Hopefully tonight's Toil Girl has a keen sense of Hopefully tonight's Toil Girl has a keen sense of direction, as the yellow brick road looks far from the beaten path of this particular forest. Her name is Heidi, and if she learns her way around this forsaken fairy land as well as she has the English language, trust me, she'll do well. What I'm trying to say is, she's a writer of the highest form and your time will be better spent reading her words than it would be reading mine.

Hi, I’m Heidi! I love shaved ice, dinosaurs, Malibu Rum, and Futurama. I live in Los Angeles where I spend my time laughing too loudly, driving too fast, and procrastinating too often.

This portrait is the result of years and years of Toil love and appreciation! I still remember the day, seven years ago, when I discovered the Toil Gallery and spent hours pouring over the gorgeous pin ups within. My mouth hung open in awe and amazement. I knew I wanted to be a Toil Girl. Nee, I NEEDED to be a Toil Girl! And now…I am!

It took me a long time to decide on a theme. Not because I didn’t have any ideas but because I had too many! And finally it hit me. The last few years have been the hardest of my life and I wanted something to commemorate them. That sounds weird doesn’t it? I know…it totally does! But, see, I wanted something beautiful to have come out of it. And I wanted to remember what I had been through so I
would never forget what I’m capable of surviving.

The Wizard of Oz has always been one of my favorite movies and the idea of being Dorothy as she makes her way through the dark and dangerous forest immediately struck a nerve with me. See, I’m still in that forest. But I know, with my entire heart, that I’ll make it out the other side. And I’ll remember what I went through and
survived. And thanks to Les, those memories will be viewed through a lens of beauty and self-love.

The first time I laid eyes on my completed portrait, I cried like a baby. Because I couldn’t look at it and see myself as anything other than beautiful…something I’ve never really felt before. Cute? Sure. Adorable? Maybe. But beautiful? Never. At least not until now. When I look at the work Les did for me I see myself as beautiful,
strong, courageous, and capable of anything. That’s a gift I can never thank him enough for.

 

Thanks for the wildly imaginative concept, Heidi. I'm just as at home with fantasy art as I am with classic glam girl pin-up art, so the marriage of the two genres was a wise idea on your part.

 

I'm happy with the dimension I created with this particular piece. The forest seems to show a nice amount of expansion. And Mother Nature's botany creations are always fun to tackle, especially when they have faces.

 

It was also a true, true pleasure working with Heidi. I can vouch that she's as sweet as that cupcake that's hanging around her neck. The first thing she did after her portrait was completed was take the effort to show me the flattering feedback the art received from her on and offline friends. She's waaaay cool for someone fresh out of their teens. :-)

 

Love ya! And tell Grandma I said hi!

 

Oh wait...that's the wrong story.