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.

The Runaways

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, I love rock and roll from the Golden Ages of Rock and I love the idea of being in a band. I don’t think I would do too well in a girl band because, you know, hormones. And also when you put a bunch of girls together, wardrobes always seem to merge and I don’t like sharing. But my god, girl groups are awesome, though. Here’s one of them, the Runaways!

These gals have attitude up the wazoo. This set features a semi-original lineup of Joan Jett, Sandy West, Lita Ford, Cherie Currie, and Jamie Fox.

The Music Department

This set features some of the music teachers at a girls school in Sydney. Judging from the photos I received for references, they looked like an energetic and dynamic lot who not only get things done in the classroom and on stage but make sure the kids have fun in the process.