ABOUT
"How coloured pencils at the restaurant table shaped Australia’s new queen of kitsch"
The young Ginger Taylor saw cartoons everywhere, as though she was living in her favourite film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Her father, Deane Taylor, was an animator for Hanna-Barbera, working on Yogi Bear, The Jetsons and The Flintstones, before moving on to the ’90s slapstick mayhem of The Ren & Stimpy Show and Cow & Chicken. Taylor’s mother was a Clothing Designer
“My dad would bring pens and paper, and I’d always draw the food but make them into little characters,” Taylor says, from her art studio in Coburg. “Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever put two and two together till now, but I’ve always drawn women and food. Jessica Rabbit was the most incredible thing I’d ever seen”
Ginger is gaining a global reputation for her kitsch cartoon merchandise and prints. The first T-shirt design she sold was “Dolly ’Til I Die”, depicting Dolly Parton in her highest-hair phase. Another merchandise hit – on pins, prints and air fresheners – is Cher, with her famous “I AM a rich man” quote (in response to the singer’s mother asking why she didn’t find a rich man). Then there are the many food items, among them the “Breaky Club” mug, with breakfast items bearing faces on a backdrop of blue gingham; and the Howdy Pickle keyring – a jaunty fellow wearing a cowboy hat – has become a popular tattoo flash.
But mundane jobs can be a breeding ground for creativity. As William Hanna (of Hanna-Barbera fame) said: “I started out with three creative jobs – painter, janitor and gag writer.”
When Ginger got a job at JB Hi-Fi, she fell into signwriting, winning competitions and getting headhunted by other stores. That proliferated into signwriting and murals around Sydney’s Newtown. Moving to Melbourne, her business grew from share-house kitchen table to a studio with two employees, without ever borrowing money – not even from the bank of mum and dad. Ginger embodies the plucky underdog trope beloved by cartoonists from time immemorial.
“I remember the first time I went to Disneyland and realised that life can be turned into a cartoon, and that it doesn’t all have to be – you know – ‘normal’,” Taylor says. “That was a revelation. I realised the inside of my brain does exist in the outside world.”
