"[3] Creative from the start, she created large-scale papier-mâché floats for her hometown Halloween parades, and won her first art award while she was still in grammar school.

[3] Growing up in the Berkshires, surrounded by world-class theater, von Buhler staged, performed and sang in plays at school and camp.

[1][12][11] Speakeasy Dollhouse[13] by von Buhler is a true tale of New York City Prohibition-era bootlegging, mafia, infidelity, and murder.

[13] To more thoroughly explore her grandfather's murder and events leading up to it, von Buhler created an elaborate speakeasy dollhouse set complete with handmade dolls in her art studio.

The set includes a plush secret nightclub, a bakery, a pre-war apartment, a bootlegging bathroom, a morgue, and even Ellis Island.

[16] Of Dolls and Murder, directed by Susan Marks and narrated by John Waters, is a documentary about Francis Glessner Lee's crime scene investigation dollhouse dioramas.

Dark Horse Comics published a two book graphic novel encased in a hardcover sleeve, written by Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley and illustrated by von Buhler.

In 2001 von Buhler was asked by Steven Spielberg to illustrate Martha Stewart's story for Once Upon A Fairy Tale (Viking), a book produced to benefit The Starbright Foundation for seriously ill children.

Publishers Weekly offered high praise for her work on the book: "Von Buhler's paintings exert a gravitational pull of their own.

"[24] Kirkus Reviews called the illustrations "unique" and "eye-popping," providing "a glimpse of a world beyond the frame" and pronounced the book "a sheer delight.

"[25] Publishers Weekly thought "readers ... may well be entranced" by the "considerable magic" of von Buhler's illustrations,[26] while Time Out New York called the book "beautifully ornate," and "the cat's meow."

The book's illustrations feature handmade architectural sets, cinematic lighting, and paper doll oil paintings of the characters in action.

Kirkus Reviews stated that "young readers will pore over this one again and again,"[27] and School Library Journal agreed that "children will find a lot to discover in the details, even after repeated readings.

[31] Elizabeth Bird, a New York Public Librarian, posted a lengthy review of the book on her School Library Journal blog, "Is it wrong that I sometimes want to blow a four-year-old's mind?

"[42] At this point von Buhler began utilizing unconventional media in her art: video projection, living fauna, found objects, human detritus, and electronic audio.

[43] "Regardless of medium, all of von Buhler's pieces require the viewer to get involved: sometimes physically, by feeding a caged animal or inserting a coin to operate a machine.

A velvet-curtained puppet theater sets the stage for Show and Tell, a multimedia painting that explores the use of word versus action with hidden visual and auditory messages.

[51] Her fine art appeared on TV in Law & Order SVU as the artwork of a serial killer, and in a fight scene of the show Kidnapped.

"[58] Von Buhler's three-dimensional paintings have been reproduced and featured in a diverse variety of books, magazines, and newspapers from Rolling Stone to The New Yorker.

The expose was narrated by Penelope Ann Miller and also featured interviews with Martin Scorsese and Arch Bishop Rembert Weakland.

[61] This book garnered von Buhler a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which praised the "imaginative debut" and her "distinct sense of time and place.

The band performed at New York City's Roseland Ballroom and Boston's Avalon as part of the Sextacy Ball, with My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and Lords of Acid also on the bill.

Their album, Boots, featured vocals and lyrics by von Buhler and music by Xavier Dietrich II, and was released in 1997 on Pussykitty Records.

[70] At this time von Buhler and her husband started a record label named after their house with the award-winning designer Clifford Stoltze.

[12] "In the 1990s, it was impossible to walk into an Allston club or Cambridge bar without tripping over one of Cynthia von Buhler's paintings, music projects, or a band signed to her record label.

In honor of von Buhler's close college friend, William Lincoln Tisdale, who had died from the disease, proceeds from these compilations were donated to various AIDS charities.

Von Buhler contributed musically and artistically to the compilations and her first work (which incorporated a live dove) was honored by Society of Illustrators in New York City.

Von Buhler was dressed in a custom-made latex mermaid tail and greeted her guests from a claw foot bathtub filled with water.

[82] In homage to the BP Oil Spill victims von Buhler created an oil-slick mermaid installation featuring live models.

[83] The party was attended by many literary luminaries: Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Ames, Michael Chabon, Adele Griffin and others.