Key and Peele

I discovered Key and Peele during one of my marathon painting jags and needed something funny to get me through. They certainly did that!

It was hard narrowing down all my favorite characters to just twelve, and even harder trying to find time to paint them and hopefully do it justice. It took over a month to crank these guys out. Now I’m looking forward to finding time to work on another twelve!

Obama and Luther, the Anger Translator

I can easily do the entire set featuring these college football guys.

Do you believe these guys are “prepared for terries?”

Mr. Garvey, the inner city public school teacher subbing at a nice suburban school. What could go wrong?

I’m sure there’s a little bit of Wendell in all of us, especially our desires to make over-the-top music videos.

And of course, my favorite valets. They remind me of the clerk at the post office. We hold up the line talking about movies ALL THE TIME. We spent 20 minutes discussing “Wonder Woman” until his mother/boss gently pointed out we’re getting side eyes from increasingly angry-looking customers.

Batman: Heroes Vs. Villains

Talk about a blast from the past! When I was given a choice between painting all the different actors who’d played Batman or just the characters from the old Batman TV show, I immediately went for the latter. Are you kidding me? I was obsessed with the old Batman reruns when I was a kid. I remember rushing home each day from school just so I could watch a show which I hadn’t, during my formative years, regarded as campy at all. It was all kinds of illicit too because, as a latchkey kid, I was entrusted with the responsibility of doing my homework and practicing the piano in my parents’ absence. Instead, my afternoons were filled with a mixture of cartoons such as “He-Man” and “G.I. Joe” and “Transformers” (yes, I realize they’re all very male-centric. I had an older brother and one TV set. Choices were limited in such circumstances), followed by some great live action shows such as “Batman” and later “Wonder Woman.” This might explain why my grades were poor and that my piano playing didn’t amount to much, but if I had to do it all over again, I’d choose TV over good grades any day!

The “Heroes” set features: Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and of course, Alfred.

Let’s not forget the Villains, which is: Penguin, Joker, The Riddler, and of course, Catwoman. Meowr!

Rosemary’s Baby

This is one of my all-time favorite horror movies: Rosemary’s Baby. It was filmed so that it’s basically a moving picture version of the novel by Ira Levin.

This set features Rosemary, Guy Woodhouse, and their creepy witchy neighbors Roman and Minnie Castevet. I pop this movie on whenever I feel a little homesick because I used to work across the street from The Dakota.

The Goonies

How’s this for a 80’s nostalgia? The Goonies!

This set features Sloth, Chunk, Data, Mouth, and Mikey. Boy, painting this set brought me back. My childhood was all about biking all around town and getting into all sorts of trouble. Even though I grew up in Flushing Queens, there’s the Fresh Meadows Park nearby that kind of gives the illusion of being in the wild if you ignore the traffic noise and the diesel fumes while you’re pretending to hunt of prehistoric animals or treasures in there. It was as good a childhood as one could get growing up in New York City. Years later, when I was teaching kindergarten in Manhattan, I was shocked and sadden to find that one of my favorite kids didn’t know what a forest was. Luckily in second grade they’re taken on field trips to Alley Pond Park, which was also near where I grew up so I was mollified.

A Whole New (Doctor Who) World

I love doing Doctor Who sets largely because my version consists of 3D printed Tardis as the first doll. A while back I did a massive set with all the Doctors so I was glad to switch it up this time to include other key players in the series:

Once again, this is a double set. #1 features David Tennant with Donna Noble, Rose Tyler, and River Song. #2 consists of Matt Smith, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, and the War Doctor.

Outlander In the Wild

I always knew there’s a reason why I love Thanksgiving so much. In the beginning it’s all about the gluttonous aspect of this holiday. But lately, I am starting to appreciate the main reason why there’s a day set aside for being thankful. It’s becoming so that I want every day to be Thanksgiving, but not only because I do like a big turkey dinner with all the trimmings. I am so thankful for so many things in my life and just acknowledging that once a year is not enough.

The greatest thing I’m thankful for is the people who have the faith in having me paint their favorite obsession in doll form. I love communicating with them and brainstorming ideas and coming up with something I hope they will cherish for a very long time. And, this is something I never expected, sometimes they take their dolls out into the wild and have the person(s) I painted autograph it!

These are the two mega Outlander sets I made for Lindsey of SoCal Outlander group, who had the foresight to bring it to the Seattle Comic Con to show to the two leads, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Belfe. She even got them to look as though their side hustle is hawking BoBo Babushka dolls in this pic!

This is just as exciting as another customer had brought her set to a tea with Diana Gabaldon, creator of the Outlander books and have her pose with it!

No matter how tedious my day is, or dealing with all sorts of tomfoolery perpetrated by my completely insane neighbors, I am still thankful and grateful that I get to live the kind of life I’ve always wanted and that it’s exceeded beyond my expectations.

Clue

“Clue” was one of the first movies I remember seeing in the theater when I first moved to New York. It was a fun little romp and I adored the board game, mainly because it came with little miniature weapons and we all know how mad I am about miniatures! I wasn’t about to turn down a request to paint a set of “Clue” when it was presented to me and here it is!

Just for fun I was asked to paint the characters holding weapons, because why not?

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.

Hustle

It’s always a treat to get requests from the UK. I’ve mentioned before that the BBC had a huge influence on me growing up. I learned English and watching Monty Python and Benny Hill. It’s harder and harder to keep up with television shows even though I watch A LOT of it while I’m working so it’s great to be introduced to something by someone who feels passionate enough for them to want a set of dolls immortalized after the characters, like this “Hustle” set.

This set features: Mickey Bricks, Danny Blue, Ash “Three Socks” Morgan, Albert Stroller, and Stacie Monroe.

Now, pardon me while I go hit up my local library for all 8 seasons for this show!

Sordid Lives

I’ve been dealing, for the past few months, with some trashy behavior by an unsavory neighbor. It seems like these days I cannot look out the window without seeing her waddling around in broad daylight, wrapped in a towel, cigarette in mouth, shouting out her conversations and generally behaving like White Trash Neighbor No. 1 in a sitcom.

So it seemed apt that I was asked to paint “Sordid Lives” during this time. There were tons of cigarette holding, fried chicken eating, shotgun wielding, hair roller wearing and beer bottle clutching involved and it made me think about how life does imitate art and sometimes the other way around. Well, it’s clear that my neighbor is living her life as sordidly as she can make it, whereas I’m just painting it!

Set one features Earl “Brother Boy” Ingram, LaVonda DuPree, Juanita Bartlett, Sissy Hickey, Latrelle Williamson, Noleta Nethercott, and Dr. Eva Bolinger.

Some details:

Set two is all about the same characters but some in different outfits: LaVonda again, Noleta but with runny make up, Earl all gussied up, Juanita, Sissy (this time in a matching plaid short and shirt ensemble), Latrelle and Dr. Eva.

More details:

Thanks Scott and Craig! You guys rock!