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.

I almost forgot

Saturday I went to the Guilded Lilies monthly get-together-activity and made a "spirit doll", starting with one of those articulated artist's manikins. Here it is (I don't think it's either a she or a he. I think it's just an it spirit.) It's called "It's Safe to Dance."

Theamorph - the rest of the story

When last we met our intrepid goddess-in-training, she looked something like this:

The next step after that is "completely covered in at least one, and in most places multiple layers of unryu" (sorry, Kat - the face had to go.)


After a base coat of metallic taupe acrylic paint mixed with some kind of coffee brown (I did have Van Dyke brown, but didn't find it until later. It would have helped), the upper part is "antiqued" with a mixture of the base coat, more water, some black paint, and some water-based varnish.


Then the fun part - starting at the top and working my way down, clothing the entire lower section in silk maple leaves, at first using Mod Podge to get them to cling closely to the body, but in the lower sections using a fast-setting glue to stick them in place more quickly (esp. since I wanted the lower parts to stick out in places. I'm happy with the outcome.)



The thing on her head is a clump of dyed-green Spanish moss, which I in turn dyed grey-brown again with some of the leftover antiquing solution, quick-dried by placing it on a weighted-down Handiwipe over the bathroom floor furnace vent (more crazy art-making at my house), and then glued onto her head to simulate a bird's nest. The hair is then rooted down *thru* the moss, which also gives it some loft.



The hair is a very soft yarn with lovely slubs in it (what KatDoc insists on calling "nubbies") that I have had on hand for quite a while waiting for the perfect recipient for dreadlocks.



And finally, the complete Demeter:



I attached a piece of parchment-y paper on the bottom with post-it glue, that said:

"Autumn time, red leaves fall
while the weeping sky looks over all
Demeter sadly walks the land,
the dying grasses in her hand*
The Goddess Demeter, grief-stricken at the abduction of her daughter Persephone, wandered in despair and neglected the earth. Leaves turned brown and fell from the trees, and the land became barren and cold." Underneath the paper it says "Demeter" and is signed and dated. She was put in the silent auction last night and I don't know yet how much she sold for. *fingers crossed*

*lyric from a round by the women's choral group Libana

Artist Spotlight: Chris Malone

Chris Malone recently joined an online art dolls discussion group I belong to, and I LOVE his work. He was born and raised not far from where I live, altho' he currently lives in D.C. (Funny how many artists came from Ohio but don't live here any more...)

His work reminds me somewhat of Jim Henson's more complicated puppets - whimsical, stylized faces and funny, more cartoony bodies and legs. They're SO colorful and the movement of the dolls (even when stationary!) is so much fun - another source of inspiration!

Artist spotlight - Marina Bychkova

I stumbled upon the work of Marina Bychkova in the Winter 2007 issue of Art Doll Quarterly. Her porcelain dolls are - and I don't use words like this lightly - simply exquisite. Even more than the hundreds of hours spent crafting their elaborate bodies, embroidering their costumes with seed beads, and painting and overpainting their delicate features, I appreciate the ethos of her work. She intentionally gives her dolls detailed genitalia, because she feels strongly that the absence of genitals in commercial dolls is a reflection of society's shame about sex and the body in general. In an interview on www.pixelsurgeon.com, Marina says "Most of the dolls, both Fine Art and children’s dolls, though [sic] try to imitate human form, are sterilized through a complete removal of sex organs. It’s as if they need to be cleansed of all their sinful humanity. I find this deliberate denial of the essence of life to be ignorant and appalling. I don’t know why there is so much fear and shame associated with human sexuality. Every Barbie needs to have a vagina. Every Ken needs a penis. I think it’s time the dolls leave the realm of tea parties and innocence and address some important issues." Although her dolls are beautiful to look at, many of them also express underlying darker political or social issues. Astonishingly, Marina is only in her mid-20s. I envy anyone who is that technically skilled and that passionate and clear in their expression, and for someone to have achieved both at such a young age I find marvelous.

I will never create dolls as flawless as this - I just don't work that way - but I aspire to reach a similar melding of beauty with expression of a personal point of view.

Hm. Guess that's what art is, isn't it?

Subverting pop culture

Someone on one of my Yahoo art groups taught me the basics of altering fashion dolls in this way. I have since amassed an army of bald Barbie, Jem, Olsen twins, Little Mermaid, Belle (from Beauty & the Beast, Disney version), and unknown manufacturers' dolls to be posed, glued and/or taped, wrapped in paperclay and unryu paper, and decorated. Actually, they don't start out bald - one of my favorite parts of the process is cutting their hair to stubble and yanking out the plugs with a pair of needlenose pliers. (There is probably some dark psychological import to my delight in this activity.) Most don't end up bald, either, being bedecked with hair of wild yarn, wire, or anything else I can attach to their heads. This one was the first, given as a wedding gift to someone whose family thought it was a joke - fortunately she recognized it for the work of love it actually was.