a99kitten's Musings

Finally hung my new Mike Kungl piece today!! I bought this at his show at the Chuck Jones Gallery in San Diego during SDCC. Going in, I told myself I had no wall space so you are just going to meet Mike, say hi to everyone and leave. Yeah…so…#fail

He did a Marvin piece. I love Marvin (also my very first tattoo!) Plus I am huge fan of the color combo of purples and greens. *please see my love of Maleficent. It is a 1 of a kind. He did a few of these but each in a different color scheme. So this purple and green one = all mine :) #mineminemineminemine #saidlikekDaffy

I also got to meet Mike in person. We spoke a couple times on the phone while he was doing my commissioned piece but I missed him at the last SDCC. And I got to meet his wife. Both were so kind and it was great to hear how they loved doing the husky piece (both are big dog lovers which is also great!) It will always be very, very special to me and I’m glad others feel that way too.

And seeing everyone at the gallery again was fun! The staff there was excited about the husky piece. Was a fun night for sure and I look forward to the next one!

This makes 3 Kungl pieces I have: the Leia artist proof, Marvin and my Chewie/Angelus/Storm original commission. This is becoming an expensive habit! I am still coveting a TinkTini original…but again #nowallspaceleft http://www.mkungl.com/2/d.php?contentID=195

When I was at San Diego Comic-Con this July, I was on the look out for some new, interesting Chewbacca art. He’s actually not the easiest character to portray correctly. I was never able to find anything that I loved (well…Chewbacca wise I mean.) On the last day I made it over to the Chuck Jones Gallery….as evidenced by this purchase: https://a99kitten.com/?p=10450

While there, I also bought another piece. It caught my eye as soon as I walked in but I had been so involved in my purchase of Bad Girls that it took me a while to get over to it. It was not Chewbacca, and I typically don’t collect Leia art, but this piece definitely caught my eye:

It is a good sized piece – 36″ x 24″ on canvas. It’s an artist proof (#3 of 10) and extremely cool in real life :) I’m typically not into the modern or art deco look honestly, but the colors of this just grabbed me. I love the various silvers and greys with white and black (I think another reason I will always have a husky.) My color scheme at home is all browns. Deep, rich browns in various tones. So she doesn’t really fit in but it’ll work. I have a HUGE bus stop poster of Jango Fett framed from Attack of the Clones (all blues and silvers) so they will work together. As I was discussing this piece with the gallery rep, I asked if the artist had done any Chewbacca art. He said not that he was aware of but he could contact the artist. I had actually JUST missed him that day. Darn! And it turned out he left the gallery and went over to the Acme Archives booth inside SDCC. Doh!

Anyway, turns out that no, he had not any done Chewbacca art but that he always wanted to if it was the right feel. Chewie is hard because a lot of artists portray him too cartoony or goofy. I like the fierce Chewie. So we discussed him doing a commission just for me! He would have to get OK by LucasFilm once he did the piece but I was pretty excited!

On a conference call to discuss ideas for the piece, the artist (Mike) asked why I loved Chewbacca so much. That’s easy – because he was Han’s best friend. And protector. Who was big and strong and scared most people but he was a marshmallow inside…to his people. Just like Angelus and Storm were for me. Angelus even sounded like Chewbacca when he talked. And Chewie’s sounds were inspired by George Lucas’ malamute Indiana (who looks a lot like Angelus) so it was a perfect mix. Plus we live in Tahoe and the snow and I always called it Hoth when I’d take the buds out in the snow.

Mike loved the story and it turns out he and his wife are big dog lovers. So he appreciated my love of my buds. And how it translated to my love of all things Chewbacca. So I sent him a bunch of pics of the buds as well as my favorites of Chewie so he could get a sense of how I liked them. He obviously would be keeping it in his own style (art deco-ey, modern. See his site linked below) but incorporating the Chewie, Angelus and Storm in the snow.

The finished work arrived (yes, LucasFilm signed off on it!) and I just got it back from the framers. I. Love. It. He captured the expressions of Angelus and Storm perfectly. Like….perfectly. Plus having an original piece of art commissioned just for me is pretty darn nifty. The fact that it incorporates my beloved friends who are no longer with me along with one of my favorite fictional characters brings together 2 things that I have spent a lot of time in my life enjoying.

I look at this all the time and smile. The buds brought me smiles every day while they were with me, so it’s only natural they keep doing it.

Mike Kungl: http://www.mkungl.com/2/index.php There are **easily** a handful that I would love to hang in my house.

Took the day off from panels today. There were a couple that I wanted to see (Immortals and Snow White) but I had to sleep in a bit after a very laaaate night last night at the Fright Night event so was going to miss the Immortals start time by the time I got ready and Snow White was smack dab in the middle of the day and I had no idea what kind of lines there would be since Kristen Stewart is in it.

So we tried winning gold bricks for Cowboys and Aliens and sat outside in the sun while doing this. We did get gold bricks! YAY! But no premiere tickets – boo. Oh well. Guess a regular viewing next week when it comes out! Still cool to have a gold brick :) Plus sitting outside was nice after being mostly cooped up inside for the past 2 days. Then went to lunch off-site and stopped by the Chuck Jones gallery. Man, there is so much artwork there that I want to buy. So, so much. A couple cool Marvin the Martian pieces to go with my tattoo :) Although my favorite had to be 2 items of Marc Anthony and Kitty. That cartoon is one of my all-time favorites.I literally get a little misty-eyed every time I watch it:)

There was a Grinch piece that was great too. I had NO idea that he did that animation. There were a few other pieces there that weren’t Chuck Jones such as a signed poster from Star Wars Celebration IV and a JLA (a very red theme) and DC Villians (a very green theme) canvas that were both fantastic. As well as X-Men and Avengers. I love the canvas art. Like I said – so, so much cool stuff.

Then we toured the floor and checked out a lot of the cool booths and took pics of booths and some cool costumes. Oh and I bought a Soft Kitty BBT t-shirt and 2 SDCC exclusive JLA tumblers. I love the JLA artwork they are using for the SDCC exclusive stuff this year. The colors and images really pop. I mentioned to the guy that John Barrowman mentioned his tumblers in the Torchwood panel yesterday and he laughed and said he heard that from someone else. He said he has been very busy so he owes that guy a beer :)

Oh…and ran into Sam Witwer who plays Adian the vampire on SyFy’s show Being Human (adapted from BBC series.) I LOVE this show and love Aidan’s character the best (the vamps are usually my faves.) Also – he is hot ☺ And I saw him by accident. I was walking by the Star Wars car and saw a small crowd and thought it was a Star Wars-related crowd so stopped to see what was going on. Then I saw him and was like EEKS! So I tapped his arm and asked if I could take a pic with him and he said sure. So then I asked another guy looking at the car if he could the pic and he did – yay! I told Aidan…err…Sam that I really loved the show and he was so nice and touched my arm and said thank so much for watching it and that he really appreciated it. How sweet! AND HOT! ☺ So that made up for Underground Toys selling out of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man I wanted since I was walking back from there all pouty when I saw Aidan…err…Sam.

After walking so much all day (again) my ankle was d.u.n. So I came back to the room and have been icing it. We were invited back to the gallery for an event and tequila tasting tonight which would probably be fun since Randy Martinez, one of the Star Wars poster artists, is going to be there. Plus, there is an HBO documentary called “Superheroes” being previewed tonight at our hotel that sounds interesting. I want to see it but I might choose to get dinner downstairs (or even room service – my favorite!) and call it a night early. After so little sleep since Tuesday night and last night going to bed after 3 plus walking so much every day, I am tired!

Today was really the last day for SDCC since there is nothing I wanted to see panels-wise on Sunday so I planned an outing/tour at the Wolf Sanctuary in Julian as they were totally booked Monday. So I gave up an extra SDCC day (typically my floor day) to spend some time with awesome wolfies. I am VERY excited about this. I have been donating to them for years now but have never had time when down here for a tour or visit so this will be very awesome! Kinda funny since the SDCC has been so about the vamps – now I need my wolf fix since I am missing my huskies so much!