Thank you to my parents for making it possible for me to grow up in the 80’s! As you may have read in my artist bio or just from knowing me, I had 2 alter egos growing up… Elvira and Jem. Not only did I dress up as both of them at some point for Halloween when I was little, but I really feel they formed me into the creepy yet colorful woman I am today. I look at some of the things I wear, the things I am drawn to and it really speaks to who really drew me in when I was younger (no pun intended) and inspired a lot of what I am into even today as an adult…….

Rocking my horror shirts with my multi-colored hair……a bit of goth with a bit of neon….a bit of black with a splash of glitter or zebra print. Is that a bow with blood splatter on it? Is that a hot pink dress covered in bats????…… Yep that’s me!

So with that I decided it was long over due for me to stop passing up the blank piece of canvas I have sitting in my art room and finally do what I have been meaning to do to fill it. Needless to say my Saturday was “TRULY OUTRAGEOUS!”

Here is how it turned out when it was done….

Jem’s “special” earring, the middle 80’s geometric split and the white sparkle in both Jem and Pizzaz’s eyes were done with glitter paint. The same paint I used as a kid to decorate my own t-shirts. I felt like it gave it that much more of a 80’s/Jem feel.

I decided to call this piece “It’s Showtime Synergy!” and had fun this morning taking a photo of it next to the only things I still have left of what use to me my enormous Jem collection as a kid.

This includes the poster that came in the box with one of my many dolls. I have my Dad to thank for that being in one piece and my brother for rescuing it for me. My Dad use to know how much I loved the Jem posters that came in the box so he would put them on poster board and seal them with cellophane before we would hang them on my walls.

My brother found it a few years back in my Grandparent’s basement. They had passed away and the family was going through their stuff before they sold their house. It was there because I had a time in my life when I had to live with them. It was one of those things I had to leave behind when I had to make a sudden move from their home (depressing story about my life I won’t get into here) and never looked back. He said he saw it and immediately grabbed it and said “I KNOW that is Nic’s!!”

The Pizazz doll is the only doll I was able to grab during that sudden move as well. I was a freshman in high school but I still grabbed her and stuffed her in my suitcase. A reminder of a better more colorful time of my childhood before all the chaos took it over. She sits in my curio cabinet as a reminder that not all of my childhood was lost.

My husband and I are going to look for a cheap frame for it and paint it neon (of course)! Then I am going to hang it in my art room amongst all the other fun things that inspire me. Since I am already getting a lot of feedback on it, I plan on taking the painting to Kinko’s to get a large scan done of it so I can offer prints. Once available I will post an update to let everyone know! Maybe I will even glitter paint the prints on request! How fun would that be?!

See more of my paintings on the Drippings page of my official portfolio website. You can also see various other things I have painted on the Remains page!

Stay Spooky and Outrageous!
LDG Nicole