Melvins

Music has always been a big part of my life, mostly due to the fact that quite a few members of my family are musicians. I did grow up listening to classical and eventually became a huge musical theatre nerd, so I am grateful to my brother for introducing me to more contemporary music although that particular era was already deemed as “classic rock” by the time I got around to it. It doesn’t matter anyway, because as long as there’s something that jives with my soul while I’m painting, I’m happy.

In these trying times, I rely on music more than ever. The sheer amount of work confronting me each night, compounded by what’s going on in the world today plus some personal issues, I begin every work night singing while getting my work station ready. It’s a little ritual that I find which keeps me sane.

I agreed straight away to a recent request because A) it is a band I’ll be painting and B) it is a band I’ve never really listened to and is keen to get on top of. When the buyer sent me photos of the band members, I knew I was going to have a great time making this set. Just days before I received the request, I was looking longingly at some wigs, lamenting how I don’t have the time to make a real doll with fabric clothes and actual hair. I was enthralled by the weft of crinkled hair and wished really hard that I would get a chance in the near future to work with it and lo and behold! My wish came true!

The members of Melvins (clockwise from top: King Buzzo, Dale Crover, Jeff Pinkus, and Steven Shane McDonald)

In the past I have only really worked with wool or crepe for hair, never synthetic doll hair so it took me a while to figure out how to apply it. I could watch some YouTube videos but didn’t have time to hunt down a real one although I’m sure I could benefit from the tutelage. It did necessitate a trip to K-Mart’s lady’s intimates department for some hosiery, though, and I also walked out with a bunch of things I didn’t really need so it’s not a complete loss! Now I have all 23 Melvins albums to listen to as we sit and wait the fate of the world to be decided.

Triple Trouble

I’ve been feeling all kinds of nostalgic these days. I miss my family, my friends, New York City, and weirdly enough, the 80s and the 90s. Those were simpler times when I could wander around the street without making sure there are hand sanitisers in my pockets first (they didn’t even exist then).

To combat all these weird emotions, I reached into the deep archives of my music catalogue and unearthed the soundtrack of my formative years. I painted to Nine Inch Nails, White Zombies, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains…with a bit of Squirrel Nut Zippers, Oasis, Fiona Apple, Alanis Morrissette, Tori Amos, Bjork, Taj Mahal…etc. It reminded me of that one hot afternoon I spent on Randall’s Island at the Tibetan Freedom Concert organised by the Beastie Boys and that had propelled me further down memory lane.

Anyone growing up in the 80s and 90s, especially in NYC, will tell you something nice about the Beastie Boys. Think long hot summer days biking around the hood or walking down the street with songs like “Sabotage” or “Intergalatic” or “Ch-Check It Out” blasting in the background like it’s our own personal soundtrack. An ex boyfriend had scored us some tickets to the Tibetan Freedom Concert and we made our way to Randall’s Island and basked in the sun and watched with wonder at all the biggest names in music play on the same stage that day. Those had been some of the best times of my life and I am slightly miffed at myself for not realising it then.

I’d been mulling over the possibilities of painting another Beastie Boys set, but I wanted it to be something unusual and fun, just like them. After rummaging through my drawers, I decided to do another Shake ‘Em Out set. I gave it some thought and tossed around some possibilities and I finally got my act together and narrowed all the ideas down to two, and then managed to squeeze it in all together.

This set is based on “Triple Trouble” off the Beastie Boys’ To the Five Boroughs album. I had wanted to include all the fun scenes (via costumes) into the set but due to size constraints I picked the best two. This one also features Mixmaster Mike, who was the coolest cat in the music video.

While I was at Lincraft during the height of the pandemic, trying to be considerate and not touching every bottle of paint on display (even though I had squirted a massive amount of hand sanitiser upon entering the store), the idea of incorporating the actual DJ table hit me. So I ran home and organised that as well, feeling pleased because everything was coming together so nicely.

The original goal was to paint the fur on the Sasquatch, but then I would have a bit of trouble with the trick or treat costume. I turned to my big bin of felted wool and quickly piled some fibres onto the creature. The husband and I talked about using different fasteners to keep the vest and chaps on and in the end I opted for snap buttons, which promptly got lost inside the wool as soon as it was sewn on. Since I wasn’t planning on selling this set, I figured it wasn’t a problem. Until it was. Before I even finished painting it, this set was snatched up, so I had to create a little instructional card to go with it so the buyer can successfully find the snaps!

I felt joy and peace whilst working on this set. It’s one of the first sets I painted during the pandemic that got me out of a deep dark funk. I think it had a lot to do with playing around with that day glo green!

Hedwig Revisited

Boy, I have never experienced so many emotions all in one day and for so many days running and the sad thing is, I am not the only one feeling this way. Nothing unites us globally like a disaster of epic proportions. We are fortunate enough to have the option to stay home and wait this out instead of being out in the wild fending for ourselves and I am glad to see a lot of my friends and their friends doing constructive things with their time while keeping themselves and their families safe.

Right before everything went awry, I was asked to paint another Hedwig and the Angry Inch set, which I did between staring dumbly at the wall and crying and processing all sorts of unfamiliar emotions surging through me. I myself have nothing to worry about since I’m practically a shut in and I have had hoarded supplies in the past as a habit so I didn’t have to go out and grab things I didn’t need and deprive others who truly needs them, but I worry about my family and friends and my husband, who all of a sudden is deemed an essential worker after years of having his job maligned and laughed at by the more elite members of society. I am so proud of my husband for being out there every day making sure everyone gets what they need while making sure those who work under him are protected and looked after and ensuring they all hold on to their jobs in these uncertain times. It doesn’t stop me from giving him a stern talking to when he trails bits of grass and bark all over the house but I am very well aware of his incredible ability to see things in a broad scope and implement it the best he could.

I made this Hedwig set with much sadness, but the music buoyed my spirits once I got going. If nothing else, we’ve always got art, don’t we? Please stay safe because the outcome of this devastation is going to be more spectacular than the life we’ve known before.

This new version of Hedwig has two new additions: The Menses Fair look which I adore because it’s so feminine and the look John Cameron Mitchell rocked when he did the “Return to the Origin of Love” tour a few years back.

And let’s do that. Let’s all return to the origin of love. Use this time in isolation to really think about what important in our lives and what we can do to help ourselves be even better human beings and from there we can help others as well as this planet that had been so good to us for so very long.

 

Radiohead

In these utterly chaotic and uncertain times I’m glad I have a little place to escape to. From time to time I wished that my work would allow me to be a bit more present in the real world, but for the most part I’m glad to be doing what I do…especially now. I am virtually a shut-in and therefore am equipped to entertain myself should I be forced into quarantine. There’s never a shortage of things to do around the house or my sweatshop. It’ll be business as usual, especially now I’ll have spades of time to work on stuff that’s on the back burner or laid aside due to scheduling conflict.

I always enjoyed painting musicians because it’s a challenge to not only capture their physical form in a set of dolls, but convey the essence of the music they make in a non-audio medium. I was so excited to paint Radiohead because A) I’m a big fan of their music and B) their physical appearance is somewhat monochromatic so I can really focus on just their faces and instruments, the former a bit of a challenge as I’m not always able to hit every facial portrait right on the mark. But I went into this set with a lot of confidence because, well, I more or less grew up listening to their music and feel like I could tackle the most challenging part of this set with all the skills I’ve incurred over the years. The end result was satisfactory for me and I was grateful for the many hours I got to turn off the internet and lose myself in my work.

Stay safe out there, everyone. We cannot allow the unseen enemy take us down. We all have so much more to do in each and every single minute of our precious lives.

In the meanwhile, queue up some Radiohead tracks and just leave the news and crazy rumors for a little while. It helps.

Spinal Tap STONEHENGE

I’ve been dying to do another version of Spinal Tap for a L-O-N-G time now. They’re so ridiculously fun to paint that I’ve decided to add two more elements to the trio. For the first time, my Spinal Tap guys also come with a mini Stonehenge and a dancing Druid!

This One Really Goes to Eleven

It’s really wonderful to see Spinal Tap is still popular after all these years. Why shouldn’t it be? I got around to painting a different version of it last year and am really looking forward to doing yet another one! This one comes with a mini amp. The amp is so tiny that I wasn’t able to paint little number 11 on it for this particular set but I did in a subsequent one, except I’d forgotten to take a photo of it. Like they say, if it’s not photographed, it’s didn’t happen. Luckily I’ll have another opportunity very soon to do so!

Freddie Mercury

I got a little high and dizzy while making the crown for the Freddie Mercury set and recalled an old Stephen Sondheim musical “Sunday in the Park with George.” When Sondheim wrote “Art Isn’t Easy,” I’m sure he hadn’t meant that an artist would pass out from all the toxic fumes emitting from the materials used to create a work of art. Granted, I did start most of it outdoors, but had to move it inside when the night closed in. But I’d rather suffer for my art than do anything else in the world!

This set had taken me months and months to complete. I actually started it before knowing the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a thing! It wasn’t the execution itself that took ages to get it made, but the fact that I first had to experiment with the new kind of paint for the crown, how to construct the velvety layer inside and finding the right type of velvet to use. Then I couldn’t find first, the time, then the inspiration. But then it came rushing fourth and I built the crown in about 6 hours’. It had been one of the final steps to finishing the set, which, coincidentally, had also brought to mind anothe number from the same Sondheim musical: “Finishing the Hat.”

I always have a ton of fun making crowns and tiaras, and this one was no exception. All the materials needed had been foraged from my vast collection of baubles and bits and that in itself had been one of the best experiences of “finishing the hat.”

David Bowie

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.

And here we are, a crew of David Bowies.

 

Life on Mars/ Yamamoto Stripes

 

Aladdin Sane/Thin White Duke

Ashes to AshesSerious Moonlight

 

Earthling/Lazarus

…and finally, The Black Star

 

Intergalactic Planetary

Here’s another Beastie Boys set based on “Intergalactic.” Honestly, I can spend at least half a year painting different versions of them, they are that much fun to do.

Just for fun, I decided the last “doll” of this set should be a ghetto blaster…a little Easter egg special if you will!

I used to have one of these back in the day…it was a gift from my parents. They didn’t think people were walking down the street blasting music with it. I would’ve too if I could get my hands on a dozen D cell batteries, but when you’re eight-years-old, they’re a bit hard to come by.

A Little Shop of Horrors Reprise

Many many many moons ago I made a Little Shop of Horrors set with a non-working Audrey II. By non-working I mean it’s basically just a Papier-mâché plant that won’t open. It’s been haunting me ever since the set was completed. Every now and then I catch myself looking up at the moon and thinking about what I can do to make it even more extra.

This is the older version:

I will admit that I had a lot of fun papier-mâché-ing Audrey II. It still has a place of honor in front of the TV set.

But you know how it is when you’re looking at something online and one thing leads to another (I now know how to fully furnish an underground bunker, thanks to one of my after midnight forays into the interwebs), I found an old Maxwell coffee can, the same one Seymour used in the movie when he first bought Audrey II and things sort of spiraled from there.

This is the new and improved Audrey II. The plant structure itself, I’m happy to say, now opens. Most of the leaves and vines are papier-mâchéd. As this is one of those sets I constructed after after hours, I more or less use what was sitting around to make the greens, including utilizing hardanger fabric meant for embroidery, wires I filched from the Hubs, and tissue papers saved from something someone sent me. I suppose years of working as a public school art teacher has taught me to successfully scavenge for supplies!

As the plant now opens, I can happily put in the core cast from the movie. Here’s Seymour Krelborn and Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette…

…along with Audrey, Dr. Orin Scrivello D.D.S., and of course, Mr. Mushnik.