Each year’s Art Doll Happening is filled with wonderful energy, people, and visual surprises!
2019 was off to a great start thanks to everyone who was able to participate. From the first knock on the door that afternoon, until the last photographs were taken, we enjoyed the many different ways people played with this year’s theme. Hopefully these blog posts will provide some sense of the event!
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In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock, and in light of the current threat to our planet and its inhabitants, I decided to create an art doll in the image of my interpretation of the Greek goddess Gaia. Gaia is known as "the great mother of all" and referred to as "Mother Earth".
It's time for all women to unite, support and nurture each other, and fight for the health of the Earth through education and recycling, and sustainability, and voting for people who care about what will be left for future generations.
"We've got to get ourselves back to the garden". 💙✌
The pic of my doll is in the comments.
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So this is my art doll and it’s really kind of me because I always try to read and fall asleep!
The book is The Hobbit. The figure is polymer clay and pipe cleaners.
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It is interesting because my dolls have always been 2-D. The first year I participated it was a paper doll. The card year our theme was playing cards, it was a golden cardboard cut out. This is the closest to 3-D I have come…
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Inspiration: Today I have to share some things that happened because of this group. At the witches last year (several Art Doll collaborators are also helpers for the town’s trick-or-treat community event), someone commented on my Frida Kahlo socks. Because you said that I wore these here today - and they say: “I drank to drown my sorrows but the damned things learned how to swim.” And, don’t miss the Frida Kahlo exhibition at MFA… I do like Frida Kahlo, which you will see in my work today.
Some of us also met on Valentine’s Day for lunch and we talked about this stuff we have. So much stuff! And we decided it helps to call it call it “Emphemera.” So, I was talking to my husband about this - and I brought along to share two cartoons about this “stuff” that is everywhere.
I have a great daughter and great daughter-in-law and if you remember last year, they were all interested in the Art Doll I made last year from the samovar and Russian Dolls. I couldn’t take that apart because everyone loved it, and it is now sitting in my dining room!
So this year I looked at this idea of “stuff”. I found this empty journal with a face and decided to work with this idea of “Ephemera”.
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I pulled together things that may not make sense to anyone but me. And I pulled out this word “Artrageous”. Then I added quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, images I like, words, phrases, little paper remembrances.
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BF’s work includes images that speak to different parts of her areas of interest, family life, friendships, and her relationship to (and with) art. She also explored a box of treasures for additional items. One of these items tied back to another Art Doll collaborator. BF shared: I taught at different levels of school and one year one of the parents was GH. I wanted to have name plates for a special dinner I was hosting, and I am not good at freehand drawing. Somehow I learned that the parent of one of my students - GH - was very talented at drawing. I asked GH to make place cards for a dinner, and still have them, all these years later. They were so beautiful, and I didn’t even know if you would remember them, or imagine that I have saved them all this time.
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This past Christmas MT x 2 (and family) made MT1’s first trip back to Vietnam in 43 years. On return from the trip, MT x 2 received the Art Doll invitation. With the trip in mind, MT1 thought she would do something related.
MT1’s Inspiration: My Mom taught Vietnamese literature when I was young. Between 6th and 7th grade, Mom (who taught high school) gave me a book to read with an invitation to discuss the book when I finished. It turned out to be an epic poem with over 2,000 verses.
And it was all in Vietnamese. This was like giving Shakespeare to 12 year old with reading skills of 6 year old! It took me a long time to read it. Now the story has been translated. It is story of young woman who is very beautiful and talented and smart. She has to save her family from going to prison. She sacrifices herself to marry a middle aged man and he turns out to be a pimp. She ultimately jumps in a river to sacrifice herself and a Buddhist nun rescues her. Her love interest from when she was younger finds her and marries her.
My Mom asked me to discuss the book with her when I was done reading. First, she asked me if I had finished the book. I had. Mom asked me if I understood what prostitution was. I said I did. That was it, no further discussion!
I was inspired because I am passionate about women’s rights.
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On process: The doll is very small, which I regret now, as it was difficult to decorate her. She is faceless and represents every woman.
I made the lute from popsicle sticks and chopsticks. The strings are from beading wire. Wire is challenging because it curls and is really hard to work with. I love origami, and I added origami flowers and birds.
MT2: My doll is me and I got this traditional Vietnamese dress while we were on our family trip. In Vietnamese, this is a “long shirt”: ao dai (pronounced “ow-z-eye”).
MTx2 didn’t coordinate on what their projects would be this year, but as it turned out, MT2 wanted to wear her Ao dai. Then she saw MT1’s doll. Meanwhile when MT1 learned MT2 was going to wear her outfit, MT1 decided to add a hat in same style as MT2’s outfit. The hat is a traditional style. MT1’s doll body is made from pipe cleaners and can be posed.
On the flowers - MT1 really likes roses and had lots of felt. Saw MT2’s dress last night and made the flowers this morning to tie the two visions together.
Photo located by Michelle.
You can see more flowers that are the inspiration for the flowers on Michelle’s dress by using the search term “hoa mai”, (hoa means flower). It’s commonly yellow and prevalent at New Year, Tet. Michelle notes that it resembles forsythia. Michelle’s full name is Mai Huong (fragrance of Mai flower) and Michelle’s is Mai Lan (Mai and orchid).
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Inspiration: I love making books and hoped to make a book in the shape of an art doll so I could create pages where each page would hold thoughts about my favorite book. I like the phrase “You are the sum total of all of the books you have ever read” and felt a book of this design would illustrate that concept nicely.
I am also struck by how I am defined by the piles of books I have gathered as companions, but have yet to read and tell myself: “You are the sum total of all of the books you have not read!” My Art Doll needed a reading companion and a cat was just right. The cat’s body holds a very special miniature book. The cat sits in a magical tree that reminds me of the scene in Alice in Wonderland when the Cheshire Cat appears and disappears. Each item that can be discovered in the tree represents a story that I love. The signs include phrases, quotations, sayings and words of inspiration from/about/referring to books that I love (or reading in general).
I have spent a good amount of time thinking about creative characters and the Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood - while not my favorite book - is one book that has had a significant influence on me over the past six months. I first read it in law school. Today, the character reminds me of the strong sisterhood or shoi that can exist between women in a wide range of circumstances. I’m grateful for the Art Doll collaboration.
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On process & inspiration:
I had been collecting wooden spools for some time, with the hope of incorporating them in an Art Doll. When I go to my quilting class, another quilter learned that I was collecting them and generously gave me several lovely spools.
This year I was finally able to explore them as an Art Doll resource.
The book folding is something I had done last year. When folded, they could easily be used as Christmas trees or skirts for an Art Doll.
I have collected images and examples of the 1850 - 1880 Queen Anne dolls, beginning with some I saw in Vermont many years ago. I have been studying them and working to create parts that incorporate aspects of their style.
The doll’s banner is made of miniature books and says “there is no frigate like a book”. At first, I was going to create Emily Dickinson as this year’s Art Doll, but I have started another doll that looks more like her.
The thread from the spool had to be cleaned up and it just became a shawl.
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MM Decided to capture the feeling of being lost in a book. The Art Doll is made from pages of a book and is reading Empire Falls.
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I made Reeda with inspiration from Wendy Wasserstein book The Shiksa Goddess. We have about 10,000 books in the house and nobody had a book I could use, so I decided to pick this one. The book she is holding is titled Empye Nester.
Reeda learned about his in her travels. She wears a bead on her necklace for every country she has visited. She couldn’t count well….. so she has eight beads on her necklace but she made a mistake (she wants to visit every continent).
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On process: I used styrofoam for her head and her body. I modpodged her as well. My daughter thinks her hair looks like mine - I got it when we Jessie and I were out together at the craft store!
Originally her waistline was very skinny, and I didn’t want to make a skinny doll. I tried to make my own doll completely. I tried wire and aluminum foil. I tried to sculpt styrofoam. Every time I tried and it didn’t work I was very mature. I didn’t throw anything!
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I was not a reader. I thought about the Art Doll this year as my relationship to books and reading. I loved books as sensory objects. I loved the pictures and the pages. I was always collecting and looking at stuff. Sea shells were my first obsession; I collect other things now. I didn’t buy anything to make this book.
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“This was somebody who died about three days ago and was hit by a car. It was this very special bird.” - JL PC: BG
This was all stuff I had. I like to look close I look at patterns in dirt. I would collect flecks of mica. We didn’t have a lot of money.
When I was older I would go to books to learn more about it. I had a reading jag when my children were little. At 5:30 in the morning I would read to have the adult conversation. And, like CB I would fall asleep if it was late at night or early in the morning. I would read about cuttlefish.
I start by going out to look at things. Books take me further. This page is because if you know me you know I am always talking. And you learn a lot by shutting up. i work in a preschool. We go outside and this page represents making space. You learn so much by shutting up. This is found paper that a friend gave me. Just the intricacy of the found world. books are useful for shoving things into.
We watch the birds every day.
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From MW: I am neither creative nor artistic, and therefore … but I do like making stuffed dolls. This is a doll that I started out making 12 or 13 years ago. This was going to be a project with my granddaughter and I working together. It was supposed to be a faceless doll, which really upset my granddaughter who felt all dolls need a face. She snuck over to the space where I work … I do these projects in New Hampshire. My quilting room is in a separate building - a bay in the garage, so it really is a separate room. Anyway, she snuck over there to make a face on the doll, so it really was a collaboration. But the doll didn’t have any clothing. So, what is the book? It is Little Red Riding Hood.
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As a child when I first heard the story I identified with Little Red Riding Hood. Now I identify with the Grandmother. My granddaughter who is at NYU now studying acting, she was in a dramatic program and she was Little Red in Into the Woods. So today I see it as she is Little Red, and I am the Grandmother.
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In deciding what I would make, I looked at who were my favorite female authors. I had many more and was going to keep going!
The first doll I made was Jane Austen, and I made her out of her words from Sense and Sensibility.
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The doll is made from pipe cleaners and I did not really like the way it came out.
I like the strong characters of the Dashwood sisters.
The next one is Edith Wharton and The Custom of the Country. I read this first in my 20s and then again in my 40s.
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These were books with strong female characters and strong female authors and hold great meaning for me.
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I have been decluttering and listening to the Marie Kondo programs. I came across the Richard Scarry figurines and when my kids were younger they loved to play with these. It was a world, and though one was a girl and one was a boy, Busytown isn’t a dollhouse, so they could both play and make a world with these.
There are infinite creative possibilities in arranging the buildings, figures, and accessories - immediately inviting play for all ages.
GH invited everyone to have a turn playing!
Side note: After GH shared, BF chimed in. BF was once the teacher for GH’s daughter, and remembers her very fondly and as a very artisic person. GH shared that she was an art major in college. GH: I always thought I hated history because it was so boringly taught but it turns out I really love history. It turns out it was historical fiction that drew me in. The thing I’m reading right now is Vanessa and Her Sister (Vanessa’s sister was Virginia Woolf).
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MT designed an oversized three dimensional replica of a Beatrix Potter book. From the outside it appears as if some magic created a special edition of one volume of the classic Potter books. When you open the book there are multiple pages with three-dimensional hand-illustrated, intricately cut paper scenes from Potter classic stories.
After the viewer explores the short stories based on Potter’s work, the final page turns to reveal an entire scene set in Potter’s world, complete with characters from several stories.
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SP began by sharing that she did not make a “doll” this year but brought an altered book that she made for her son, who is a mathematician.
SP: My son is an advanced mathematician. This book jumped out at me. It is orange, which is his favorite color, and the title was right. The pages are now altered with drawings, and parts removed or covered over completely. Many illustrated definitions are in here and I amended or annotated wherever it felt appropriate.
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After one illustration, I wrote “Seriously, in an illustrated dictionary is that the best you could do?”
There is a page where you can change the expression of the face in one illustration by shifting and lifting pull tabs.
On the subject of process, SP shared: “I would ask myself, “What will I do today? What do I like? What don’t I like"?”
I added dice at the back. I drew some dice in the pages.
When I started I felt so bad because I was writing in a book. It is like the first thing I learned, to never deface a book. I felt like I almost had to go to my room and close the door. It was funny how emotional I felt defacing a book. And then I got over that and I just had fun with it!
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I couldn’t imagine what I was going to do. I like to be out in the woods in the winter. So I made a snowflake book.
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I wrote a little piece. I periodically write a little piece. I don't know what you would call it. I had gone for a walk in that bitter time when it was 6 below and 8 below.
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This winter. I have three little things. I’ll read one, from this year. Others are from other places like Franconia notch.
I like to take pictures so I have put some in the book along with the writing.
BL read a selection aloud for all of us to experience together:
“I circled back, re-crossing the frozen field. I stopped to admire the stream flowing under the Pooh-bridge, as so far being the only sign of life and then decided to walk along its marshy edge where a Choke-cherry seemed to have spilt its berries all over the snow. As I approached I noticed that the surrounding bushes were alive with robins, a flock of perhaps 20, every feather puffed to its fullest so that the bushes were decorated with fluffy reddish-brown balls with a beak. There was no chatter; just silent flight to the Cherry for silent eating. A few birds fed on the snow “
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LM began by holding up a copy of The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest by Stephen H. Lekson and shared: “This book is one of three that changed my life. I grew up in Southern California and we went out west all the time. I moved here, and then relocated to Long Island for a period of time. When I went to Long Island I began reading American Archaeology, which I hadn’t realized was the magazine that the Archaeological Conservancy puts out.
The Chaco Meridian came out and there were two other books by the same author. I am probably one of few people in the universe who read that third book - it had lots of diagrams and charts. Together, these books blew my mind. There is place in New Mexico called Chaco Canyon with lots of pueblos. In the 800-1150 range, there were roads out of Chaco and one particular road that leads due north. This northern aligned road ultimately leads to the area that was home to the Aztec. Over time the power center moved to the Aztecs. “The Northern line” means something and is very important. One day the Archaeological Conservancy announced a trip with the book’s author, Stephen Lekson…
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I was so excited, and I literally changed my life in order to meet this author and go on this trip. On the trip I saw many of the places I had read about. There were areas I had imagined as just empty, and yet in reality the road ran through it. There were many intriguing spaces in the surrounding structures, including round rooms, and an amphitheater. In some of the spaces one room opens into another. When these spaces were inhabited, people often dumped trash into rooms they weren’t using, these trash piles provide many clues to what life was like.
My first exchange with the author was literally me questioning one of his theories, which I later felt like might not have been a great start. But I spent the trip asking questions and the author was interested. I am now a member of the board, and I ofen travel with people who work in support of archaeological research.
This year for art doll, I was worried that time wouldn’t permit making a doll. However, this year’s theme got me thinking about how this one book really and truly changed my life.
The doll I made is inspired by the many dolls in the Pueblo world known as Kachina dolls. In the Native American world, directions have color. The colors in my doll are significant, as is every aspect of the design. The line along the doll speaks to the central road; it comes from the south and goes north. I made all of the pigments that were used to bring color to my work. The red is from Havana, Cuba in the South. The green is from a trip I took to go searching for diamonds. The yellow is from Cortez. The black is also from beautiful Cortez. The white is from California. All directions are represented: South, West, East, North. The road is in the center. The black part is part of the sky. Turquoise is from a piece of jewelry and it represents the North Star. The fathers are chicken feathers from my chickens. The Oriole feathers are from Lexington Center. I found the Oriole feathers when playing Pokemon Go and someone pointed out the bird. I knew these were significant feathers, in addition to being beautiful. I gave one to a dear friend, who then wore a feather as part of a ceremony. My friend treasured it because they have Orioles but not this type with this color.
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I started this thinking, “we are meeting on March 2nd, what kind of book should I center on?” Then I thought that since March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’s birthday, I would work from that idea. I decided to pick Oh The Places You’ll Go as my inspiration.
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I love to travel and with changes brought along from two good friends, “Perry” and “Meno”, I am not seeing the same. I have readers everywhere! So my little doll is made from many pairs of reading glasses. I like my eyeglass carrier to be big enough to hold a pen, so I found that was just the right size to pair with my doll!
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Harold was brought to life by the creative mother-&-daughter-in-law team of Fran G and Kristen G. Fran and Kristen worked together during a recent family visit, so Kristen’s two children were close at hand!
Fran wrote, “Kristen and I came up with our idea this past Sunday and finished on Wednesday night!” The whirlwind creative process included special details (see photos below), which were noted by everyone during the gathering and brought many smiles, from the Harold’s hair, outfit, real purple crayon, and a surprise message at the back!
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Details match the book’s drawings…
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Just like real pajamas…
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Little details make a big difference!
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There are multiple projects in the works here at Shining Hours. An honest photograph (which I’m not quite ready to share) would reveal drafts of art quilts from the Security Blanket series pinned over a bookcase, half finished author blocks, hand-made books (more under construction than complete), large scale photographs from my ongoing tableaux work, a small basket over-stuffed with coffee bean bags that await an interesting second chapter, and many inviting resources.
This studio does not look like the clear and inviting work spaces I see in most articles that show an artist in her studio. When I see those photos I always imagine the effort it must have taken for the featured artist to hide all of their supplies before the journalist arrived. (Or, maybe some people can genuinely create that way.)
In reality, my work does best when there are many different resources close at hand. Iterations help me. Looking back at old work inspires me, along with natural materials, colors and clippings. While I’ve come to appreciate this, I also know I need more time to work on the creative backlog!
2019 will, hopefully, be a chance to nurture these works in progress. Maybe some will even reach maturity.