Spitting Image: Hell Has No Fury

Part of my Portrait Bucket List has always been to do something inspired by Hellraiser. As horror geeks, my husband and I sometimes have Hellraiser movie marathons and have even had the honor of meeting both both Doug Bradley and Ashley Laurence (both really incredible, down to earth people. If you get the chance to meet them at a con I highly recommend you don’t miss out on the opportunity!).

Despite being such a fan, the only piece of art inspired by the film that I have done was a custom Pinhead barrette that I made for a client. I will say though.. it came out pretty killer and the client loved it. To this day I still half tempted to make one for myself!

So needless to say, when I saw that Clive Barker himself was calling out to artists to submit their work for an upcoming Hellraiser Anthology book I jumped on it. It being a contest I wanted to do something different then the usual expected Pin Head portrait. I also wanted to incorporate my love of woman in horror and my signature split faces that I love to do. Now you would think I would’ve went with drawing Ashley as Kirsty but the thing is I have always wanted to draw a Cenobite. And what better Cenobite to draw then the Demon Princess turned Cenobite herself… Angelique (played by Valentina Vargas).

So as Pinhead would say, “I have such sights to show you”.

Here is my piece I call “Hell Has No Fury”…………

I have entered it into the contest and I will say, even if I don’t win anything I am just excited to know that  Clive Barker, king of dark art himself may actually see a piece of my work and that makes my creepy little heart heart skip a beat! If you are a Hellraiser fan as well, you can purchase prints of this piece in my Etsy shop! And if you want to see more of my portrait work, head on over to the Spitting Image page of my portfolio site!

Stay Spooky,
LDG Nicole

Freaky Fanatics: Jen and Sylvia Soska rocking American Mary Dead Girl Decay Barrettes!

Well I checked my email and there was quite the treat waiting for me. Two photos from the beautiful twisted twins themselves, Jen and Sylvia Soska (AKA The Soska Sisters of Twisted Twins Productions)! The photos are of the ladies looking amazing (as always) while rocking the American Mary Dead Girl Decay Barrettes that I made for them.

I created these barrettes because I was planning on giving them to the lovely ladies in person at a local horror movie convention. I was so stoked to finally get to meet them and then I ended up back in the hospital. My surgery fell a week before the convention and I was stuck in bed recovering. I was extremely bummed out. Lucky for me these gals are amazing. I reached out to them to tell them what happened and they got in touch with me.

I decided to do the barrettes in the American Mary theme because the movie has become one of my all time favorites.  When the movie came out I was intrigued because it was a Soska Sisters movie but also because Katharine Isabelle was the lead role of Mary (and you all know how much I adore her). I remember watching it and thinking “FINALLY! A new creative direction in the horror movie industry! FINALLY!” It was a breath of bloody fresh air. I was getting a bit frustrated at the time when every movie preview I saw was for a remake. On top of it seeing the confusion in younger horror fans thinking these movies were big new ideas (which in turn means never giving the classics a chance). American Mary came out during a much needed time in the industry and I could not have been happier. I remember when the movie was over I literally said “BRAVO!” and clapped!

I admire what the Soska Sisters are doing in the horror industry and what a positive representation they have become for woman in horror. On top of it anyone that uses Katharine Isabelle as their muse is definitely a genius in my book.

These ladies really are amazing and these photos are a perfect example of that! 

Here is an up close photo I took of the barrettes before I sent them out…

 And for added fun here is a photo of me on 4th of July rocking my American Mary shirt proudly….

Stay Spooky!
Living Dead Girl Nicole

@twistedtwinsproduction