I'm in The Atlantic talking about Bettie Page!

"Male Fans Made Bettie Page a Star, but Female Fans Made Her an Icon"

Hey neat! I'm in a major online news source talking about pinup icon Bettie Page like I'm some sort of expert on the subject. Heh. I was approached by the writer of the piece, Tori Rodriguez right before the holidays after she found my artwork, notably my Bettie-homage pieces and asked me some questions. Some of my answers were used for the article, some weren't. I figured I'd post the rest of the interview here. Def check out the article above though, it covers a lot of ground, delving into her past, the musings of other fans including the illustrious Dita VonTeese (whom I had an intimate run-in with back in 2012) and a review of the new documentary Bettie Page Reveals All!



1. How did you first learn of Bettie, and what initially drew you to her?
I first learned of Bettie as a teenager in the early 90's when I would go shopping at Tower Records and saw Bettie's image on lunchboxes and other merch. As a young goth, it was initially her black and white Irving Klaw era photos that hooked me in. All those boots and corsets and those iconic bangs. I've heard of her being referred to as the 'Marilyn for brunettes'.

2. What is it that you love about her/what does she represent to you?
As a pinup artist, her photographs are an invaluable resource. Her posing, expressions and choices in attire are what pinup art is all about. She can run the gamut of fun-loving beach bunny to whip-cracking dominatrix.

3. Any thoughts on why she appeals to so many women in general?
I think it's that she represents a freedom to express her womanhood in a very repressed time. Even though her outfits (or lack thereof...) aren't as shocking today as they were when they were taken, she owns it. I have several books in my reference library that feature her spreads from men's magazines back in the day, and how she unabashedly owns the outfits she wears is inspiring. No matter how over-the-top, or scandalous or even downright silly, you can see her rock it. Such confidence is inspiring.

4. Some women see Bettie as an alternative to unhealthy societal pressures to look perfect and behave in a certain way. Where do you think these unhealthy messages come from, i.e. who/what is sending the opposite message to what Bettie represents? (I know the answer to this seems obvious, but we want to hear fans' perspectives.)
To me Bettie was a gateway into subcultures like rockabilly and burlesque, which are very body-positive environments to women with ample curves who want to celebrate their bodies. From Bettie I learned about other pinup models and burlesque superstars like Tura Satana. From Tura I learned about the movies of Russ Meyer and from there I've monkey-barred into this whole wonderful world of showgirls and rhinestones and pencil skirts and cleavage, cleavage, cleavage. So I surround myself with these images of powerful women and try my best to ignore what the standard of beauty is that other people or entities try to push on me.

Surrender, Dorothy! and new Miss MJ

Finished the pencils for the Wizard of Oz piece on Cortes's Art Studio Livestream last week! You can see the archived footage from the evening here on the site! Fair warning: there's a lot of footage, split between several videos and I think if you want to start at the beginning you have to start at the bottom and work up.

Here's the first segment where I go thru my sketchbook! You can see the rest of the night here!

Was super-duper fun, can't wait to be on again!

I also drew up a BRAND NEW pic of Miss Mary Jane, finally! :D

Heads up! Livestream with CortesNYC on 2/12/13

Hey guys! I'm gonna be drawing LIVE on the internets with CortesNYC and TameekaTime next Tuesday night! Be sure to drop by and say hello!

CortesNYC’s livestream channel HERE.

Ooooh!!! I'm INTERVIEWED on a PODCAST!

Hey kids!! Want hear me spout some verbal diarrhea for over an hour??

Thank you to the awesome guys at One-Of-a-Kind-Workshop podcast for being my first ever podcast interview! If you can get thru all my irritating verbal tics and stutters, I talk about some quasi-interesting stuff.

As I told Fenny as we were live-texting our reactions to what I said to each other: "Even I'm getting tired of hearing myself.  Waitaminnit... JESUS CHRIST IS THIS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE AROUND ME??? D:"

(Fair warning: I consumed an entire bottle of wine during this interview. The more coherent I get, the drunker I am. Go figure.)

Give it a listen:

Click here to be taken to the OOAKW site.

Interview from MoCCA Fest '11!

I just recently came across this very candid video interview I did at MoCCA Fest this year, by Alrick Collins, aka REDesign Qreative. I go on about Baltimore, Tex Avery, Ernesto Cabral and anatomy.

Which if you peep the viddy at :39, you can get a pretty good gander at some my own anatomy as well. ::hurr hurr hurr::



What I love is you can totally over-hear my table mate Jared telling his friend next to us about how a large percentage of people coming by to see my table are either bright-eyed girls or dirty old men.

You can see my full con report for MoCCA Fest 2011 here!

Interview with Tameeka Time!!

Back in May '10 I was interviewed over Memorial Day weekend by my good friend Tameeka Ballance, who is a videographer and runs a blog called Tameeka Time that features art videos (including graffiti by my former dayjob boss man Cortes) and Jersey Shore recaps (if you're into that sort of thing).

Give my girl some love and go on over to her site to check out more videos!

Check out the full Paigey coverage over at Tameeka Time here!!

Extra! Extra! I'm in the paper!!!

While at MoCCA Fest last month I had the pleasure of meeting Holly Wilensky, aka The Dress Recycler who is a fashion blogger for The Queens Ledger up here in NYC, as well as The Brooklyn Star, Queens Examiner, LIC/Astoria Journal, Forest Hills Times and Greenpoint Gazette! She really dug my crazy 'convention drag' and my pinup art work so we got together on the phone after the dust of MoCCA Fest had settled and I told her what I was all about for the Local Designer Spotlight!

You can see the article in these following papers:

The Queens Ledger

The Brooklyn Downtown Star

Queens Examiner

Greenpoint Gazette

Long Island City/Astoria Journal

Forest Hills Times




"Paigey embodies fun, flirtatious and fabulous; a true live character who brings her designs to the public on a personal level, where people can really relate to what she is illustrating. “The lines tend to blur between my art and myself,” she said."

Aftermath: KingCon Brooklyn 2010

KingCon Brooklyn was this past weekend, and also marks the end of my big convention year for 2010!


Me at my table on Saturday- rocking my new Louise Black corset!

Another 2 day con (thank goodness- 3 day cons kill me...) I worked at my table and sold all day Saturday. Sunday I sold the first half of the day then took part modeling in a special mini Dr Sketchy's session and afterwards spoke in my first panel ever! Excitement!


I also met legendary X-Men write Chris Claremont! He created Kitty Pryde!! He was impressed by my tattoo! I was also super duper nervous to talk to him.



I was also part of a video made by The Brooklyn Cowboy who asked around the con What makes Brooklyn awesome?


Go ahead and pretend my feathers ain't luxurious...

Sunday afternoon I got to model for Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School, a bi-monthly cabaret life drawing session and worldwide phenomenon I usually attend as a guest artist with my friend Christy. I've been attending Dr. Sketchy's for about 2 years now and have become friends with Sketchy's founder Molly Crabapple, who I practically squealed with glee at via email when she asked me if I would like to wear the showgirl outfit I wore to NYCC to the KingCon Sketchy's session as a model. I was ALL ABOUT IT! I even made a little playlist just for the occasion!




NYC BFF Christy got some great shots from the session (which you can see above on the flickr slideshow) and I had a GREAT TIME modeling! I even got to be in the Dr. Sketchy BLOG!!! XD I hope to have more opportunities to model for life drawing sessions (of the non-nude variety) as I have a TON of crazy outfits and costumes I could utilize. Just sayin'. ;)

After the Sketchy's session, I got to take part in my first ever panel discussion for 'Hips, Lips and Pencil Tips: Sexualization of Women in Comics from a Feminist Viewpoint'. Thought it'd be funny to keep my showgirl costume on, as it was a main part of my talking points regarding my own experiences in the comics medium.


L to R: Moderator Rachel Kramer Bussel, Jennifer Hayden, myself, Laura Lee Gulledge and Valerie D'Orazio

It was a really great panel, I almost wished it had been recorded. Everyone had really interesting perspectives and stories to share about how their sexuality has come into play as a comic book artist.

What I talked about:

~How when I was 12 I was looking for porn but found comics. My story of discovering my first comic while hunting for my dad's vintage Playboys/Penthouse Forums that my brother had gotten ahold of. While searching under my brother's bed I came across 2 comics: Uncanny X-Men #236 and #243, which started me on my lifetime obsession of comics, and Wolverine being naked.


Better than porn.

~Being my own 'booth babe'- Utilizing my past as a cosplay girl as well as my costume/dressup obsession as a tool to grab people's interest in my table/artwork at conventions with choice of dress (what I call my 'con drag'), using sales techniques from when I was a tv salesperson (yet another male-dominated industry I fell into) such as standing 90% of the time, eye contact with customers and starting up conversations with total strangers. Putting on the 'Paigey' persona at conventions which is basically just a friendlier, more outgoing and energetic version of myself than say, when I am at home in my sweatpants actually creating the artwork I hock at conventions.

~Alot of my pinup artwork has helped me embrace my own sexuality with more confidence, especially as I myself have become more 'womanly' in my proportions over the years. And since I've moved to NYC I've gained an exposure to and ultimately a fascination with burlesque and it's history, which has served as an amazing resource of inspiration not only for my artwork but to myself as well as that is a community which is accepting of women in so many shapes, sizes and colors.

I'm sure there was other stuff I went on about, as I tend to ramble when put on the spot, but I'm very excited to see what 2011 has in store for me convention-wise.

Interview with John Wilcox

I've got a really awesome, very extensive interview over at John Wilcox's website Progsheet that took a few months of emails back and forth to properly compile. If you ever wanted to read me ramble -ALOT- check it out.
I talk about my artistic processes, how my brain works, when I met Adam Warren, why I'll never play derby and my time at Kubert School.

A few words with... Paigey!


(Click the pic or link)

Some snippets to whet your curiosity:

"Hell, I used to write what would be today's equivalent of 'Mary Sue' fanfiction in my junior high school diary where a character who was pretty much an idealized version of myself joined the X-Men and Wolverine was basically my character's on again/off again boyfriend. Ha ha, yeah, those books have LONG since been destroyed."

"Kind a like a punk rock Judy Carne from Laugh In. Needless to say, I got his attention."

"I am way too impatient for that, I want it to look awesome right out of the gate."

"My tools need to be rigid, especially under my 'death grip', as I call it."
(Ha ha, that one sounds dirty.)

Aftermath: Baltimore Comic Con 2010

The words 'holy shit' do not cover the enormity of awesomeness that was this weekend. Baltimore Comic Con kicked SO MUCH ASS this year that when all was said and done I was exhausted, had almost started crying like 3 times (for good reasons) and my face hurt from smiling so damn much. And I dressed up as Wonder Woman!



On a half-assed whim I had gathered a red top, yellow cinch belt and my electric blue Mode Merr skirt together and had decided it looked like a Wonder Woman costume if I had some way to get the stars on the skirt. 'What a simple, fun, easy costume this will be!', I thought, harkening back to my days as a cosplayer. After ruling out patches and iron-ons I decided that the best way to apply the stars was painting. Friday night before the con. At my parents house. After I got into Maryland from the bus which was an hour late. Simple, fun and easy right?? Ha! So after 5 hours of painting I finally finished at 1am.



It was totally worth the hard work though, it was very well received and my table/artwork got alot of extra attention from people coming by wanting to snap a pic of me. I was basically my own booth babe. Sometimes I do get the semi-patronizing 'you did these all by yourself?' from random passerby, but also I kinda take that as an off-handed compliment at the same time. I'm like one of those deep sea fish with the dangly light- I lure folks over to the table, then chomp on them with my art.




The *BIG* thing that happened this weekend was two of my artistic heroes, Eric Powell (The Goon, those awesome Nashville Rollergirls bout posters) and Dave Johnson (Drink & Draw Social Club founder, too much awesome shit to list) both came to my table to specifically say hello to me! Holy crap!! Like really, I almost cried I was so happy. I also went by the legendary Adam Hughes and his lovely wifey Allison Sohn's table to say hello, as I know Adam a bit from the convention scene for a few years and Allison and I go back to her being my life model at Kubert School.

With Adam Hughes

With Dave Johnson



Wish I had thought to have gotten a pic with Eric Powell and his uberhot roller derby girlfriend Rambo Sambo. :/ I was a bit star struck and wasn't thinking clearly as all of this was going on.

I was also interviewed by a pop culture blog called Jam Packed Productions that was going through artist alley on Sunday and talking to some of the artists. My segment begins at the 5:39 mark. My best friend/manager/sales associate/PR agent Fenny Lin also makes an onscreen appearance and yeah, wow, I knew my shirt was what I call one of my 'Boobie Shirts', but this may very well be the 'Boobiest of Boobie Shirts'. Cuz WOW. Thanks Pinup Girl Clothing!



I'm kind of starting to see myself as almost like the Christina Hendricks of the comic book industry.


Can't think of why exactly. 9_9

And I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who came by and chatted, picked up a card to check me out later or even bought something, I super appreciate it! Next up for me will be Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md on September 11th and 12th. I will also have a HUGE NEW TATTOO by then a well- of KITTY PRYDE. *Squee!* So excited!

VS Project Live: The Bracket's Pre-Game Artists Interviews

Pre-game artists interviews for The VS Project Live: The Bracket art competition I took part in has just come out. Khary Randolph, Nikki Cook, Emilio Lopez and myself were interviewed outside Local 269 before the competition and asked a couple questions about ourselves n' stuff.



Like, wow. Like, I was so, like, nervous. OMG! Ha ha, yeah, I say 'like' entirely too much. My mom and grandma get on my case about it all the time. I'm much more eloquent typing than speaking.



But yeah, I'm actually just about wrapped filming on another video project with my pal Tameeka, who shoots and edits video. She came over the last 2 weekends to shoot me drawing her portrait and to interview me for a little mini-documentary on yours truly. Or as my boyfriend Phil has dubbed it: 'Ego Stroke: The Movie'. I don't know what he's talking about, these sort of things don't give me a swollen head or anything. ;D Heh....
But yeah, that'll be coming together soon. SUPER excited. You can check out Tameeka's other video projects on her bloggity right here.

I also put together the first of what I hope are many, many more *burlesque flyers*. The super-awesome, sword-swallowing, fire-breathing Lady Aye has put together a show called "Cramp-Us", that mixes The Cramps, Krampus and burlesque into one crazy, spanky, paganistic fest of sexiness and boobies and insanity. I actually went to the first installment of this show back in December and it was awesome, and now they're doing a 'sequel' show as part of Coney Island's Christmas in July.



I'm really, REALLY hoping to do more flyers for burlesque shows in the future. Much like roller derby, burlesque is a subculture I'd love to get into, but with how demanding my schedule already is producing art, and how if I'm gonna do something I'm gonna completely immerse myself in it and do it 200%, there isn't enough of me or time in the day to properly do either proper, so I'll try and be a part of the community in my own *special* way, by doing artwork and posters and flyers. I'd much rather my contribution to such a culture be something that I'll do well, like drawing, then something I'd probably do terribly, like dancing or competing. ;P Hell, I'm trying to get into something as simple as hula hooping and I barely have the time to devote to that.

I didn't make the team. :/

Bad news, buckaroos. Looks like I won't be counted among New York Comic Con's Artist Alley this year. Finally after 6 months of waiting, delays and anticipation June 1st rolled around and I was told... NOTHING. Cuz no one from NYCC sent me anything. Meanwhile I'm reading tweets and status updates from friends and peers on their acceptance and rejection from Artist Alley. So finally after a day of watching my inbox in agony (and got help you if I got an email from you- I cursed out way too many random emails about sales and reminders) I finally emailed the NYCC folks to ask where my notification email was right before I went to bed. And the next morning after I got up and got to my desk at my day job, I finally had seen that it came through as a reply to my inquiry.... and it was the ever-so-awesome 'we regret to inform you...' So yeah. I had to EMAIL them to find out I was rejected. How shitty. So yeah, the rejection letter made mention of other options, including something about a small press area. I emailed to find out more about this, and recieved a price list. So yeah, the 'small press option' is a 6' by 8' square of unfurnished concrete on the con floor. No tables. No chairs. For NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Ugh, so yeah. That's not happening. Maybe if NYCC had gotten their shit together a little sooner and had told me I wouldn't have an Artist Alley table I could've maybe gotten some of my friends together, maybe even organized a big group table. But on top of everything else I've got going on between now and then I can't do something like that in such a small amount of time. So yeah. Oye. Apparently Reed Expo subscribes to the same silly school of thought many people uninvolved in comics seem to have- THAT WE MAKE ALOT OF MONEY. Unfortunately that's not the case, especially for people who could consider themselves 'small press'. Either way, I'm ok with this. Sure I was initially a bit miffed but I'll make it work. I kinda wish I knew exactly what kind of criteria it was that that didn't let me make the cut, whether it was that I still hve yet to be published-published or that my name happened to be on the wrong spot of the dartboard. I still think it's kind of suspicious that there seems to be alot of New York artists shut out of Artist Alley tho, could it be that they're favoring out of state people because they have deals with the hotels in the area? Hrm.
Anyways, I *will* be at New York Comic Con this October, but I'll be hoofing it. In a cigarette girl costume. With a tray of merch. Originally if everything had gone smoothly I would be at the table and my best friend Fenny would be wearing a cigarette girl costume and walking around the con for me handing out promo stuff. But now it looks like we both will. I'm still figuring out exactly what we'll be carrying and how we'll be selling larger items like my Miss Mary Jane toys. Which oh yeah- I finally got!!! (Yay!!) I still also have tables secured at Baltimore Comic Con, SPXpo and King Con Brooklyn.
But yeah- like I said, GOOD NEWS! Miss Mary Jane shipped last week and everyone got theirs!
Including me and my 10- one to keep and 9 to hock at conventions. I already sold 2, so if you see me with one at my table you sould snatch it up! I actually wish I had gotten more of them to sell for myself. I have a feeling these are gonna go rather quickly once my convention rounds start up in August.




Doesn't she look AWESOME? The skin turned out a little more neon than I had expected but overall I think she looks pretty great. I'm trying to rally to get her restocked, and if at all possible do another colorway. This also has worked up my appetite for MORE PAIGEY TOYS. If you get a chance PLEASE VOTE for my rollergirl Laika Phenomenon (you see what I did there?)


Click here to get taken to her voting page!




Laika Phenomenon is up for voting at PatchTogether.com!
Please click the pic to register and vote for her!


Also!! Be sure to check out my interview with Girls Drawin' Girls for their weekly Artist Spotlight!!


"It also helps me get in touch with my inner minx. "

Pin Curl Magazine Interview!

Click the cover to get to the interview!



Brooklyn, New York’s Paigey Pumphrey, pin-up and comic book artist extraordinaire sits down to talk Ed Emberley, superheroines, Mary Jane, curvy gals, and sausage fests.

Also- IMPORTANT NEWS!

Miss Mary Jane's preorders will be CLOSING JANUARY 10TH!
She will be shipping out to customers mid-February!

GET HER BEFORE SHE GETS GONE!



Click the pic to get sent to her ordering page!