Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I don't hate you, honest

Things get complex sometimes. Let's just say I've been both making and talking about art, but I haven't been around *here* to tell you about it.




These two dolls are on display the High Road Gallery in Worthington, OH, which is hosting a "split show" of the doll-making group I belong to and a local quilt group. I'm not particularly happy about how they're displayed - first off, they're grouped together with other altered fashion dolls, whereas I would have preferred that they be distributed among dolls of other media; and second, they're displayed on a low, unlit shelf that was built over the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom of the old house the gallery located in (there's still a toilet and a sink in the bathroom, which were discreetly screened off during the reception on Sunday.) Every time I show my dolls to someone who's never seen them before and tell them that they started life as a fashion doll, they're always amazed, and I would like there to have been some chance for them to "compete" equally with the cloth dolls rather than being relegated off to the frigging SECOND FLOOR BACK BATHROOM. Ah, well - a part of me suspects there's some preferential positioning that has to do with how long you've been in the group, etc., but the bottom line is I'm a complete noob compared to most of these folks, and they absolutely deserve pride of place. So no big deal. I'm just excited to have them seen by a wider audience. Oh, and I sold one - neither of the two pictured above, it's the "Woodland Spirit" that I did over a year ago. It probably sold first because it was priced lower than the others - but honestly, I was just tired of looking at it and happy to have it find a new home.

I had a fourth doll to enter in the show, but I could never quite get my head around the concept I wanted to do and so I set it aside. I plan to go back to it in the next few days and work out the gnarly parts.

4 comments:

Kathi said...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, "I don't grok the dolls." Still, you shouldn't have been sentenced to the upstairs back bathroom!

How did the show go?

~Kat

nicki b. said...

love these! how much do they run? not that i have much money, i just think so many of them would look great on my altar....


ps. found you via bust.

(miss you there)
-girl!trouble

Anonymous said...

Your art dolls are amazing...wonderful writing and "adventures in creating"--loved the story about making paper wings! Can't believe your dolls ended up in the bathroom of the gallery...a bit disappointing but you're probably right about "seniority"...I am an artist in Marion, OH and wish I had the courage to approach a gallery...
keep up the outstanding work!
Dianne

Kathi said...

It is September, and you have not posted since June. I'm just sayin' ...

~Kathi, whose keyboard doesn't include an interrobang or she would use it in a sentence