A. Adrienne DeLuis is an American artist, designer and musician releasing designer toys collaboratively with her husband, world renowned guitar maker Greg DeLuis, as ‘Mug Costanza Toys’ and also solo under her recently launched ‘Medeuces Wild’ brand.
Having spent her entire life in creative fields – as a zine maker, graphic designer, dominatrix, musician and even as the ‘beach house girl’ for once-hyped apparel brand ‘Rogue Status’ (you may remember them for their iconic Gun Show firearm print t-shirt from a decade or so ago.) A. Adrienne uses ‘Medeuces Wild’ to explore themes and concepts dear to her heart – such as feminism, sexual positivity, sci-fi, pop culture, writing, designing and toy making.
Discussing what it’s like to branch out solo with her ‘Medeuces Wild’ brand as well as the ethos behind her first resin release – Screx Sateen, from the Galactic Sluts series, A. Adrienne states,
“Creating my brand, Medeuces Wild, has been a liberating and transformative process for me and it represents years of struggling with artistic identity with a final release of authenticity.
It finally feels like home.
… Galactic Sluts is Futuristic, Sci-Fi, Feminist, Alien smut. There are 10 characters total in the line that will be released… I’m basically creating my own alternate universe where these girls and all their enterprises exist, which is both fun and daunting.
…I’m not a activist, although I am super supportive of sex workers rights and that was heavy on my mind during the making of these stories. I also feel that taking ownership of sexuality is inherently feminist.
These zines and the toys are a 100% manifestation of female driven lust and fantasy.“
In order to get to know A. Adrienne, as well as her thoughts on art, life, toys, and a whole lot more, we sent her some questions to answer over email.
You can read our interview with A. Adrienne below:
Getting Acquainted
Name + D.O.B?
A. Adrienne DeLuis.
7/23/84
City, State and Country you currently call home?
Los Angeles, CA, USA.
City, State and Country you’re from?
Niskayuna, NY, USA.
Please describe some memories from key stages of your life: concerts, art, toys, romance, comic books, hunting, school, politics, crime, religion… ANYTHING really!
* Age 5 – beginnings:
I remember watching Bob Ross in my grandfather’s living room while he listened to records. The room always smelled like soup. He also had a really itchy couch. He would always be drawing little pictures on napkins and torn pieces of paper.
I just remember the calming nature of watching him sketch for no reason other than just a simple moment of pleasure, and it felt good to be around.
* Age 10 – continuations:
I was a super awkward kid. I grew up in a really boring town and never really felt like I fit in. Even at a young age I couldn’t wait to get the hell out.
I wanted to be in a band when I grew up, so I used to draw up fake album covers. I saw myself growing up as a morphed image of Bjork and Shirley Manson lol.
When Empire Records came out, I was smitten and obsessed with the idea of working at a record store and wearing miniskirts.
I also watched a lot of Seinfeld and used to write down comedy sketches and try and do mini stand-up routines at sleepovers.
I was enamoured with the movie Clueless.
These were my most prominent influences of pop culture.
The only thing that being on the outside taught me was that if you can observe, you can make jokes about it, and I used humour as a coping mechanism, still do.
* Age 15 – getting serious:
I spent a lot of time reading about Andy Warhol and Candy Darling. Took a serious interest in Ken Kesey, the Merry Pranksters and anything beat poetry. I wanted to live in San Francisco, and to get into trouble and hitchhike. I wanted to eat street food in Thailand and throw up and laugh about it.
I basically just constantly lived in a dream state where I was anywhere than where I was.
When I was 15, I met some goths attending a jazz concert at the Unitarian Church near my house and we did scandalous photo shoots in my room and drank their stolen 40’s under my bed covers and learned how to do stick and poke tattoos on oranges.
When I was 16, I got a fake ID and spent a lot of time in raucous gay bars with some older friends. People usually believed I was 21 because I could carry on actual conversations.
I got some really bad tattoos, drank a lot of cheap vodka, did some mild good time inducing drugs and danced to international DJ’s in warehouse clubs off the freeway to NYC.
I saw some crazy shit.
When I would have to come back down to reality, I felt so disconnected to anyone my age.
I listened to a lot of David Bowie and Lou Reed and Grateful Dead and obscure punk bands.
I wanted to write a movie and would often work on mini scripts and zines instead of doing homework and then throw them away because I thought they weren’t good enough.
It’s amazing I even graduated high school; I was there physically but so gone mentally.
* Age 20 – young adult:
I had moved to Portland, OR and was going to college at PSU. It was really the first time I felt accepted even though I was different.
I worked at a quirky gay owned cafe in the middle of SE Portland.
I was part of it all.
I was a classic bike riding, cold brew drinking, craft beer drinking, tattooed, gum chewing, crop top wearing, anorexic, early 2000’s Portland cliché, and I loved it so much.
Living in Portland was cheap at that time, there were young weirdos from other small towns all over the country just like me. I could hear Tom Waits at a strip club and I could perform in noise music shows in a bra and a sparkle skirt. It was heaven.
However, it was also hell because I wasn’t going to school for what I wanted and I was always pretending to be interested in something I wasn’t. I had very little direction.
I really just wanted to be in a band and make art, but I was working toward an Environmental Engineering degree because I thought it would give me a real life.
I met a girl in my chemistry class that was a cage dancer and dominatrix at a club near school and there was an opening there. The money was good, I took the job and we would get ready together after we did our homework in the cafe at Powell’s Books, and before I knew it local politicians were paying me $250 to clean my apartment while I yelled at them about what a bad job they were doing.
I was what you call, a Humiliatrix. Men literally paid me to make them feel like shit, and it has by far been the easiest job I’ve ever had.
Almost no one knew that I did this kind of work (sorry mom!), honestly it was easy to fit in between classes, especially because most of the clients worked at City Hall which was near campus.
After school was over, I moved into a Noise Music house with 10 other musicians where we held biweekly concerts and there, I did a lot of random illustration work, zine layouts and music programs for other show houses.
Back then Portland had the most incredible underground energy.
Then I met a guy who was terrible for me and we decided to go backpacking throughout Nepal and India and I spent 9 months listening nonstop to Neil Young just so I could feel extra sad between the hash and high fevers from food poisoning.
When I came back from the trip, I felt really different and I knew I had to move somewhere that would jar me from everything I had been comfortable knowing. So, I did the logical thing that people do in that situation, I moved to Los Angeles.
* Age 25 – adult mode:
I had been living with my best friend in LA and we spent all our free time getting black out trashed in every gay bar in West Hollywood, also we lived in a 4-story condo with a rooftop that we hosted parties at.
I felt extremely at home and being surrounded by shit show gay men was very comforting.
Almost everyone I knew worked in the creative sector. I worked part time for Lime Studios and was a waitress at one of the first raw vegan restaurants in LA, Planet Raw. A bunch of designers from the skate brand Rogue Status used to come in a lot and eventually they convinced me to be their “beach house” girl in Venice, CA where I basically shopped for furniture and trinkets, sun bathed and made smoothies for the various skate dudes and designers that came in and out.
I got to work on projects here and there, but I wasn’t a real part of anything.
I realized I was never really a part of anyone’s team. I’ve always been on the outside when it came to creative work.
When my roommate / best friend decided to take things seriously with his boyfriend and I decided to quit the beach house gig I thought it might be a good time to go home and visit family, so I put what little possessions I had in my friends’ storage unit and took some suitcases with me, fully expecting to return in a month. Within 3 weeks I met my now husband while playing music (literally met him on stage as we were playing in the same show) and decided to stay and immediately moved in with him.
He was the best thing that ever happened to my most authentic self. He lived and breathed art and craftsmanship. Everything I had ever attempted at art paled in comparison to what he did on a daily basis.
We lived in his tiny apartment which was half a dusty workshop and watched old movies on videotape on his tiny vintage tv and there was a mattress on the floor and we never used the kitchen and went out for coffee every morning and it was the most life I had ever lived just ‘being in the moment’.
While he was making amazing handmade acoustic guitars, I made a fucking ridiculous Hulk Hogan themed Rube Goldberg Machine on a skateboard. I made zines about taxidermy and emo poems while he was making fine art prints. I was literally making low fi garbage but he treated it the same, and it made me look at my art with more respect.
We would collab on a lot, especially performing music, but mostly it was just me being in awe of his talent while randomly putting out some low-res art project. It drove me to be better and expand my expectations for myself and my art.
When he later also became a toy maker and designer, it was as if we found our stride in our collaborative working relationship. I owe a lot to his artistic influence. We also come from similar backgrounds of being raised by single mothers, existing on the outside of social norms and needing to be self-preserving.
It always helps to find someone as weird as you.
* Age 30 – fully formed:
We became parents. Got married in San Francisco City Hall with a couple close friends by our side.
We were super poor but we used every penny we had to perpetuate DeLuis Guitars, my husband’s small business. We moved to the loft above Tom Lieber’s (Lieber Guitars has worked extensively with the Grateful Dead family) workshop in Cooperstown, NY and Greg got to build guitars for famous people.
It was exciting for us, but I also felt slow and stagnant.
Living in a small town far from a city sucked the life out of me. I did a lot of random gig work from afar. I worked on books when I could, scripts when I could, made logos when I could, made band posters when I could and made show posters when people needed me to, but I wasn’t connected to my art. We both needed more and a sense of revival.
We sat on the couch one day to come up with a name for a toy brand my husband wanted to make legit. We kept looking around the room and naming objects, until we finally realized we were reliving the Seinfeld episode “The Seven” where Jerry makes fun of George by picking up random objects and using them as a first name. “Ketchup, lovely name for a girl, or a boy. Mug, Mug Constanza” and there we had the name for our brand.
Mug Costanza was born from just giving up on knowing what the fuck to name something. It became a major creative focus for us and making custom artwork for the toy cardbacks was the new nightly pastime.
I felt utterly revived by this endeavour.
We had been wanting to get back to LA so we drove across the country and moved into a super old and for sure haunted building a block from the beach in Venice and from a little shit desk is where Mug was really born.
I started working for Teragram Ballroom, an indie music venue, and all of a sudden, I was that same happily and sarcastically disgruntled, tattooed, ironic girl from Portland that felt accepted by all the artists and musicians I was working with on the daily.
For me, I just need to live in a place where I feel a relate-ability and collective unconscious connection to my community. It might not be that way for everyone, but because I grew up so lonely, being surrounded by people like me makes a huge difference emotionally.
During this time, I grew immensely as an artist and challenged myself to do more projects I wouldn’t normally do. The art community in Los Angeles is so diverse and there are so many self-made makers and a beautifully gritty underground. It’s also expensive, so it breeds the need for hustle. Ultimately, I feel like because there is so much struggle with being an artist and living here, it’s a strong motivator to do more and more. I don’t like feeling complacent, and you basically can’t get a moments rest here, for better or worse. Also, our daughter is rad and brings me an immense amount of joy that pushes me into my work with a sense of determination.
* Age 35 – meanderings:
At this point I had been supporting Mug Costanza Toys with its growth, we got into some amazing shows immediately, sold out some toy releases and felt a really warm reception from the community.
Just like all of his other projects, Greg put an impressive amount of time and energy into being highly skilled at what he was doing. Again, it pushed me to dig deeper and try harder to find where my voice stood in the sea of resin artists that was growing by the day. I had branched out on a few of my own resin projects, like a “Millennium Fascinator”, but didn’t really put it out there because I was afraid.
The more I thought about it though I realized it’s because I was afraid to be representing myself as I was always operating under the comforting blanket of Mug.
I was afraid that people wouldn’t take my art seriously or that I would make a misstep and turn people off or I wouldn’t be funny enough.
But at some point, I just thought fuck it and late one night started writing some erotic stories about alien chicks flying through the galaxy, killing and fucking their way through their adventures. These became my Galactic Slut line of toys and erotic zines. I was always afraid to come to terms, and be public, with that side of myself. I guess I was embarrassed in a way to just come out and say, “I’m into freaky shit and I can write stories about it! And sometimes they are funny! But mostly they are cringeworthy and make you uncomfortable and I laugh at myself when I read it back!”
I just felt like I could combine some of my favourite things into a tangible art, which are: storytelling, zine making and toy design.
Creating my brand, Medeuces Wild, has been a liberating and transformative process for me and it represents years of struggling with artistic identity with a final release of authenticity. It finally feels like home.
Personal motto(s)?
“Plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom.”
– Ken Kesey
Art Questions
When and why did you first start to make art?
… and any pivotal artistic moment(s) / influence(s)?
Everyone fucks around with art projects.
In my life I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of random endeavours I’ve given my time and energy to in hopes of creating something meaningful, most of them are utter failures, which is it totally fine and part of the process. The projects I liked the most were often the most useless.
I’m a huge fan of Rube Goldberg Machines purely for the fact that they are so extravagant and unnecessary. No one needs it, but we are forever changed by their existence and the absurdity and the audacity that goes along with them.
I like anything frivolous when it comes to art, and the gaudier the better. That being said, I’m a minimalist in my life and own very few possessions. I think it creates a balance that way.
My biggest pivotal moment was meeting my husband, Greg (I know I’ve talked about him a lot – nerd alert) 11 years ago and coming into direct contact with a master crafter who wasn’t in much of a better spot than anyone else I knew. He spent nearly everything he earned on creative work and not much has changed today.
Most of what he was doing at the time was handcrafting Acoustic & Electric Guitars for his brand, DeLuis Guitars. He always used to say that he did it out of love, and not to get rich. It was so authentic, and after working with many designers and people working in a more corporate creative setting it was refreshing to see someone pursue such a high level of art without 1) their trust fund to back them and 2) any guarantee of reward. It just really took me out of that capitalist mindset that modern art wars, corporatist graphic design work and gallery snobbery instils in you: that cash is king. With that aspect gone it allowed me to just make. I really didn’t care if someone wanted it, or needed it, or if it would sell. I just wanted to make things.
When I started my toy line, I started it for me and then shared it with others. I’m not a activist, although I am super supportive of sex workers rights and that was heavy on my mind during the making of these stories. I also feel that taking ownership of sexuality is inherently feminist. These zines and the toys are a 100% manifestation of female driven lust and fantasy.
It’s not for everyone, and that’s ok.
Whilst we know you through your resin creations and art – care to share with those at home the details of your other creative endeavours… if any?!
I’ve been working on a few scripts for some time. One is a sitcom centring around a girl and her gay best friend living in LA and all their exploits which most of the time are fuelled by drugs and alcohol. There is claymation involved and lots of psychedelic wormholes. It’s almost like if Absolutely Fabulous, Golden Girls, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Seinfeld and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had an orgy in West Hollywood.
A lot of the things that happen in this show actually happened to my friends and I, which makes it easy to write, also makes me look back and go, wtf.
I also have two Sci-Fi scripts and two comedy scripts I’m working on. The one I’m spending the most time on is a comedy called “Bingo” about a wayward girl who goes to live with her grandmother after her grandfather passes away and ends up getting exposed to the caddy and scandalous drama of her grandmother’s Bingo league.
When they discover the town Bingo hall is in danger of being sold at auction, the girl decides to help her grandmother hold onto the only thing that gives her joy and together they must convince her longtime Bingo rival to join forces and use the end of the year reward money to buy the building back.
Despite their efforts, the new buyer has tricks up his sleeve to thwart their plan. In the meantime, the granddaughter gets close with the local town clerk who is ultimately able to help them and unite the divided bingo hall politics once and for all, while getting the girl and deepening her connection to family.
I see a lot of sequins and bleached blonde hair and blue blocker sunglasses. In my dream life I picture Kristen Wig, Kate McKinnon, Maya Rudolph, Leslie Jones and Aidy Bryant in full prosthetics alongside Jessica Walter and Betty White.
I CAN DREAM CAN’T I!?
What do you do for a day job at the moment?
… and how does your day job impact / influence your artistic practice?
I’m a freelance graphic designer, working on a very wide range. I get to work with brand developers on random projects of my choosing which keeps me in the professional sector.
I like that I don’t have to be tied down to a firm where I might be stuck in a team I don’t like; on a project I don’t like with a boss I don’t like. I appreciate the freedom, and I can manage my time in accordance with my creative projects while balancing a family life and can decide at any given time what is most worth my energy. It’s a sense of control that I value more than stability.
Connections are everything anyway and anytime someone recommends me for a project it’s the most flattering thing.
Also, I live in LA, so this probably goes without saying but I’m also a part of the omnipresent LA restaurant scene that is made of artists, screenwriters, actors and musicians.
I actually really enjoy it and since most of us are in the creative field outside of our jobs it’s like going out for coffee with your peers to talk about all your upcoming projects, except we are getting other people coffee and they are paying us for it.
I also run social media for a few restaurants and do brand consultation, marketing and design.
I would actually love to open up my own restaurant one day; an over the top, art curated vegan place called Paradise Diner. Also, that name could be used for a soap opera, either way I would be happy.
Please describe the usual process involved with producing your resin toys – from initial idea, to sculpting, production, packaging and eventual release?
In the case of Galactic Sluts, it all started with wanting to create an original storyline and cast of characters. A lot of the bootleg world is naturally based on recreating existing characters or doing mashups or doing what’s called “kitbashing” multiple characters together.
Doing mashups is a form of comedy, it’s really easy to come up with because if you’re into toys or pop culture it comes easy to make the connections.
Creating original characters uses the same process as storyboarding and character development and then from there I outline the individual character treatment and begin working on their stories.
Since in my case, the characters will all interact at some point and I’m releasing them one by one, I had to create a timeline and build around that.
Before I wrote anything though I did drawings and came up with names for each character, which gave me the visual jumping off point of which to write, also I have to remember when I’m drawing if I can effectively translate that to a physical toy that’s only 3.75” tall.
Once all that is done, I then see what existing vintage toys have similar physical attributes to my character. Most of the time we are finding something that is close but will require wax sculpting or other modifications. Mug does a lot of original sculpts where Greg uses a wax method that Scott Hensey used when he sculpted the original TMNT toy line.
Once the sculpting or mods are done the toy is molded in silicon.
Once the mold, or for articulated toys (molds-some being over 9 parts for every body part and their accessories) are made we can then pour in a resin mixture and that goes in the pressure pot and *hopefully* comes out a perfect looking plastic figure.
The figures are then hand painted.
In the meantime we hand make all of our cardbacks, cutting the first layer from mounting cardstock then overlaying our digital print on magazine paper then we make the card look just like a toy you would see hanging on a shelf, and the last thing is securing the figure in its little bubble home and that’s how it looks just like a real action figure.
Favourite other artist(s)?
So of course, my main crush is Mug Constanza Toys, not just because he’s my husband, but because the dude genuinely is a rad artist and puts a lot of thought, energy and time into his work and the end result is a really high quality product all around.
Dollar Slice Bootlegs & Hoarceebu are another resin couple and also happen to be some of our best friends. D$B is an OG in the resin scene, he paved the way for a lot of other people coming from various artistic backgrounds to throw cation to the wind and manifest their art into a real underground and niche form of expression.
He was the number one influence on Mug Costanza’s existence. He has amazing taste when it comes to his releases. His wife is an incredible and meticulous sculptor, she blows my mind and she is becoming a force to be reckoned with for sure.
Seth Relentless is just on such a high level of craft. His card backs are stunning and he takes it seriously.
I love the whimsy in the design of Paige Pearsall’s toys, aka Creature Feature.
While not toy makers, the collage style visual art of Tricecat, as well as the impeccable and uniquely stylized drawing skills of Helen Kennedy aka Zazzcorp are so inspiring, both as a zine maker and an illustrator (and deadhead).
Also, if I didn’t mention Sucklord I would just be an asshole. The guy pretty much started it, plus he’s into weird shit, which makes me like him more.
Thoughts on the current status of the American resin toy scene?
Well first off, and without sugar coating it, it’s an absolute sausage fest.
The reality is that the Resin toy scene can cover a large breadth of work. I operate primarily with the “bootleg” scene, which is full of pop culture parody and vintage inspired parody, as well as being very comedy heavy. Taken from the way we describe our line on Mug:
“Art Toys as irreverent collage style pieces that draw from 70’s, 80’s and 90’s toy lines. Our favourite themes focus on surreal alternate realities and multiverse riffs on classic archetypes.
Art Toys as an expression of the importance of a youthful sense of wonderment and joy just for fun.
Art Toys that are a commentary on corporate greed and corrupt governments.”
So you can see that the specific genre I belong to is different from say a resin or vinyl artist that is making little creatures or fictional characters based on Japanese toy design or anime or just pure fantasy creatures that aren’t in on an inside joke or have a political or comical meaning behind them.
That scene is much larger and more diverse in terms of men and women artists. The bootleg scene is extremely male saturated.
I don’t think it’s this way on purpose, but anytime there is a clear lean in one direction you have to wonder what about that particular craft or niche might be intimidating to the other side. I think having a platform on which to showcase is part of it, as many of these private shows are premeditated in advance and certain players can put themselves on a pedestal of arrogance due to a sort of “exclusive access” to the smaller shows.
This year I’ve been organizing a new travelling toy show called “This Means W.O.R (Women of Resin)”. It will be a chance for women/they/them who have been trying to get into the scene a jumping off point for showing their work and showcase the immense talent that already exists from women/they/them currently in the scene, as well as create a supportive network of artists.
With all this being said, there are extremely talented artists all around in the Resin scene. To me, it’s the last frontier of organic art. Many of the artists come from either fine art or street art backgrounds, and that’s the beauty of it. When you walk down the resin aisle at Designer Con or go check out DKE Toys booth showcasing 30 plus bootleg resin artists you can really see how many different types of visual artists come together for the common goal of producing little actions figures that will sit on the wall and do nothing but make you smirk from time to time.
It’s so senseless but so pleasurable.
The most important thing to remember about the bootleg toy scene is that not only are we creating toys, we are creating the card back, which is an entirely separate artistic undertaking and many of these pieces are tiny visual masterpieces. Some are fine art paintings; some are impressive digital works and some are low-fi collage style pop art.
I’m constantly impressed with the work I see floating around in the scene. People strait amaze me.
You are currently working on your Galactic Sluts series of resin figures – with the first figure in the line, Screx Sateen having recently been released…
Care to elaborate on the project for those reading at home?
Galactic Sluts is Futuristic, Sci-Fi, Feminist, Alien smut. There are 10 characters total in the line that will be released.
Each character is represented by their own hand cast resin action figure and Erotic Novella which is a zine that serves as the cardback. The figure is attached to the front of the zine, which you can read time and time again for hours of dirty entertainment!
I’m basically creating my own alternate universe where these girls and all their enterprises exist, which is both fun and daunting.
The characters themselves represent a wide range of classic alien archetypes and sexual deviant archetypes. Screx Sateen is a slippery, bald headed, BSDM loving, Bounty Hunter that lures her targets in with raunchy sex.
The next character release will be Viri Starfire, who we find out at the end of Volume 1 is the next on Screx’s list. Viri lives on a flaming planet and controls her subordinates with her “Starfire Whip”, and she has quite a few to control.
We will also meet the likes of Corgi Foxxx, Gigzil Lix, Ulgut Blood-Licker, Dhun’i Dom, Gumma Lips, Aeilli Amomoxia, Euno Terpsia and Dohliers Punania.
I’ll be honest, the zines are graphic. I mean its porn no doubt about it, but the settings are on far away planets, the captain’s quarters of spaceships, volcanic bunkers, alien strip clubs, evil warlords lairs and sand dunes.
This is some third-wave feminism shit right here.
I am fully supportive of women in pornography as a form of freedom and sexual equality. Especially when it comes to sex work and adult entertainment, women have struggled with equal pay and being taken advantage of not only by the industry itself but from the government by not allowing them rights and protections.
Galactic Sluts use their sexuality in a dominating and empowering way while pursuing copious amounts of pleasure.
Call it porn, call it smut, just call them by their name or they might strangle you from behind…
(Pages from the zine included with the Screx Sateen figure from ‘Medeuces Wild.’)
You and Mug Costanza Toys are a regular art and designer toy power couple! And we were wondering what impact you have had on each other’s art and lives?
… and what tips would you give to other art couples out there about that creative couple life?
I went into this in detail earlier, and I don’t mean to gush, but basically, he is without a doubt the biggest impact.
I think we both push each other to explore our art and ourselves beyond our comfortable limits. We have no separation between our creative life, we literally talk about it all the time and have made many a decision while washing dishes as our businesses and our home life are the same, and for us that’s not a bad thing.
Our house is constantly a breeding ground for idea and expression. We’ve played in bands together, started businesses, worked on more projects than I can count, and created multiple brands for the past 11 years.
Of course, just like in any type of relationship (working or romantic) you can have disagreements on how something should be done, but we have learned to think of what’s best for the brand and not make it about ego.
This goes for DeLuis Guitars, Mug Constanza Toys and Medeuces Wild. Since we both work on all of these projects there really isn’t a clear definition of anyone’s role, we are just in it to win it, as a collective whole.
I guess to really do what we do effectively you have to give up any separation. We don’t have separate bank accounts; we don’t make individual decisions.
That would not work for everyone, and there’s probably other ways to do it ha, but our complete integration makes our weird art life work and next to our daughter it’s the only thing we really care about or spend time on.
Also, we are best friends so it’s like we’ve been having one super long, fun sleepover.
This entire quarantine has been so busy, we work all day on art.
Any projects you want to hype?
I mean of course I would love if people showed up and support the Galactic Slut line because that’s the main project at the moment. But there’s another lil sumpin’ I’ve been doing for people and that is $20 custom portraits of you and your favourite Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Horror character doing the nasty.
Yes I will draw you banging it out with Freddy Krueger or Princess Leia, because we all need that at our desks. I genuinely get a laugh finding out who people choose, my favourite ones so far have been Predator and Slimer.
If people wanted to work with you, have a chat or buy something – how should they get in touch?
If anyone wants to collaborate creatively, has questions about my work or wants to commission design, or buy or literally anything, you can just reach out and ask me, I love a good collab!
Instagram: @medeuceswild or @mugcostanzatoys
Online Shop: https://mugcostanzatoys.bigcartel.com
Email: mrsdeluis@gmail.com
Odds and Ends
If you could live in any place, during any historical era – where and when would that be? …and why would you choose that time and place?
In my ideal life I would be 18 in NYC in 1964, find my way to an Andy Warhol Factory party… sleep with enough people to be able to stay there for a few months until one of those people wants to go to San Francisco so I tag along… then I catch the beginning of the Grateful Dead at one of Ken Kesey’s Acid Test shows, flip out and crash in a communal living house with a bunch of hippies… go on tour and follow the band around for a few years while I get really good at live nude painting and eventually save up enough money to make my way back to NYC in 1980 to experience New Order and the rest of the New Wave scene where I eventually become a zine maker and have ink stains and cigarette ash all over the kitchen table in my tiny brownstone apartment.
This is a tall order, it’s also a fictional scenario so I can do anything I want and I genuinely wish I got to experience any of those things.
What role did toys play in your childhood(s)?
As a child of the 80’s of course we had our pick of amazing toys. Huge fan of trolls, that’s a fact. Loved a Barbie, they were def almost always nude.
Hosted a lot of weddings and doll make out sessions. I was probably a perv back then too.
I loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I had the pizza shooting van, it was epic. I remember playing a lot of really intense ‘on a mission’ style games where it was life or death to get a pizza delivered.
Now in the midst of quarantine, that’s kind of played itself out in a cruel irony.
Drugs – waste of time or gateway to the universe?
For sure a magical gateway, I don’t know about the universe, but certainly to your own mind. As someone who spent years dealing with ACE’s, which is a form of childhood PTSD, using psychedelic mushrooms helped me connect with the deeper, more whimsical part of myself that I built walls around to protect.
I think many artists suffer/suffered emotionally, which gives us an immense amount of energy to channel.
I am eternally grateful for my medicinal use of mushrooms and LSD in my early 20’s. I healed past wounds and became a better version of myself and more connected to my creative self.
What do you think the American zeitgeist is today?
Escapism. Everything we watch, buy, drink or take in to our lives is all an effort to escape the suffocating closeness of the world now.
Technology has made the world feel so much smaller and it’s less uncharted, meaning everything can be researched to the point of no more surprises. There are cameras in the fucking Amazon.
Reality is so boring now and at our fingertips at a moment’s notice. It’s predictable because it’s teachable, so the only true mystery or way to escape is now created in the minds of artists and then delivered to the masses. This is a global problem, but it’s very true for America which peaked a long time ago and has been kind of riding the waves of its own political self destruction and mismanagement until it probably comes crashing down, and we all know it, and it’s terrifying and the only way to deal with all the crippling anxiety is to pretend we don’t notice it and keep making ridiculous art and gushing over each other’s contribution to anything but the further decline of the earth.
To me, if you are escaping reality and contributing to the general happiness of the population with art of any kind you are a saint.
We need you to exist.
Who was your 1st crush and why?
Who doesn’t want to date a sarcastic, intelligent, Doc Martin wearing, pizza loving, feminist killjoy?
Does sex change everything?
Between people: hard yes
About you: only if it’s occurrence or lack thereof is in the way of how you express yourself freely.
Also about you: only if by engaging in it you can align to parts of yourself you didn’t know about before, otherwise it’s just the nature channel.
About how you view someone: of course, because you can’t unsee a dick or vagina
About how you view the world: yes, because once you understand the turmoil engaging in sex can bring to an interpersonal relationship by taking up your mental space and rendering you emotionally useless at various times in your life, you can finally understand the basis of 95% of books, poems and songs.
Without some sort of sexual engagement (and that can be interpreted to a broad range of ability abled encounters, doesn’t have to mean intercourse because that’s not always possible for some folks), you aren’t a part of the collective suffering of human minds trying to be close to other human minds through our physical bodies, which is both a blessing and a curse.
What are the top 3 items you own?
1)My iPad and apple pen are my main instruments in creating visual art and graphics.
It’s so liberating because I can draw as I normally would but simple shit like erasing a mistake is a quick 2 seconds instead of the mind numbing experience of making a mistake at the end of a drawing and throwing your pad of paper across the room (it’s happened). Also, I spill a lot of drinks and this allows me to protect my work from myself. I would be lost without them at this point.
2)My 1960’s vintage dress that I wear to literally everything.
It’s like wearing fancy pajamas and I like to wear things that make me feel like “Marcia Brady on Acid”.
3)This Psychedelic Furs record I bought at Pop Obscure Records in DTLA.
We listened to it nonstop when I brought it home and then a week later in some weird serendipity, we got to watch them in a very intimate show at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills.
Our 3 year old went with us, she vibed, we all vibed. It was a magical family memory and we still listen to the album on repeat, especially when we are working creatively. It’s a brilliant album and it gives me all the good feels.
In a battle between the two iconic toys: Mr. Potato Head (from designer George Lerner and originally released in 1949) Vs. the Chatter Telephone (from designer Ernest Thornell and first released by Fisher-Price in 1962) – who would win and why?
Chatter telephone has the facial expression of a sociopath, plus he has that telephone cord.
He clearly has all the makings of a strangler; potato head doesn’t stand a chance.
Which cartoon character would you most like to see in a tribute sex toy and why?
Two characters, 1) Chief Wiggam- because, Fuck the Police and 2) Fred Flintstone-because, Fuck the Patriarchy.
Also, if anyone wants to contact me about producing these as actual dildos, PLEASE DO because now I want them.
(A. Adrienne’s 2 cartoon character tribute sex toys, below)
Please describe your last dream in detail…
I was filling a bunch of balloons with water, put them all in a large bucket, carried the bucket up a hill to a bathtub at the top, was mad at myself for filling all the balloons instead of just carrying a bucket of water, but then realized that I probably would have spilled the water on the way up and then thought it was a good idea after the fact, then filled up the tub with the water from the balloons and took a bath.
Of everything you have done what would you most like to be remembered for and why?
Oh god, I hope I haven’t created it yet.
Links
- Medeuces Wild – Online Store via Mug Costanza Toys
- Medeuces Wild – Link to buy the Screx Sateen resin figure
- Medeuces Wild – Instagram
- Mug Costanza Toys – Instagram
- Mug Costanza Toys – Facebook
