Live From New York…

If you follow me on Facebook, you might’ve notice that a few posts ago I cracked myself up posting a link to the Saturday Night Live Wes Anderson parody trailer entitled: “The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders.” It was right around the time I did “The Strangers,” one of my favorite horror films so the combination of masked home invaders and Wes Anderson really spoke to the oddball weirdo in me (and a lot of you too, I’m sure).

So I was more than a little thrilled when the guy behind the SNL fake commercials and film trailer unit contacted me about painting a couple of sets of popular SNL characters as Christmas presents. The timing was a bit tight, but there must be some magic in the air because I cranked out 7 sets of dolls (that’s 35 in all, mind you), made 7 little hats and sewed 7 veils in less than one week, and one day ahead of schedule. I like to call this a Christmas miracle.

The bulk of the set consists of (clockwise from left) Louis CK as Abe Lincoln, Bill Hader as Stefon (when he married Anderson Cooper), Kristen Wiig in the Red Flag perfume ad, the chainsaw intruder from Midnight Coterie, and of course, Fred Armisen as Ian Rubbish.

This one is more or less the same except with Christopher Waltz as Djesus Uncrossed and Bill Hader as the lead actor of a British movie trailer.

I like to point out that I did not resort to using decals of any sort on Stefon’s shirt. That is 100% old school step-by-step painting!

You can check out the trailers here.

I also got to paint, after the dust cleared, another SNL set of fives featuring “We Did Stop” and “Ju-On” parodies…

…as well as two MASSIVE sets of the original SNL characters!

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Wainwright Family

When I was still playing the piano, artists such as Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Ben Folds, basically anyone who made playing piano not look like a chore that has to be tended to for an hour a day, was pointed out to me (although not by my piano teacher since she’s all about technique and would’ve made Tori Amos sit properly on the bench if she’d seen her play). Rufus Wainwright was amongst one of them.

But I wasn’t aware of the fact that he came from a musical family. Everyone in his family wielded an instrument or two. How cool is that? The only shared talent in my family is the ability to sit through a 40+ episode miniseries marathon over a single weekend.

Clockwise from left: Rufus on his piano, Loudon his dad on the banjo, Kate his mom on the accordion, Lucy his sister on the guitar, and Martha his other sister in short shorts and on a guitar also.

World’s Smallest Commercial

As some of you might know, Emi of the World’s Smallest Whacky Gift Shoppe in LA has graciously allowed Bobo Babushka dolls to be on display there for the past 2 years or so. It’s on one of my top 10 places to visit if I should ever get a chance to leave the confines of LAX during my layovers.

If I ever set foot in there, Emi’s going to have to forcibly push me out. No doubt.

The Pygmy Hippo Shoppe has made a commercial, which is hysterical. I’m beyond thrilled to see that one of the BoBo sets was featured in a scene!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf7KYUtm1MM

If you’re in the LA area, pay Emi and the Pygmy Hippo Shoppe a visit!

Practice Makes Perfect

It seems like these days I’ve been painting the same things all the time. It’s fine since I’ve got the system down and I can more or less crank out a set in a few days’ time instead of a whole week. There’s less time for reading and Angry Birds, but I’m usually the happiest in my sweatshop.

All right, the picture above is not so much a system as it is me showing off my ability to correctly label and arrange the paints by color, but still…

The only reason why I’m not whining about how I’m always painting the same sets over and over is that I’m a firm believer in the fact there’s always room for improvement. Painting isn’t exactly my forte…I’ve always been a pen and ink kind of gal since it’s so readily accessible and you can do far more damage with indelible ink than paint.

So I’m pretty happy that, while looking through the archives of the 335 sets I’ve done, I can see some improvements.

This was the first ever Royal Tenenbaum set I’ve painted. What with it being the first one, I didn’t get a chance to refine it. I’m a bit embarrassed to see it plastered all across various websites and tumblr and other social media outlets, actually.

The other ones have gotten slightly better, but it could still use some fine tuning. One of the major addition is Mordecai, Richie’s pet bird.

Lately, the Tenenbaum sets have gone through some transformations but I’ve been too busy to photograph them all. All right, most of you are probably saying to yourselves, “What are you on about, Irene? They all look the same!” Not so! Richie Tenenbaum’s got on a pair of sunnies now!

Kumar Pallana, the actor who played Mr. Pagoda and other bit parts in Wes Anderson films has passed away recently. In honor of him, I’m now including a mini Pagoda in the newer Royal Tenenbaum sets.

Here is another addition/subtraction to the set: Mordecai is now replaced by “Three Plays” by Margot Tenenbaum.

This new set of six will be available at the Pygmy Hippo Shoppe in February.

But how cool is that background?

It’s done by Max Dalton, who did an excellent depiction of the Tenenbaum house. I’ve been looking for something new to hang on my studio wall…think I’ve found one! All of them are sold out, but I am fortunate enough to snag the one he did of all of my favorite horror movie villains…and then some!

A Very Life Aquatic Birthday Bash

Happy new year!

My friend Susie in Texas always seems to have the best birthday party themes. Last year was The Shining and this year is Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. But her birthdays are not always all about her. There’s a charity auction involved, and it’s for the stray dogs living on the streets. I don’t know if you are aware, but I have an extremely soft spot for dogs. I can watch the most horrific movies of terror without thinking anything of it, but I absolutely cannot sit through a movie about dogs without crying my little eyes out. I’m pretty sure I’m the only person in this world who’s ever shed a tear watching “Hotel for Dogs.”

This is why, when Susie asked me to donate a Life Aquatic themed matryoshka doll set to her cause, I jumped at it.

This Life Aquatic deluxe set (it’s deluxe because I’ve included the Owen Wilson character in it as well) will be auctioned off at the Texas Theater on January 25. Half the proceeds from the art auction will go to Duck Team 6 street dog rescue.