I recently reconnected with a writer friend from high school who has written a fantastic manuscript titled “Grandma was a Rockette” - how awesome! Yours truly has been chosen to illustrate the story, which has me so excited because I’ve been enamored of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes from the time I was a little girl. They really transform the art of burlesque (with all its glitz and glamour) to a style that’s family friendly and the stuff that girls’ dreams are made of.

Well, thought I’d gotten all my Christmas shopping done early this year, but as usual there are those gifts that didn’t arrive on time (I do 99% of my shopping online - can’t stand going from store to store) or those last few people that are too hard to buy for. I’ll definitely have to make it out to the stores before Friday to wrap things up, so to speak! In the meantime, my eBay purchases did arrive on time and I now have a wonderful retro-style (but not vintage - those 1960’s aluminum trees with the revolving spotlight like the one I grew up with went for big bucks this year!) mini silver aluminum tree with white lights and pink ball ornaments is now illuminating my studio window thanks to some fantastic deals on eBay and excellent sellers who understand that the true meaning of Christmas is customer service Anyway, here’s a picture of the tree which makes me feel oh so girly and nostalgic!

I’ve been working on this one for a while due to the amount of detail (she has some awesome ink done by Lil Mike at Tri-Star Tattoo) and the fact that I started on it just as the holiday season was coming into full swing! Texas Tara is such a sweetheart that I’m not really minding spending so much time with her image in my studio! Anyway, here’s a detail image of the sketch:

I hope to do something different with the way I finish this one, but we’ll have to wait and see how it turns out!

I’ve finally gotten around to setting up a gallery on the deviantArt website. I think it’s a fantastis site for artists and art lovers to get together. I’ve only added a few of my paintings so far, but will be adding more in the future. If you’re interested in seeing which paintings get the most views and comments you can check it out at www.susanheidi.deviantart.com

You may be wondering about the title of this post, since I don’t paint nudes and my pinups are considered more realistic than cartoonish. While visiting a local shop today to show some of my work for a potential installation, I became aware of nude pinup cartoons on the packaging of cutesy cosmetic products being marketed to young girls - with the catchy name “Dirty Girl“. What really has me stumped is that the shop owner’s husband thinks my artwork is too risque to exhibit in her boutique! How can this be? How can full frontal nudity be socailly acceptable in a cartoon while fully clothed or otherwise covered-up pinups painted more realistically are considered too risque? If you haven’t seen the line of cosmetics, you can check them out at A’dore Boutique, 140 Main Street in Cold Spring, NY. The shop owner, Sabrina, is a real doll - she’s very helpful, carries a variety of cosmetic lines that are outside the norm you’d find in department stores, and the boutique is decorated in a fab glamour style reminiscent of the 40’s and 50’s. As for my artwork, I don’t think I’ll be painting nude cartoons anytime soon - even if they do have better mainstream retail appeal

This month is turning out to be super busy as expected with continued work on my pinup painting of Texas Tara, the typical preparations for Christmas, and the celebration of two birthdays in my family (including my own - check out all the wonderful birthday greetings I’ve received from my friends on myspace. They really know how to keep me inspired!). There is a lot going on in the pinup world that I also need to update everyone on and I have a few announcements that I’ll be making soon regarding plans for next year.