Back in March, I participated in my first dance-a-thon (basically making all my dreams come true) as a fundraiser for Camp Ten Oaks and Project Acorn, charitable camps for LGBTQ youth. Our dance team, led by former Ten Oaks counsellor (and all-around great person) Carly Boyce, and who ended up raising the most funds of any of the participating teams (no big deal) was named “The Dream of the ’90s Is Alive.” Our fashion choices were distinctly ’90s-inspired, and in addition to dressing like the Bee Girl from Blind Melon’s “No Rain” music video, I also offered free portraits of a ’90s icon of their choice to donors who contributed over a certain amount to our fundraising efforts. In the past few weeks, I finally delivered those twelve illustrations to their recipients. They are presented in their glory above.
This project, in addition to making me eager to join my next dance-a-thon, made me realize that peoples’ ideas of ’90s icons are very different. I never would have thought of Bea Arthur as a ’90s icon. But it fits! (The show ran through 1992.) Also, it’s surprisingly hard to find images online of Darren Hayes from his Savage Garden days. (There are plenty of photos of his post-Savage-Garden solo career, though.)
Test your memory and/or my ability to draw portraits and see if you can name all twelve people (or duos) represented. An answer key can be found following the individual portraits below.
(Top to bottom: Before Sunrise‘s Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, Billy Corgan, D’Angelo, Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, Savage Garden’s Darren Hayes, Bea Arthur as The Golden Girls‘ Dorothy Zbornak, Henry Rollins kicking ’90s Stephen Harper, Kurt Cobain, Michael Ian Black and Thomas Lennon as The State‘s Levon and Barry, Liv Tyler as Empire Records‘ Corey Mason, Neve Campbell, Tony Todd as Candyman.)
