Custom Toy Portrait » lion

Very Fat Lion

Custom Toy Portrait — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:03:46 +0000

5″x5″ acrylic, 2010. I don’t actually buy that many stuffed animals, but every once in awhile a truly special beast will make its presence known to me and I just have to have it. Such was the case last week as my husband, daughter and I wandered around our local Job Lot in search of some random item which was evidently not random enough to be carried by Job Lot. This absurdly proportioned lion made us all burst out laughing. There was no discussion or debate — the fat lion just stepped on into the shopping cart like he had been waiting for a bus.

The Work Lion

Custom Toy Portrait — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:37:31 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. Certain people tend to anthropomorphize stuffed animals more than others, and those people are sometimes adults — adults who might happen to be married to me. And other people with the same tendencies might happen to be employed by my husband. And so a bizarro transaction took place involving this lion. Said employee had two identical lions. One was at home, and the other she kept at work because if they were together they “might fight.” Greg was concerned that some harm would come to the “work lion” if left there, and so he convinced the lion’s owner that he would give it a good life in the care of our Sonja. So far the poor lion has been working long hours modeling in my studio, but I think now I will set it free in the wilds of the nursery.

Hubert

Custom Toy Portrait — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:19:03 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. Hubert has been with me since I was a baby. He is about 2 feet tall and used to sport a black pince-nez. To say that he’s seen better days is an understatement — he’s kind of too dirty to cuddle, but is still awesome and might just continue to pose in the corner of my studio like this to keep me company.

an early toy portrait

Custom Toy Portrait — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:44:13 +0000

29″x40″, oil on canvas 1996. I did lots of self-portraits in college and grad school because I was always available to model! Here’s one from 1996, and obviously even then I could not resist painting my stuffed animals. This picture features Tigger and a lion called Hubert — he was a give-away at a bank where my mom opened an account when I was a baby. Note the sweet mid-century modern furniture, which unfortunately did not belong to me but was fun to paint.

Gigi

Custom Toy Portrait — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:40:04 +0000

–8″x10″ acrylic on canvas, 2009. Gigi is a Ty Beanie koala bear, but to her person, Ruby, she is a LION, period! Gigi is floppy and threadbare and small enough to have been taken everywhere Ruby goes — including the theater to see Cirque Eloize! Check out Gigi and Ruby’s adventures here.

Baby Bowling/Elephant

Custom Toy Portrait — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:13:46 +0000

Baby Bowling/Elephant 10×12 acrylic on canvas 2009

My daughter Sonja was given two different sets of “baby bowling,” each of which consist of limbless stuffed animals and a soft ball. One of the sets contains farm animals, and the other, bought by my sister while in Australia, is mostly jungle animals plus some “mystery” creatures, rendered unidentifiable by their creative coloring and their…Australian-ness, I suppose. Purple wombat? Not sure. But it’s fun setting up a virtual army of crazy un-armed (ha ha) animals to be mown down by a merauding toddler. Here are a few of them, clearly coveting the four apendages of a small felt elephant.