The thing that I remember the most about the eighties, being the age I was, is the toys. So I started by compiling a list of people’s favorite toys from the 80s (great conversation starter by the way, if you’re the kind of person that likes meeting new people everywhere you go!). In doing some research I discovered that many of the more feminine and cutesy characters were originally created by greeting card companies and only later became toys and/or cartoons. For example, Rainbow Brite was created by Hallmark and Strawberry Shortcake was created by American Greetings. I found this amusing that they were essentially greeting card corporate adversaries, so it was only natural to pit them against one another for my piece, “Rainbow Bloodbath”:
I also did a second piece, “Care Bear Carnage”, pitting one of the Care Bears (also created by American Greetings) against the popular 80s talking bear toy Teddy Ruxpin.
I also hand-painted each frame purple. TOTALLY RADICAL DUDE!!!
