August 2018

Oh my goodness. This one was a long time coming. I’ve painted over a thousand sets of these dolls in the last decade and I simply cannot stop, not when there are so many people throwing so many ideas out at me. I have a little notebook absolutely filled with the sets I’ve yet to paint and there are only so many hours in a day in which I can physically make things happen. I am so glad that The Office has finally happened. I adored the British version and liked the US version just as much. This is only a small portion of the cast and it still took two sets to fit them all in.

There are actually two different versions of Michael Scott, which means I’ll have no choice but to crank out a third set!

I was fortunate enough to take a short trip to the East Coast this year when visiting the US. Chief among the things I had to do (stinky tofu in Flushing, mammoth ice cream sunadae at Serendipity…unfortunately both on the same day, great for me but not so good for my aging belly) was to secure a ticket to see the last ever showing of the “David Bowie Is” exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. This event held several layers of excitement for me as I had not been able to do any field studies of the subjects I’ve been painting due to either time constraints and the fact that I am now based in a city devoid of cultural stimulus. Don’t get me wrong, I love where I live since walking out onto my street and seeing dolphins playing just meters down the road in the water is not something you gloss over, but I do miss the days when I would just hop on the subway and then be transported into another world.

The exhibit was sensational. I had to take careful notes, however, since I was to return to Oz and begin one of the most interesting projects I’ve been tasked with since I started this Babushka business 9 years ago. The David Bowie set has always been burning in the back of my mind but I never seem to get it come into the light, as there are just so much to choose from. Fortunately this was taken out of my hands and I only had to make a very tiny suggestion and here we are.

The space ship hadn’t been part of the equation in the beginning, but somehow it ended up in here and I was more than happy to get a few bits and pieces made to turn the first doll into a vehicle.