Kathie Olivas

You may recall me lamenting my lack of funds to purchase the $5,400 sculpture by Kathie Olivas. Having received word there are new toys being released, I'm at least closer to my goal of owning one of her figures.

MINDstyle has announced a few different toys including Two-Faced Hazel, a gas mask laden little girl with those lovely striped tentacle feet.

They are releasing a limited run of 200 figures for $99 a piece. This is at least closer to my price range.

Spankystokes somehow got the scoop on this, and since the artist's website is rarely updated, I haven't been able to find out more information about the sculpture.

I've blogged about Kathie Olivas in the past (and how I'm a big fan). I own a limited print of hers and have been salivating over her designer toys, plotting ways to add them to my collection.

I don't think I'm going to be able to afford this new piece.

She has taken her Elizabeth figure and created a 3 foot fibreglass sculpture.

I can only imagine how wonderful it must look in person, with her perfect petticoat and tentacles.

Where do you put something like that? Not outside, else it gets stolen. You make room for it inside. Somewhere grand. I don't care if you have to throw out an armchair.

Of course, if you can afford this piece I imagine you have enough square feet to incorporate it into your living space without chucking furniture (or by simply buying new, more accommodating furniture).

Sigh.

Last summer I was in Montreal at the Yves Laroche/L'Autre Gallery for "Second Hand Smoke and Mirrors", a showing that combined the talents of two artists.

Let me introduce you to Kathie Olivas from Tampa Bay Florida. She is an artist, collector and curator of what is referred to (so inappropriately) as 'lowbrow art': the type of funky art you see in magazines, on record or book covers, on many an indie concert poster and in shops that sell Vinyl Designer toys (of which I am a collector). Calling it lowbrow is like saying all contemporary and pop-culture pieces aren't art at all, but just meant for key chains and bumper stickers. For some reason creators of what is, I suppose, commercial art tend to have a self-deprecating sense about them. But I digress.

Olivias (and Peters) creates images of children in costumes - often with multiple masks - that have a certain eerie yet cute feel about them. She pairs them with rabbits or other fuzzy creatures who equally produce a sense of uneasiness, whether they are reaching for the child's lollipop or simply standing in frame. And to my delight, she is involved with the launch of Scavengers Mini Figures Series 1, a collection of vinyl toys recently released that are high on my Christmas list.

You can see more of her work at Miserychildren.com, but before you leave let me tell you about another artist.