MARLA VEE: A LIFE IN REBELLION, RESURRECTION, AND DIY GLORY
Marla Vee (Marla Irwin in civilian life) has worn many hats across the decades: punk provocateur, fine artist, shrine-builder, screen printer, gearhead, and kitchen designer. But whether onstage with a Les Paul, cutting tile for a mosaic, or reimagining a suburban kitchen layout, one constant has remained – she’s always done it her way. Loud, unconventional, and fiercely independent, Marla Vee is a quintessential outsider, born for punk, forged in resistance, and reborn through art.
Best known for her work with underground noise-blasters Rancid Vat and her later outfit Marla Vee and the Studs, she emerged from the Pacific Northwest punk scene of the early ’80s with both swagger and sincerity. Rancid Vat wasn’t just a band, it was a declaration. In fact, when Marla, Phil Irwin (aka The Whiskey Rebel), and Steve Wilson first formed the group, they intentionally chose to play instruments they didn’t already know, convinced that creative discomfort would lead to more original, less formulaic music. Phil felt her guitar playing was getting too polished, so she became the drummer, later moving to bass for many years. In the late ’90s, she and Phil began trading off again, eventually settling with him on bass and Marla back on her beloved guitar. (She adds that she’s recently been playing bass again.)
That love of six strings never left. In the early ’80s, hungry to play guitar again, Marla founded an all-female rockabilly outfit called The Redheads, who notably opened for The Cramps during their heyday. She played a killer hollow-body Guild in that group, and the band’s mix of grit and cool was a natural fit for the era’s cross-pollinated punk underground.
Marla was never the lead vocalist for Rancid Vat. Aside from a standout duet with Steve Wilson on “Most Likely To,” her voice remained mostly in the background until recently. After Phil’s passing, she decided to step up with backing vocals, and that same duet has since returned to the setlist, now sung live with her son Elvis.
Born in Seattle and raised in its southern suburbs – including Renton, the town that gave the world Jimi Hendrix – Marla moved to Portland after high school and dove headfirst into the region’s thriving DIY underbelly. She worked odd jobs (including selling encyclopedias, where she met Phil), and helped build a band that would become a cult staple through multiple lineups, relocations, and reinventions.
Long before “DIY” became a hashtag or lifestyle brand, Marla was living it. She grew up in a household where calling in a contractor just wasn’t done. Her parents fixed everything themselves, and she followed suit, working for over 15 years as a technician, repairing everything from microwaves to lawnmowers. At a time when women in tech were practically unheard of, Marla was out there, soldering wires and swinging hammers.
“I was always the oddball,” she says. “I never could just go along with the crowd.”
That outsider status made punk rock a natural home. “Either I was perfect for punk, or punk was perfect for me,” she jokes. After strumming through childhood on hand-me-down guitars, she bought her first electric with money earned selling sewing machines and vacuum cleaners at Sears. Not long after, she and Phil moved into a house with a basement, ideal for cranking amps and banging drums. They formed their first band, The Spaztics, with future Wipers member Brad Davidson. From there, it was a short leap to Rancid Vat.
Marla’s bands shared bills and friendships with many of Portland’s early punk icons: Fred and Tootie Cole of The Rats (later Dead Moon), Poison Idea, and Wipers founder Greg Sage, who produced Rancid Vat’s Burger Belsen LP and even played on a few tracks. Their music was loud, unruly, and uncompromising, just like the scene they sprang from.
But for all her music’s raw edge, Marla’s creative vision has always extended beyond stages and recording studios. Her visual art, especially her mixed-media mosaics, shrines, and screen prints, have become her main focus in recent years. Inspired early on by David Bowie’s chameleonic elegance, she began sketching again after Phil’s passing in 2019. What started as a few warm-up portraits evolved into a sprawling Bowie cycle: over 30 pieces, each capturing a different facet of the glam icon she once covered in Rancid Vat.
Her mosaics, too, are punk through and through. One of her earliest, a Bowie piece done back in college, ended up on the cover of the Bowiecide EP, Rancid Vat’s hilariously reverent Bowie tribute from the early ’90s. More recently, she crafted an elaborate mosaic of Hickoids frontman Jeff Smith as a birthday gift, a project that reignited her artistic fire despite the physical demands of working with tiny shards and glue. “My fingers were so stiff,” she laughs. “I forgot how hard it is to glue those tiny pieces.”
Her resurgence in visual art hasn’t happened in a vacuum. She’s worked closely with caricaturist Adam Stafford, building shrines out of repurposed wine crates (complete with lighting systems wired by Marla herself), and screen printing limited-run shirts for local music programs or just because they felt right.
“Between that and the shrines, I just didn’t have time to keep the band going,” she admits. “But it’s all still punk. Still ‘DIY as fuck,’ as Phil used to say!” she laughs.
And to be clear: Rancid Vat never stopped. Marla’s solo material may be on the backburner, but Rancid Vat continues, louder and snottier than ever.
Even in her day job, Marla’s creativity never clocks out. After 18 years at Home Depot, where she managed departments and learned the ins and outs of big box retail, she transitioned to kitchen design at Lowe’s, a role she’s held for over a decade. “That’s part of my art,” she says. “I get to do arty things and get paid for it.”
Her life has not been without struggle. For years, Marla was Phil’s primary caregiver as he battled cirrhosis, a brutal, emotionally grueling experience that consumed her energy and buried her creative drive. His illness, difficult to understand at the time, brought mood swings, paranoia, and moments that tested the limits of love and endurance.
“I couldn’t even go for a swim without him getting jealous of the pool,” she recalls. “There was no time for art.”
But after his death, a door opened. “I felt like I had a rebirth,” she says. “I was always Phil’s wife, or The Whiskey Rebel’s wife, never my own person. I went from my parents’ house straight into marriage. Never dated, never had that messy bar scene phase. So when I was widowed at 60… that was my chance to finally become my own person.”
Since then, she’s done just that through visual art, punk history preservation, and hands-on creation. Whether she’s printing shirts, building shrines from salvaged materials, or sketching lightning bolts into Bowie’s cheekbones, Marla Vee continues to blur the line between sacred and subcultural.
Whether you know her as the woman wailing in Rancid Vat, the artist sketching Ziggy Stardust with reverence, or the punk in the workshop wiring up lights and retooling crates, Marla Vee is still doing what she’s always done: building her world by hand. One painting, one print, one altar, and one power chord at a time.
Bowie Portraits
Bowie 10
Bowie 11
Bowie 12
Bowie 14
Bowie 16
Bowie 17
Bowie 19
Bowie 20
Bowie 21
Bowie 22
Bowie 23
Bowie 25
Bowie 26 – Young Bowie
Bowie 27
Bowie 28
Bowie 29
Bowie 30
Bowie – Valentine
Don’t miss this unique tribute to the one and only David Bowie.
Event Details:
📍 The Corn Pound – 6335 Montgomery Road, San Antonio, TX
📅 Saturday, February 15, 2025
🕓 4 PM – 8 PM
🎟️ All Ages | Free Admission
💃 Bowie & Glam Rock Dance Party (4-6 PM)
🎸 Live Music by Marla Vee & The Stud$ + Special Guest
🎨 Art by Marla Vee, Zan Lee DuRoy, and Lucien Edwards
🛍️ Vendors: Mala-X, Guru Graphics
🎤 Partially benefitting High Voltage Youth Music Program Inc. (501c3 Non-Profit)
🚫 BYO (No Glass Containers)
For more information, interviews, or press inquiries, please contact:
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CONTACT: Facebook
DATE: February 7, 2025
Bowie Art, Dance Party & Rock ‘n’ Roll Show: Post-Valentine’s Edition
A Night of Bowie: Art, Music, and Celebration in San Antonio on February 15, 2025, 4-8PM
San Antonio, TX – David Bowie’s legacy continues to shine in an electrifying evening of art, music, and rock ‘n’ roll at The Corn Pound (6335 Montgomery Road, San Antonio, TX) on Saturday, February 15, 2025, from 4 PM to 8 PM. This all-ages, free event will be a post-Valentine’s Day tribute to the Thin White Duke, featuring an exclusive showcase of 30 original Bowie portraits by artist and musician Marla Vee, along with works by Zan Lee DuRoy and Lucien Edwards.
More than just an art show, this immersive Bowie experience will feature a Bowie and glam rock dance party with DJ LORE spinning from 4 PM to 6 PM, followed by a live performance from Marla Vee & The Stud$, with a special surprise guest to be announced.
In addition to the visual and sonic feast, the event will include vendors such as Mala-X and Guru Graphics, offering unique Bowie-inspired merchandise. Attendees are encouraged to BYO (no glass, please!) and revel in the shared love for one of music’s most influential figures.
A portion of the event’s proceeds will benefit High Voltage Youth Music Program Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to empowering young musicians, led by Bell Solloa (Founder/Director/CEO). The event is hosted at The Corn Pound, a rock ‘n’ roll cultural hub founded by Jeff Smith (The Hickoids), ensuring a night of unfiltered, authentic celebration.
MARLA VEE: THE WOMAN BEHIND THE ART
Best known as the co-founder and guitarist of underground punk cult legends Rancid Vat and now fronting Marla Vee & The Stud$, Marla’s artistic journey is as fiercely independent as her music. Her connection to Bowie runs deep—so deep, in fact, that her first major art project was a Bowie mosaic created in 1976 while obsessively listening to David Live.
“My plan was just to make a shrine,” says Marla. “But I realized I was way out of practice in drawing, so I figured the best way to get better was to do 30 portraits.”
That creative resurgence—fueled by Bowie’s iconic imagery—turned into this one-night-only exhibition, a love letter to the man who redefined music, fashion, and identity.
“I really like his lyrics. I love his music, his face, his body, the way he moves, his clothes, his makeup—everything about him,” she says. “I would just sit there, staring at the David Live album cover, completely in love with him. I must have listened to it twice a night, five nights a week.”
I wasn’t sure how to go about this. I had a friend ask me about how I happened to start a solo project, and this is basically what I told him:
February 4 2018 was the beginning of a whole new world for me – that was the day that my husband and bandmate of 40+ years went into the hospital and in four days passed away. The house was very quiet.
I began jamming on my guitar with my amp cranked up, coming up with riffs that would eventually turn into songs – two of them Rancid Vat songs. The rest did not fit in with the rowdy fun hate world of Rancid Vat. I spent about a year working on my songs, and even recorded a couple of them with me playing bass, guitar and using fake drums from my synth, with mediocre results.
Spring of 2020 we were in crazy times of lockdowns and quarantines. Rancid Vat didn’t get together for three months, and by May of 2020, things were loosening up in Texas. I decided to put out a call for a bass player and drummer on facebook. I got an immediate response from a friend who had a roommate that was a punk bass player. He seemed like a good guy and had a drummer and guitar player from a band that hadn’t played in five years. Bass and guitar player didn’t work out, but the drummer did. I then recruited a bass player who had auditioned for Rancid Vat, but lost out due to another candidate being good friends with the singer.
We were able to practice on a regular basis, getting ready for clubs to start booking live music again. January of 2021: still no signs of live music happening anytime soon. I tried finding a local recording studio, but nothing seemed to materialize, so we started recording at my home studio. It took about five months to record the eight songs on our first CD “Alligator Laugh” , to be released June 18, 2021 at our debut live show, here in San Antonio TX.
I’ve been playing guitar for almost 50 years, and have a huge spectrum of influences. Majority of my band experience has been playing noisy-in-your-face-punk. This project at times is noisy punk, but probably a little more rock n roll/garage/psych.
Fronting a band is something I hadn’t done except for a very brief stint in an all girl band that mostly did 60’s covers back in the early 80’s. In Rancid Vat and Alcoholics Unanimous, I played the supporting role, which was fine, since the singers we had and Phil aka Whiskey Rebel provided the stage presence. I was involved in the recording & mix downs of those bands and gained a lot of experience doing so.
This project is a big departure in some ways from what I’ve done in Rancid Vat, in that it’s more basic punk rock n roll.
I am proud of the fact that as a female musician, I’ve accomplished something very few of my counterparts have, and hope to inspire others to do what they didn’t think was possible!
Check out Marla Vee and The Natural Born Stud$ on Bandcamp.