Category Archives: Art Dolls

Art Doll Motorcycle II

Last week I shared WIP (work in progress) images of my current art doll sculpture.  The motorcycle for the sculpture is almost ready for its riders.  Here are a few more images of the motorcycle as it came together.

Parts and Pieces

Art doll motorcycle gains gas tank and motor

More parts added to art doll motorcycle

Here the frame gains a gas tank, engine block and some exhaust pipes.  I like the play of the different materials for each part. I enjoy the way it helps each part to pop more than if I fashioned the whole sculpture from copper.

Art doll motorcycle ready to get a concrete base

. Ready to gain a base

Next the tiny cycle gained some aluminum wheels with wooden hubs, and some copper handlebars. After a bit of grinding and cleaning the wheels were wired and attached to some hardware cloth for setting in a concrete base.  This will both anchor the piece firmly in its base, and provide reinforcement for the concrete.

Art doll motorcycle set in concrete base

Cycle curing in concrete base

Now some waiting for the base to dry and cure.  Next the piece will come inside for addition of details like a stitched seat, handle bar grips, headlight, gauges, gas cap …

This is a piece that is most definitely a collection of details. I can’t wait to get started on the riders.

Say hi and let me know what you think

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Art Dolls Installed and Invitation

Our Art Is…

The new show at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts including my newest art doll figures is now installed.  This show that features my sculptures along with the paintings of Eduardo Lapetina and Pat Merriman will run through June 21st.  The opening reception is this Friday, May 29th, from 6 to 9pm during Hillsborough’s monthly Last Friday celebration.  If you are in the area I hope you can join us, and see our new work. Here is a peek into the feature gallery.

HGA gallery view

View through door of Featured Exhibit gallery at HGA

A Closer Look

If you regularly read my posts you have seen most of these new art dolls in their studio shots, but here is a bit more of a tease from the gallery installation.

art doll Psyche-Delia with steampunk guitar

Psyche-Delia

Psyche-Delia is a steampunk rocker.

 

art doll Media at HGA

The art doll Media holds a key to…?

Art dolls: Media, Getting Ready, and Psyche- Delia sit atop a trio of pedestals.

art doll Joy

Joy

Joy dances in a dress that looks like it may have been pulled from Eduardo’s palette.

art dolls: Doll with Doll and Spring in Hillsborough Gallery of Arts

Doll with Doll (sold) looks up at viewer

Doll with doll, and figure titled, “Spring” in front of another Eduardo Lapetina piece in the background.

Art doll Paper Alice

“Paper Alice” art doll with Alice in Wonderland paintings.

It was completely serendipitous that Pat Merman had produced two mixed media Alice in Wonderland themed paintings that flank my art doll Paper Alice.  Paper Alice has paperclay sculpted head and hands, and parchment locks.

art doll Current drift in her boat

Current Drift floats on a pedestal

Hope that you can stop by and see these and my other new art dolls in the feature show, as well as, other examples of my sculptures throughout the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts.

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Art Doll Excursion

Getting Ready for Feature Show

I am busy finishing up the art doll figures that will be part of my feature show opening next week at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts.  Each year as I put together this body of work, connections between individual pieces emerge.  The pieces I have created this year push gesture, narrative and incorporation of materials.  My latest, Mechanical Succession, checks all of those boxes, and is a bit of a stretch beyond the others.

figurative art doll titled Mechanical Succession, experimentation in mixed media

Mechanical Succession

I created her on a slightly larger scale than most, and obviously opened up every tool kit and materials bin in my studio in making her.  There are still a few tweaks in positioning and perhaps a random detail or two left to add.  She is definitely on of those pieces I spoke of in an earlier post that you need to take a break from while you are working in order digest what you have done so far.

Go Where the Art Doll Takes You

I have to be completely honest and say I’m not sure myself what I think of her yet. Some pieces go exactly where you want them to, while others take you on their own excursion instead.  I feel that Mechanical Succession is one of the latter.  I am guessing that the story that she jumped out of must be an interesting one, though I’m not quite sure if it is some magical fairy tale, or one that cautions us about the future.

Next week I will share some images of the show installation, and provide one last reminder to set aside next Friday from 6-9 to come out to the opening, see it in person, and say hello.

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Art Dolls and Photo Angles

Today I took some photographs of my newly completed art doll sculpture titled Current Drift.

art doll Current Drift reclines in her small wooden boat

Current Drift

This figure sculpture is another piece that will be at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts starting May 25th.

Making This Art Doll

This piece did not begin as a preconceived sketch, but with a simple decision being made while in the metal studio creating hands and face.  That choice was to leave her eyes closed. As I took the polishing buff to the blackened and hammered piece of copper a very peaceful visage emerged.  The question then arose as what this figure was enjoying. Was she listening to beautiful music, basking in the warmth of the sun, or perhaps even a fairy tail princess awaiting an awakening kiss?  In the end, I thought she’d enjoy a gentile ride.

Though not intentional, I feel that she fits in with my earlier pieces Driving in Reverse, and Future Thoughts.  Like those two earlier figures, this doll seems to be communicating something to the viewer. Also, as with those earlier art dolls, her title conveys both her action, and her attitude.

Photographing and Finishing

Taking images of Current Drift was an interesting challenge.  Unlike a figure seated or standing, getting all the elements of this art doll in a single shot requires shooting from above.  I find that when you do that the piece tends to seem flattened.  It took quite a bit of camera angle and art doll repositioning until I landed on one that I thought worked as well as possible.  Even with all that movement I haven’t settled if this piece is completely complete.  I have been toying with the idea of imbedding the whole piece, art doll and boat, in a puddle of clear or slightly blue tinted resin.  I guess you might just have to show up to the show to find out.

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Mixed Media Art Doll

An Art Doll That Plays With Materials

Anyone familiar with my work knows that I love to mix, match, and experiment with the media I use in my sculptures.  My newest art doll, Media, takes that materials exploration to its highest power.

mixed media art doll "Media"

Media

She has a hammered copper face on a  paperclay head with parchment hair and torch fired glass enamel eyes.  Her shaped wooden torso connects to one paperclay arm, and one fabricated from copper and aluminum conduit.  One jointed leg I fashioned from copper tubing and a shaped dowel shin, and the other has a dowel thigh joined with a copper and aluminum shin.  Finally, she is clad in a copper hat, hand stitched faux-leather boots, a tulle skirt, fabric sleeve, and a bit of metallic paint tattooing on the side of her head.

It would be an understatement to say that I enjoyed creating this art doll. The final effect is both playful and somewhat edgy and mysterious.  I’m not sure what story she has to tell, but I am guessing that it is one that must be unlocked from safe keeping first.

Media will join my other new art doll figure sculptures at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts May 25th through June 21st.

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Paper Art Doll

Art Doll in Progress

Last week I shared some Work-In-Progress images of the newest art doll I was working on. This figure was inspired by a combination of my very first art doll, a snow day, and our yearly literary themed show.

Rather than playing with the idea of a rag doll that wasn’t quite floppy, I instead twisted the idea of a paper doll into a three dimensional figure.  This idea sprung from my picking up paperclay to incorporate into my pieces after having used polymer clay for a face on a snowy day.  Thinking of this figure as a 3D paper doll turned my attention to book illustrations. The images in a classic version of Alice In Wonderland became the literary basis for “Paper Alice.”

Full length image of Paper Alice

Paper Alice

I purposely kept Alice’s color palette muted and almost monochromatic.  I wanted the figure itself to feel as though she had been plucked off the pages of an aged volume.  I used mages and quotes from the text to further this concept.

Metalwork takes a supporting role in this art doll. Her shoes, dress collar, and headband I fashioned from copper.  The “drink me” tag on her bottle is tooled brass foil, and her eyes are torch fired glass enamel on a copper base.

detail of Paper Alice

detail of Paper Alice

I used an antique yellow parchment paper to create Paper Alice’s hair.  I created this wig by hand cutting sets of strips that were then stitched on to a tiny stocking cap I created for her. A bit of curling on the edge of scissors set her coiffure in motion.

Paper Alice hands

Paper Alice hands

I enjoyed experimenting with new materials and techniques with this art doll.  I expect that I will incorporate them in other figure sculptures in the not too distant future.

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Art Doll Getting Ready

Where is this art doll off to?

This week I completed “Getting Ready”.  This art doll is obviously on her way to somewhere very important, but not quite set to go.  I’m sure she’d like to have her dress ready too, but her undergarments are pretty interesting all on their own.  Besides, her attention seems to be firmly concentrated on her hair at the moment.

seated figure sculpture art doll Getting Ready

Getting Ready

I may change the mirror she is holding a bit.  It is one of those details that you need to look at before you feel it is exactly what you want for a piece.  Sometimes time and distance are the most useful items you have in your toolbox.  I can’t even recall the number of pieces I’ve changed or even completely reworked before they appeared in the gallery.  A couple of the dolls that will appear in my feature show in May are very different beings now compared to what they were a few months earlier.

Back view of Getting Ready

back view of Getting Ready

As you can see, Getting Ready is tightly laced up, and even has a little bit of boost for her bustle. I worked more metal through her shoulders and bust line and defined her waist with soft sculpting techniques. These shapes are created through costuming with most of my other art dolls.

I’m still left wondering where she and her striped stockings are off to next.

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Art Doll and Her Balloon

Art doll grasping string of balloon

Art Doll Balloon

The art doll to emerge this week from my studio is this whimsical figure grasping the string of her balloon. I like working on pieces in which I strive to capture movement.  It is easier to have a sculpture posed in a static attitude. With this doll, I wanted the viewer to feel if they could witness the very next second, the doll would either rise off her one foot, or be running after the balloon being carried by a breeze.

Some pieces take form as you are working on them, sometimes surprising you with the end result.  This piece was very much the opposite. She was fully formed in my mind and sketchbook just begging to come to life.  The only detail that surprised me was how I created the balloon.  Originally, I was going to fashion it out of something like paper mâché, but then I found the blue checkered fabric in my stash, and it spoke so strongly to the pattern I chose for her dress. I knew I had to sew it as well.

Her red “leather” Mary Jane shoes took me on a little learning journey. I find I simply love creating the footwear for these figures. I helped my process of creating the patterns for each by doing a bit of Internet seachring on shoemaking itself. Watching footwear pattern and construction videos during a gallery shift provided fresh insight. Most helpful was seeing how shoe designers use tape covering their shoe form to create their initial patterns.

I think I might have found my image piece for my next show card.

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Art Dolls and Patience

Now that the winter holidays and working on extra jewelry pieces for Valentine’s Day has past, my attention turns to putting together my feature artist show for the gallery.  This year, I will be part of the show opening at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts on the last Friday of May .

One of the challenges of this preparation is holding back recently completed pieces until the installation of the show. This is where blogging about what is going on in the studio is very helpful.  I can share previews of the work without having to succumb to the urge to bring it in to the gallery right away.

Two of my most recently completed art doll sculptures are “Spring” and “psyche-Delia”.  I will take the time to tell you more about them and their companions who are as yet just sketches when show date nears.  For now, I just thought I’d let you get a peek at them devoid of any artist commentary.

image of art doll psyche-Delia

psyche-Delia

image of art doll Spring

Spring

Let me know what you think.

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Art Doll, Not Quite.

I don’t think my new piece for the upcoming Hillsborough Gallery of Arts show, “It’s All About The Story, Volume 3: Lee Smith”, actually qualifies as one of my art dolls.  It does have a small figure incorporated, but it reads more like a narrative sculpture to me.

figure from "Folk Art on a Swing"

figure from “Folk Art on a Swing”

As you may be aware, each year during our February show at HGA, we pair up with one of the many well know authors who also make their home in Hillsborough. We create art in response to their work.  This year we read Lee Smith’s collection of short stories titled, “Mrs. Darcy and the Blue Eyed Stranger.”

One story in particular, “Folk Art”, seemed custom written for my work.  In this story a young art professor is visiting a woman who creates concrete sculptures of the people in her life, and installs them in her backyard garden.  I didn’t want to be overly literal and fashion my figure in the same manner, so I decided to do a variation on both using concrete and my figure sculptures that are art dolls.

"Folk Art on a Swing" fabric ache over wire and wood

Folk Art on a Swing

What I settled on was a sculpture that includes a small figure, and is fashioned out fabric maché.  The piece does relate to someone specific, but the choice of the child swinging was intentional because of its universality.  Unlike the self taught artist in the story, I wanted my figure to speak to everyone rather than just highlight character traits or interests of my specific subject.

The piece is fabric and trim over the wire and wood frame that I shared as a work in progress in my last post.  Now, it is time to get back to work on some art dolls for my next featured artist show.  I will be sure to share some images of more of the work in  “It’s All About The Story, Volume 3: Lee Smith” when the show is installed in a few weeks, and alert you when Ms. Smith will join us in the gallery for a reading.

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