(Photos from Got Caricature’s Facebook)
ORLANDO | Orlando performer Jeff Jones will put his foray into pop culture sculpting on display at the LGBT+ Center in Orlando next month with a new art exhibit showcasing his work.
Jones’ art exhibit will feature about a dozen of his sculpted three-dimensional caricatures modeled after some of pop culture’s most popular figures including Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia from the ‘80s sitcom “The Golden Girls,” Joker and the Penguin from the ‘60s “Batman” TV show, Frank-N-Furter from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Betty Davis as Baby Jane Hudson from “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane,” Bette Midler as Winifred Sanderson from “Hocus Pocus” and more.
The heads of the busts are sculpted from natural air-dry clay and painted in acrylic, then accessorized with old wigs and costumes and are designed to hang on the wall.
“The wigs I find online or I use wigs and costumes from old Halloween costumes of mine,” Jones says. “Some of the costumes I’ve made myself using fabric, hot glue and staples. I’ve done probably about 20 so far.”
Jones began his new artistic venture the same way many people discovered their hobbies recently, he says, during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“I was stuck at home like everyone else and was looking at some Disney villain sculptures I had hanging on my wall,” Jones recalls, “and I thought maybe while I’m at home I can make some additional characters of ones I didn’t have. So just out of sheer boredom I thought ‘let me see if I can do this.’”
He began with the villain Jafar from the Disney classic animated film “Aladdin.”
“It came out pretty good so I thought let me do a couple more and have fun with it,” Jones says.
Jones started to branch out from animated Disney villains to other characters portrayed in live action.
“My style was always a little more cartoonish,” he says, “so while I was making human characters, I veered off and did more of a caricature version of them. People would challenge me to try a new character and I would try it and it grew from there.”
Jones’ exhibit will kick off Sept. 8 with a free art show at The Center Orlando from 6-8 p.m., featuring light bites and a cash bar, and will be displayed for the entire month of September. All pieces will be available for purchase with 10% of all sales benefiting The Center.
One particular piece, which Jones is currently working on, will be of Orlando’s drag icon Miss Sammy.
“The Miss Sammy one came about because I thought it would be cool to have something at the show that has a local tie,” Jones says. “Since they recently started the Singhaus Scholarship Foundation, I thought why not raffle this one off and donate the funds raised to the scholarship fund.”
The caricature sculpture will not only be done in the image of Miss Sammy but it will also contain parts of the drag legend’s history.
“I have talked to Eddie Cooper, who is one of the people in charge of the scholarship, and Karen Brown and I’m actually using one of Miss Sammy’s costumes and wigs to go on the piece,” Jones says.
Jones says based on the community’s response to the fundraiser, he would be open to it becoming an annual event.
“For this upcoming event, I was debating on whether to do Miss Sammy or [legendary Parliament House performer] Miss P,” Jones says. “Since it is the Singhaus Scholarship Foundation I thought it was best to start with Miss Sammy. I know a lot of people have asked me about doing a Taffy one since we just did lose Doug [Ba’aser]. I mean we have lost a lot of great legends here in Orlando so I could see a whole series based on them.”
For more information on Jones’ art show, go to the event’s Facebook page here. You can see more of Jones’ work at GotCaricature.com.
