shampoo girl & nerd in culottes

tophat nerd

charcoal & acrylic on canvas, 12x18

bedhead & 5 collar mound

bowtie nerd

paperbag nerd

i put a paperbag on my head when i had chickenpox at my gramma's one summer and went to pick my dad up from the airport.

little miss hawaiian tropic first runner up

i was little miss hawaiian tropic first runner up, with crimped hair and a ruffled, purple leopard print bikini. i must have been 5 or 6 years old. i still have the trophy.

Venice Beach Girl

I am finally done with my Venice Beach Girl! I grew up on the Boardwalk of Venice Beach and this piece represents a lot of that - my parents, my brothers, pieces of me and my life and what I think about when I envision the LA of my childhood, or maybe the LA of my dreams. The essence of this strange place and the beauty I have always been obsessed with.

My mom was, and still is, a beautiful roller skating hippie dreamgirl at the Venice circle. My dad used to pull me along the Boardwalk in my red wagon, with his long hair and bell bottoms I could never squeeze into! They sold handmade children's clothes my mom sewed out of gorgeous Guatemalan fabrics that I modelled at our booth called "ItsaTansy" right next to one of my favorite restaurants Figtree's, which used to be just a little store where I would buy Flintstone's Push-Pops and then scamper back to the jungle gym that is no more.
It was a wonderful time and sadly that Venice is now gone, replaced by money and condos.... but at least the artists and the succulents are still here and as vibrant as ever...

Seeing it at this small size on a computer screen really doesn't do it justice. There is a lot of detail and a whole lot of sparkles :) and I'm not entirely sure of the colors in this since I made it on a PC and it looks much more vibrant on my Dell monitor. Can't wait to print this out huge!