Aliens
I wasn’t allowed to celebrate Halloween as a kid, so adulthood is all about making up for that lost October time. These aliens were decorations made of paper mache, cardboard, wire, wood, and old shirts. The goal was to make the silliest little extraterrestrial tourists imaginable, in contrast to the usual gore and guts of Halloween decor. Best of all, they were a hit with trick or treaters, and made a lot of adults smile, too. Halloween is the best.
The Tooth
A personal character of mine, back when she was supposed to be a tiny fairy. She’s a genius, to tell you the tooth; a master of molar-cular science, full of smarts and wisdom. Plus, she’s so darn cute. She makes tooth homunculi in her spare time, so her keychain art needed to showcase her cute, sweet side and her mad scientist side. I designed the character, the keychain art, and the shape. The manufacturing was outsourced to Acorn Press.
Set of cards
Concepts for laminated collectible art cards from 2018. Each character is a reimagined depiction of one from the popular video game franchise Dangan Ronpa combined with aspects of those from the boardgame Clue. The front shows the characters dressed nicely, their names above and mirrored below. The back, printed in blacklight activated invisible ink, has their poses and expressions modified, weapon in hand, with a description of their crime. I designed, printed, and assembled each card myself.
Dollhouse
A spur of the moment project. After customizing a few dolls, I really wanted to know what kind of house they’d live in. The idea of something kitschy was too much fun to shake. The house itself is cardboard bent into several pieces, while the yard is several piles of handmade yarn pompoms. The paper flowers, plastic flamingos, and tiny birds were all just lucky finds. It’s tacky in a nice way.
Bottles
What a life lesson this was! These are Potion Soda Shaker Charms: thumb sized charms full of glitter and nontoxic blacklight reactive fluid. Inspired by classic video game potions, each color is a different revitalizing aspect. Pink is for health, yellow is for stamina, and blue is for mana. This project was my baby. The label went through a few design iterations, and went to print several times to get its sizing just right. The charms went through several changes because the initial idea for the bottle shape just did not exist. That lead to a hunt for a supplier who had craft bottles in a specific size but close enough shape. Once found, I filled each individual bottle, labeled them, sealed them, secured the hooks, etc. They were ready for convention life, bound to be a hit at the local comic con! Then 2020 happened. Oh well. Sometimes you make things and don’t get to sell them. That’s just the way life goes.
School Setting
In 2017 I interned at a preschool as an art teacher. One thing led to another, and I became the school’s all around art lady, doing a lot of prop and decoration building. These were for the graduating class’ performance about talking vehicles. Each costume, little construction vehicles is made of cardboard. This was somewhat of a collaboration, since the kids painted everything. I hope those tykes are having a good good life.