The Wes Anderson Diorama

Toward the end of my teaching career, I was invited to the Museum of Natural History for a professional development where the man leading the lecture was one of the curators of the dioramas there. I usually spent these PDs catching up on my sleep or daydreaming about what I’m going to do when I win the lotto jackpot, but that day, I sat, rapt and enchanted, and wished that I hadn’t turned down the opportunity to be an assistant to my ex-boyfriend’s friend, Taxidermy George, who, was one of the most illustrious taxidermist in the country back then and at present.

Taxidermy George, at the time, was running his business in his parents’ basement and was nice enough to have me over to show me his studio. I wanted nothing more than to quit my job right there and then and become a taxidermist, an impulse that practicality said a resounding no to. It turned out to be a mistake, as I found out, to even qualify as an assistant to work on the dioramas at the museum, I would need a rudimentary understanding of taxidermy.

Well, I probably wouldn’t have been too good at it since I’m not too crazy with the idea of working with dead things. But boy, would I love to do the backgrounds for the displays! As it was, the only time I got to really spread my wings was putting up the stage sets for the annual New Year’s performances at the school I was teaching and I wanted to do more of it. At 30+ years old, I felt it might be too much of a gamble to go into the set design/taxidermy business, so I kept it tamped down and wished that one day I would have the time and space to work on it, even at a miniature scale.

As it turns out, there was never time nor budget for me to indulge in this whim of mine, until one day I was looking for something in my loose dolls drawer and saw that I had an array of tiny “last dolls” that had been torn from its original set due to customization. I could turn these dolls into pieces for a diorama!

It took nearly two years for me to finish it, largely due to the lack of time. When the dolls were painted, I experimented with different ideas on the display itself and finally found the perfect frame. I learned how to do wood staining with materials I had on hand (isn’t YouTube tutorials wonderful?) and got to paint on flat canvases for the first time in years. It was a lot of fun putting the pieces together, and I wish I can remember most of the process as a majority of these dioramas were painted at around 3AM when I am in zombie-mode.

This is the first in the (hopefully) many series of a miniaturized large scale project. I admit it was a bit too ambitious for someone who didn’t have a lot of time and didn’t really know what she was doing. I chose to showcase some of the characters from Wes Anderson’s movies because I’d painted so many sets in the last 10 years that I didn’t have to do too much research. Just to let you know how long this project had taken me to complete: When I first drew out the rough sketches, “Isle of Dogs” didn’t even exist yet!

Bottle Rocket

Rushmore

The Royal Tenenbaums

Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Hotel Chevalier

Darjeeling Limited

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Moonrise Kingdom

Grand Budapest Hotel

Isle of Dogs

 

 

Agatha Christie and her Detectives

I have started working in my new sweatshop (and already being visited by the cutest Kingfisher, massive grasshoppers, and a few cats) on a cold and rainy week. It was quite fitting that the first set I’m working on at the new address was Agatha Christie and her myriad detectives. Although I wouldn’t exactly classify her books as one of those “cozy little mysteries,” but the gloomy weather did invoke the kind of English afternoons where tea is poured and scones are warmed and maybe a body or two are stumbled upon and I was more than happy to get right back into the game after 2 weeks of straight up moving and shoving furniture and boxes into place!

I grew up with two voracious readers for parents and both loved mysteries as much as me so there were always copies of Agatha Christie novels lying around the house. It was a wander down memory lane now as I painted Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tuppence and Tommy, remembering my parents first telling me the plot to some of Christie’s works and then later me reading it for the first time.

The set was proposed to me and even though I was given photos of the actors portraying the characters, we kept the physical descriptions of them based on the novels. Sometimes I wish they would do more of that in films because, judging from what I’ve seen of Lifetime Channel’s promos of V.C. Andrews’ “Heaven” series, I know right now I am going to be vastly disappointed! I’ll watch them all, but I will not be happy about it!

Spirited Away Revisited

Every so often I enjoy making a “shake-’em-out” nesting doll set. I am able to utilize all the loose dolls rolling around in my drawers and I am allowed a certain amount of freedom not dictated by dimensional restrictions.

My mother had introduced me to the spectacular Studio Ghibli animation when it was still only popular in Asia. My favorite had been “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” followed by “My Neighbor Totoro.” It wasn’t until I sat down and bawled my eyes out watching “Graveyard of the Fireflies” that I realized even with Kiki and Totoro, these animated movies are not meant to be lighthearted fares. “Castle in the Sky,” “Princess Mononoke,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” so on and so fourth are all deeply significant in their own rights. I found a lot of it be rather upsetting as it talked a lot about the impact humans have on the environment with an air of hopelessness about it…that is, until I saw “Spirited Away.” To me that is the only Studio Ghibli movie which did not leave me feeling sad in the end.

Since my life has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride at the moment and I’m sitting on the cusp of yet another great change, I felt compelled to do another shake ’em up set and the subject naturally fell upon one movie that always gave me so much hope and comfort. In this version of Spirited Away I got to revisit some of the old favorite characters I’d painted previously and I included some new ones.

Among the new characters are Kamaji the spider man who works in the boiler room and Yubird who nests inside Yubaba doll. The Kashira heads are all loose and ready for some interesting configurating.

In addition to Boh, I made Boh as a mouse. I couldn’t decide whether or not to paint Haku as a dragon and ended up doing both on the same doll.

Lin is a new addition because I liked her character so much. She reminds me of some of the teachers I used to work with, hard bitten on the outside but quite kind on the inside and I always managed to win them over by challenging myself to make them laugh at least once a day.

I really enjoyed making the soot sprites and their “food” and was happy this set allows me to make more.

 

Arrested Development

I find that, over time, if I want something badly enough, it’ll present itself to me sooner or later. I just have to put it out into the universe and let the Great Being sort it out for me. Such is the case with this set.

I’d been wanting to do “Arrested Development” for a while now. When it was first on the air, I had been losing faith in television programming and was toying with the idea of getting rid of my set and picking up a new hobby. But the Bluths came along and showcased the kind of family dysfunction that I adore and I kept my TV and was glad the Television Gods have heard my prayers. The cancellation of the show was upsetting, but that’s another story altogether. In short, I was asked to paint the Bluths (plus Maeby’s boyfriend Steve Holt to round out the set of 10s), I could hardly keep myself from purchasing a ticket to NYC and hugging the buyer in person.

This is a massive set of 10 dolls (large to small) featuring George Michael, his Dad Michael, Buster, GOB, Lindsay, Tobias the Never Nude, Maeby, George, Lucille, and Steve Holt.

 

Check it Out! With Dr. Steve Brule

Sometimes when I don’t feel I can give a television show 100% of my complete and utter devotion, I go for shorts, something nonsensical and speaks directly to my soul. That something, of course, are any shows involving Tim and Eric from Adult Swim. I was watching “Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job” when an email came through asking if I would mind doing a trio of dolls featuring Dr. Steve Brule, Jan and Wayne Skylar. Mind? Mind?! The only downside to this project was that I had to slough through other piles of projects before getting to this one!

I did a tiny John C. Reilly doll for another set a while back and built a tiny afro wig for him so I was quite excited to do another one on a larger scale.

A George Stover Interview

This is a little different for BoBo Babushka. After doing a few interviews, I thought, hey, let’s shake things up a little. Why don’t I be the interviewer for a change? It may be a one-time thing, it may be a series of interviews…who knows? I’m fortunate enough to secure my first interview with actor George Stover, who hails from Baltimore, home of the John Waters movies.

George began his acting career in college plays and was involved in the Baltimore theater groups and eventually moved to film work. His movie debut was Female Trouble, playing a priest who escorts Divine’s Dawn Davenport to the electric chair at the end of the movie.

“Female Trouble was not only my first movie,” George said, “but it was also a John Waters movie. I had some dialogue at the end of the movie in a scene with Divine, and I was billed last in the credits. Little did I know at the time that this film would become a bona fide cult movie!”

George’s next movie with John Waters was Desperate Living. “I played Mink Stole’s husband Bosley Gravel at the beginning of the movie. Our family maid kills me so my wife and the maid run away and end up in Mortville.”

George Stover as Bosley Gravel

When asked about his thoughts on John Waters and his films, George described the director as being very talented, disciplined and prepared. “He always knew exactly what he wanted to capture on film,” George said. “I did feel that the subject matter in his movies might hold him back career-wise. How wrong I was! Of course, Hollywood has now caught up with him as far as ‘shock value’ is concerned…except, perhaps, for the poop-eating scene in Pink Flamingos! It would be difficult for John to out-shock Hollywood in this day and age.” His professionalism aside, George also described Waters to be a really nice person and would often be invited to his legendary Christmas parties back in the day.

Edie Massey and George

George told me that he is frequently cast in science fiction and horror movies. “I play scientists, priests and sheriffs more often than not,” George intoned. “So it’s always fun when I can play a villain. It’s also nice to be in a movie that is NOT science fiction or horror.” This brought up the subject of whether or not his movies had been spoofed by the gang of Mystery Science Fiction Theater 3000.

“Well, sort of,” he said. “MST3K once showed a movie called ‘Pod People’ and for some reason, they included footage of me from ‘The Galaxy Invader’ behind the opening credits. I don’t know why they even bothered to do this, but I was flattered that they did.”

He mentioned also that Cinematic Titanic, a project featuring most of the original MST3K cast, had riffed the movie The Alien Factor. “They did this during some live shows as well as on a DVD they produced. The Galaxy Invader was riffed on its own from Rifftrax with a commentary by Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett of MST3K. I was flattered that MST3K and its spinoffs chose those movies.” When asked whether or not he was offended by the snarky comments made by Mike and the bots, George good naturally pointed out that he wasn’t. “If anything,” he said, “I think they might have neglected to criticize a few things that I might have criticized myself!”

In the last few months, George has completed his roles in Revenge of the Devil Bat, Beyond the Wall of Fear, and Frames of Fear. He will also soon be featured in Killer Campout. And for the fans of the original Manos: Hands of Fate, its sequel Manos Returns is definitely maybe still in the works in which George could be a part of!

Due to a fear of flying and a bevy of pets in need of constant attention, George sticks pretty close to the Baltimore area. He is indeed able to participate in out-of-town shoots by filming footage in his home. In Beyond the Wall of Fear, George films his scene as a scientist in his backyard! “I sent the footage to the movie’s director, Joe Sherlock, in Portland, Oregon, and via split screen, he made it look like a newscaster was actually interviewing me! That’s the magic of the movies for you!” he said happily.

(photo courtesy of skullfaceastronaut)

Well, there you have it! If you are interested in contacting George Stover for any projects, you can find him through Facebook.

Here’s a new Female Trouble set featuring George as the Chaplin!

Scream Queens

I’d been wanting to paint the mean sorority girls of Scream Queens ever since its very first episode. Things came up, also I was adamant about sourcing the proper kind of faux fur fabric in order to recreate one Chanel Oberlin’s outrageous couture, so the whole thing took a while. In between painting the same sets and vastly intense new ones, I kind of like to decompress by doing something fun, something just for me, and these Scream Queen dolls are it!

(Large to small) Chanel Oberlin, Chanel No.3 and Chanel No.5. Can’t wait for season two!

A Blast From the Past

This is the set that started it all!

I painted this set as a thank you present to my most excellent hosts when I went to Japan a few years ago. These people did not know me and they weren’t obligated to make sure my stay was as comfortable and spectacular as it was and there’s nothing I could do to thank them enough. I’m a terrible gift giver by nature so I wasn’t sure if this would cut the mustard.

My friend recently posted this on Facebook so I’m assuming that it’s on display after all these years it was a go!

It’s always interesting to see the work you’ve done in the past, isn’t it? I’ve painted 264 sets of dolls since then with more on the way and I’m still having as much fun as I did with this one!

Alys of Ages

How cool is it that your name is Alice and that your parents are even cooler to have it spelled A-L-Y-S? I have to admit that I agreed to do this project based on the subject’s name alone!

This is a portrait of Alys through the years. What a cool gal. Globe trottin’, guitar playin’, education seekin’, picture takin’…she’s got it all! That’s why I broke out the big guns and unearthed my gold leaf. If anyone deserves to wear a crown for doin’ it all, it’s Alys.

This hippie strap was modeled after the one I had when I was going through my Age of Aquarius phase.

It wasn’t a problem painting both the Fender Strat AND the camera since they’ve both been a big part of my life. My best friend in NY is a photographer/guitarist. You can kinda guess what his apartment/studio looked like!

I LOVED painting this teeny car!

Of course that’s a glittered heart.

For those of you who had to deal with Hurricane Irene, I hope you got through it unscathed and that you have plans for those 85 loaves of bread you knocked someone out at Costco’s to get.

BoBo Babushka in Brooklyn

Even though the weather was bordering on violently strange, those two days in Brooklyn had been a ton of fun. Renegade was beyond my expectations…although I wish I had a little bit more time to look around the other stalls! Fortunately a few of my favorite artists came by my booth for a chat and I absolutely enjoyed meeting everybody who took time out of their busy schedule to visit.

Many of you wanted to know about the display case for the dollies. I had to recall my art school days when I had very little time and budget to construct outrageous structures so I turned to foam core and chip boards. By combining the two, you can actually achieve a wood-like effect. They’re also surprisingly durable. I should know—the dollhouse survived windstorms and rain and a thorough inspection by Bo, my bulldog.

Me and Po’Trowski, whose face was tatted on Leon’s back from “Ink’d”

The wind forced Matt, my booth mate, and me to remove the tent before it decided to go for a stroll down Lorimer Street. Fortunately I had my home girls Po’Trowski, Lara, and Shawna and a giant wad of glue dots helping out.

I will be returning to Oz later this week. After the dollies clear customs, they will appear in my etsy shop. In the meanwhile, I plan to spend my few remaining days in the Big Apple hanging out with my peeps, my wonderful parental units and of course, Bo.

…Pamela, thanks again for the matryoshka tee! I’m sorry it didn’t make it into the photos!