them go, but at least I know they are going to  someone who is as nutty about Wes Anderson’s characters as I am…if not more!

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Quick! Exactly how many wives did Henry VIII behead?

I’ve been meaning to paint Henry VIII and his wives for a while now but the intricacies of their wardrobe was rather daunting so they were left on the back burner for the longest time. After playing Rick Wakeman’s “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” repeatedly, I finally worked up the courage to tackle this project. As with many things, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. It just took time and a lot of patience to execute each piece!

Henry VIII was the first king ever to be addressed as “Your Majesty.” He was 6’2, his waistline was a rotund 4.5′ round, had a high-pitched voice, was a known hoarder, began the practice of boiling poisoners alive in their own pots, and died with a massive debt.

Wife #1: Katherine of Aragon, whom Henry divorced in favor of…

Wife #2: Anne Boleyn, whom Henry beheaded as means to an end so he could carry on with…

Wife #3: Jane Seymour, who unfortunately passed away during childbirth so Henry had no choice but to get it on with…

Wife #4: Anne of Cleves, whom Henry married and subsequently divorced for political reasons. And because he had the hots for a very young…

Wife #5: Kathryn Howard, who was married to Henry for two short years before her execution due to her promiscuous nature. You couldn’t really blame her for her infidelities. If your husband was 30 years your senior, fat and with a gammy leg, wouldn’t you have an affair or two as well? This leaves Henry free to marry…

Wife #6: Katherine Parr, who was left widowed after playing nurse to Henry for 4 years.

Now that this set is done, I plan to take a few days off from painting and perhaps catch up on “The Tudors.” Although I seriously doubt the historical accuracies in the show, it’s good entertainment!