Astoria Characters: The Artist With Vast Bodies of Work

All is solemn, still and shrouded in the serenity of semi-darkness. In this surrealistic setting, you catch sight of a statue of a raven, regal, its beak wide open as if to cry out in warning. Tina’s a tattoo artist. A bouquet of dead red roses tied to a midnight-black diaphanous drape. Butterflies, wings unfurled in kaleidoscopic glory, entombed under glass. A skull gazing, eyeless, at a bunch of bottles of ink. She has a Goth aesthetic. And a black-clad woman with…

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Astoria Characters: The Big-Kid Toy Collectors

Right inside the front door, there’s a cutie-pie Strawberry Shortcake dollhouse displayed, like a rare jewel, in an acrylic case. It’s living next door to Skeletor’s creepy castle. Phebe with her pal Hulk Hogan. Down the aisle, there are a bunch of Barbies, Cabbage Patch Kids and action figures and G.I. Joes just waiting for the next kid, or as is more often the case, the next adult to cherish. Look around – there’s a lot of playful stuff crammed into the floor-to-ceiling shelves…

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