Jem artist discovered hiding out on the Portrait Artist Forum!

Sharon Knettell · 12-30-2006, 12:07 PM

A beloved Forum member has been outed as the Jem rock doll artist.
Jem was a rock doll sold by the Hasbro Company in the mid-eighties.

This artist did the packaging art. She was able to lower herself to do said artwork which enabled her to buy a big new housie. Previously she had been living under an overpass in Providence RI.

The kind souls who revealed her previous and shameful identity are fine artists of the purest and noblest natures. They I am sure wanted to warn those who are taking her workshop in the www.scottsdaleartschool.org, in March of 2007 to be fully aware of her other, ahem, abilities.

Here are some examples of her earlier and present work.

Personally, I think one would really stretch their abilities in this workshop, given the range of her endeavours.

Alexandra Tyng · 12-30-2006, 10:08 PM

Cool, Sharon, you are a woman of many facets, past and present. Now, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I do see a slight similarity of viewpoint between the two, maybe in the stance, attitude, and proportions (7 heads or more?).

Sharon Knettell · 12-30-2006, 10:43 PM

Alexandra, you have nailed it, I have always have had an attitude.

Actually I feel all those poses when I am drawing or painting them. It was more true when I was doing Jem, when I was a size 4 at 5'7".

Oh I weep!

Congratulations on your wonderful painting making the grade on the ARC site.

Kimberly Dow · 12-30-2006, 11:21 PM

Nothing to be ashamed of - Im sure they were painted from life.

Sharon Knettell · 12-31-2006, 12:38 PM

Kim,

Are you kidding! The models then cost me $150 per hour! Hasbro paid for them, their costumes and custom wigs.

I loved doing it, it was a blast, plus I netted 100K in one year in 1986 dollars. I did it for another year 'til they stopped producing her.

I call my house the house that Jem built.

When I google Jem and my name, I find it attached to Japanese, French and South American web-sites, plus American ones. I have been invited to conventions and have done on-line interviews.

It actually has inspired in some way my ballerinas (Alex, you are right). I love painting big dollies.

Congratulations on your ARC prizes. Well deserved.

Terri Ficenec · 12-31-2006, 01:29 PM

That's wild Sharon! There is a kind of similarity between then & now. What a neat experience that must have been!

Linda Brandon · 12-31-2006, 02:53 PM

That does it, I'm convinced! I'm signing up for your workshop asap.

Sharon Knettell · 12-31-2006, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linda Brandon

That does it, I'm convinced! I'm signing up for your workshop asap.

You better, so far you are the only one that will fit into the tutu's!

Lacey Lewis · 01-01-2007, 02:03 AM

I loved Jem when I was a little girl!

Come to think of it, they are likely why I grew up and dyed my hair blue and green and pink. My parents were so proud.

I never would've guessed, but I also see the similarities. Cheers!

Steven Sweeney · 01-01-2007, 04:39 AM

Those fetching Jem graphics cost me a lot of money back in the day, when my pre-school daughter (now preparing to marry in the Spring) was still working on complete sentences but could point and say "Jem" when we visited the video store. ("Video," for you young'uns, was a format now obsolete, in the landfills with 8-tracks and LPs.)

I may have kind of fancied Jem myself, but I'm not saying.