Category Archives: Art Dolls

Performing Creatures

I admit it. I fall prey to finding humor in puns, and some of my new creatures are obvious candidates for punny titles. My swan dancing in her toe shoes titled, “Too En Pointe?”, is a prime example.

Too En Pointe? anthropomorphic art doll — Too En Pointe?

Swan Lake is the world’s best known ballet. I choose to depict this most recent dancing figure as a swan. I think that choice might be a bit too “on point” for some. For those not familiar with dancing terms, dancing up on toe shoes is called being “En Pointe.” I suppose I could have made her title an even greater head shaking pun if I had called her “TooToo En Pointe?”

Title aside, I enjoy how this sculpture came together. She is a commanding figure at 18 inches tall and her wings spread wide. That she somehow can maintain her en pointe posture dancing on water makes her just a bit magical.

More Performing Creatures

If you are familiar with the romantic comedy Notting Hill, you might recognize the title of “Happiness Isn’t.” There is a painting, La Mariée (The Bride), by Marc Chagall that plays a role in the story. The main characters Anna (Julia Roberts) and William (Hugh Grant) discuss the imagery of the painting. Anna states,”It feels how love should be. Floating through a dark blue sky.” William quips, “With a goat playing the violin.” To which Anna responds, “Yes, happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat.” That clever exchange was the inspiration for “Happiness Isn’t.”

Happiness Isn't anthropomorphic art doll — Happiness Isn’t

Even though the goat in the actual painting appears to be holding a cello, I chose to depict my figure with a violin too. He is one of those figures that just brings a smile, and has no other job than to contradict his own title.

Stay Tuned…

Things are changing quickly as we navigate sharing and marketing artwork online. I’m not sure this month’s Featured Artist show (changes Friday, April 24th) on the HGA website will be presented in the same way as the current one. There are some new gallery offerings going up just about every day. Keep checking in both here and on our Hillsboroughgallery.com site to see what is new and available. I just made some pricing updates on my own “Available for Purchase” page. You may want to recheck your favorites. I’ve revised the newest back to last year’s scale, and I have taken in to account the need to add on shipping costs.

A Bard Bird, A Book Cat, and Bags.

Literature often serves as a fertile idea source. Today’s sculptures do not pull from specific stories, but they do have book related themes.

Crow by the Book

My elizabethan crow is titled Upstart. A playwright contemporary of Shakespeare named, Robert Greene, referred to The Bard as an “upstart crow”. Greene was university educated and thought that actors like Shakespeare should stick to delivering lines, not writing them. The joke is now on mister Greene, as most of us only encounter his name when looking up the origin of the phrase. I first read an explanation on the bag of a bookstore with that name, and there is also a British sit-com by the same title.

Upstart Crow anthropomorphic art doll — Upstart

My “Upstart” is apparently delivering some grand soliloquy. His feathered cap, and white ruffed collar seemed the only elements needed to place him in time and context. Getting his bird form into a human posture and proportion was key with this piece. He commands much more attention than his 12 inch frame would normally attract.

Literary Cat and Her Book

Literary Cat anthropomorphic art doll — Literary Cat

I do admit to having favorites among my creations, and the needle felted cat sculpture I titled Literary Cat is one of them. The inquisitive feline appears ready to tell you something she just read in her book. With her wire rimmed spectacles and scarf she is ready to get comfortable and curl up in the corner of a bookstore or library. This calico is right at home in a show titled “Three Narratives.”

Something Different?

I am going to take a little detour in introducing my anthropomorphic friends, to share a couple of additions to my “Available for Purchase” page. Last year I added two sculptural felted purses to my feature show, and they were well received. They each quickly found their way to good homes as functional pieces of art. This year, I went a slightly different route. I’ve up-cycled some old jeans into bags that I then embellished with needle felted sculptural elements.

Poppy Field Bag original up-cycled jean and needle sculpted hand bag

Both bags are fully lined, and have jean button closures. The Poppy Field bag has an additional interior pocket. The Slow Daisies bag has an adjustable handle that allows it to be used as a shoulder or crossbody. Both are one-of-a-kind originals. Size and price details can be found on the “Available for Purchase” page.

Multitasking and an Emu

Different types of multitasking

There is always a fair amount of multitasking to do as an art show opening approaches. This time around that requires changes and additions to my task list. Launching this year’s show online necessitates that I expand my online communication and keep up with regular sharing of my newest work. This is the only way that new artwork will be seen. No one will be walking through the door of the gallery and discovering my sculptures. I need to make sure my images are all ready to go, and I needed to update, and reorganize my site. This is because I hope I will be successful steering new and increased traffic here. Also, after I write each post, I need to do increased followup social media posting and sharing to try to expand each post’s reach.

Multitasking anthropomorphic art doll — Multitasking 12″x7″x12″

A Multitasking Sculpture

My piece titled, Multitasking, is an octopus who is busy fixing a cup of tea. Multiple arms make this an easier task I imagine. This sculpture is one of those that was fully formed in my mind before I started. The scale and presence is a bit larger and bolder than most. He commands attention be payed, and also invites the viewer in to take in details. The china pattern embroidered on the cup and tea pot, and the arm raised grasping a tea spoon are a couple of examples. I actually think that I might add some others. A sugar cube on the spoon, and some tea flowing into the cup, perhaps? I’ll share new images if I do.

Emu on the Run

Emu Incognito anthropomorphic art doll — Emu Incognito 8″x16″x13″

This sculpture is “based on actual events”, as the saying goes. There was an emu nicknamed Eno that gained quite a bit of notoriety in this area and beyond this past summer. Eno got loose, and evaded capture for several weeks. The emu sort of became our very own Yeti for a period. Sightings were reported all over the county. Unfortunately, the tale ended tragically during the final attempt to capture was made. I wanted to honor the smile Eno provided during its time on the run. There was just a bit of the absurd to the idea of a fugitive emu evading captors for weeks. As you plainly see, my Emu Incognito is taking extra measures to make sure she escapes undetected.

One last bit of Multitasking

First, a reminder that all of my new work will go live on the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts online shop on April 24th. But, you can check them all out now right here on my Available for Purchase page. I just updated all the new offerings with dimensions and prices.

Fashionable Anthropomorphic Climate

High Fashion Girrafe

In my last post, I detailed how this newest body of anthropomorphic figures grew out of the creation of a single white rabbit. This was an additional nod to Alice in Wonderland, an inspiration I’ve returned to a number of times. The first idea that appeared in my sketchbook was the slightly absurd image of a giraffe wearing two pairs of cloven hoof pumps.

High Fashion anthropomorphic art doll — High Fashion

Dressing a Giraffe

I have to say that giraffe morphology is quite unique. I poured over reference images online, and then worked and reworked her form. There is a balance between realistic and illustration that I’m trying to strike. I don’t want my animal figures to look like stuffed animal toys, but I also don’t desire them to be hyperrealistic either.

I also find a balance is needed in imbuing each with their anthropomorphic elements of human attire. This seems driven by each individual piece. High Fashion really only needed a few items to relay her idea. Additionally, I didn’t want to detract from the bold body conscious animal print jumpsuit she’s modeling. Especially, when it took what seemed like a lifetime to form and add each one of her brown patches and spots. Her shoes were also a labour of love to attain the oxymoronic effect of high end pumps made for the foot of a giraffe.

What Else Would an Anthropomorphic Polar Bear Do?

Nell Chandler, Michele Yellin and I decided on the title Three Narratives for our feature show. It seems appropriate for my figures to not only appear pulled from a story, but perhaps have their own tales. Last winter I created a number of polar bear ornaments for the holiday season at the gallery. This larger version, Climate Report, appears to have quite a bit more to say than his diminutive brethren. If a polar bear were a reporter, one can imagine that the news would revolve around the elements of everyday polar bear life. Any changes and impacts to that life would be noteworthy. My intrepid reporter is busy doing just that work. He is stylized more like he stepped out of a black and white film than a children’s book. After all, he is dealing with non-fiction issues.

Pieces, Prices and Pics

I’ll share one or two more of these new anthropomorphic pieces in a few days. I’m working on a few last items, and getting things ready for the launch of the online gallery on the HGA page. I will share it all here with you here as soon as it’s ready.

Art show in the Time of Corona

Open Art Show Online

It is not very hard to come up with a topic today. There is seemingly one thing on everyone’s mind, the Covid-19 pandemic. Artists and galleries are no exception. I’m guessing you may recall that I am an artist/owner of a collectively run gallery. We shuttered the brick and mortar Hillsborough Gallery of Arts for the duration of the North Carolina stay-at-home order. We have not, however, stopped showing and selling art. Last week we launched our first online art show. The March Featured Artists show “Glimmer to Spark” opened online last Friday at noon.

My Featured Art Show

I am one of the three artists scheduled to be featured next month in HGA’s April art show. Our show, “Three Narratives” is scheduled to open on April 24th. That will not be occurring, so like “Glimmer to Spark” we will be opening online. While the work from home concept is certainly conducive to getting studio time in, the challenge is sharing that work with an outside audience. This is especially true when that audience has many other things on their minds.

Clicking around my site here will reveal some new items. There are images of new work for you to take a look at in the Available For Purchase gallery. I switched my purchase inquiry to that page as well, so you do not have to click elsewhere if something catches your eye. You will find two image galleries on the Past Works Gallery page. One contains most of my sold art dolls, and the other a selection of previous mixed media pieces.

Burying the Lede (just learned that spelling)

From the images on this pages, you may notice that my work for this next show is a bit different. All of the new pieces I created for this show are somewhat surreal anthropomorphic figure sculptures. After sculpting a white rabbit titled “Alice is Late” last year, I decided to look a bit more at anthropomorphic figures. I was happy with the form and effect of the finished sculpture, and viewer response to him was great. I love how now that I have a dozen of these figures gathered together for photography that they look like a mass escape from some bizarre and unknown piece of children’ literature.

In the past, I shared just one or two pieces from an upcoming art show because the idea was to entice people to come and see them in person. It is best to see any art, especially sculpture, first hand. This time around I have several weeks to share at least 12 new friends with you, so I’ll be posting a new piece or two every few days. Keep an eye out. My posts will certainly be much more frequent then they’ve been in the past.

Green Swan?

Writer’s Block

It really has been much too long since I updated readers on what’s going on in the studio. I have been busy sculpting away in the studio these past few weeks. Much of what I’m working on is for my yearly featured show this coming April, so I’ll keep that under wraps for just a bit longer. In the mean time, let’s look at “Tattered Swan”. She is my piece for HGA’s next show, “Green”.

But First, Some New Year’s Resolutions…

Each year, somewhere in late summer HGA puts out a call-to-artists across North Carolina. This call is for our yearly state-wide juried show “Resolutions”. Some 200 or so pieces were submitted from artists across the state. 38 wonderful works in a wide variety of media were chosen for inclusion. The show “Resolutions 2020” will be on display at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts January 6-26.

Green Swan

Following our yearly Resolutions show, the member artists of HGA mount two yearly group shows. The theme of the first of these shows is “Green”. I chose to interpret the word green as sustainable. Sustainability being my focus, I decided to begin with my material choices. As felted wool has been my material of choice for the past year or two, I looked first at the source of my fibers. I first purchased wool roving for this figure directly from the farmer at a local farmer ‘s market. My second fiber choice was to recycle. I saved dryer lint from loads of laundry over a period of months. and used it for my second source of fiber. You find this unconventional material used in the figure’s wings, hair, and costume.

Material Challenge

The dryer lint presented me with a puzzle to solve. Its fibers are quite short, and their varied sources make the “Felt-ability” highly variable. I first turned to wet felting. The result was something that resembled home recycled paper, but was devoid of any tensile strength. It crumbled to the touch. I took this fragile material, and sandwiched it with paper thin layers of recycled quilt batting that I had peeled apart. This provided much needed long fibers, and crosswise stability. I needle felted these layers together. The result was a tattered and weathered looking fabric.

Swan Inspiration

I often have my iPad propped up with something playing on it in the background while I work. I had just rewatched the movie Black Swan the idea of creating another dancer figure seemed long overdue. My intension was not to pull directly to the movie imagery, but rather relate to the way it captured both the distress and beauty of ballet. I also strove to create a figure in a snapshot of movement, caught at an instant without connection with the ground. The result is the piece I’ve titled, “Tattered Swan”. I chose to utilize the local wool and the felted lint just as they were without additional coloring through dye or bleaching. I like that this has the effect of the piece looking somewhat classical. Almost as if she were carved out of some sort of material.

Check out Green

“Tattered Swan” and all of the HGA artist’s interpretations of green, will be at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts beginning January, 27th. The opening reception for “Green” is Friday, January 31 from 6-9pm.

Protest Songs Art Doll

Another Janice

Protest Songs is my newest original needle felted wool art doll creation. This seated figure is a look back at an earlier art doll figure sculpture of mine titled “Janice“. That piece was purchased years ago by one of my very favorite people, so I still get to visit her from time to time. In this newest incarnation I decided that my vintage songstress needed a floppy felt hat, and a bright orange paisley shirt. She is of course wearing bell-bottomed blue jeans, and they are coordinated with a pair of funky red boots.

For Protest Songs, I additionally constructed a miniature balsa wood acoustic guitar. This tiny instrument is complete with metal strings, tuning knobs, and a scratch plate. The Protest Songs art doll figure is also an homage to the late great Janis Joplin, as was the earlier, “Janice.” This sculpture has her eyes closed and her head tossed back as she belts out her tune with deep feeling.

Wigging Out

My Protest Songs art doll is wigged with unraveled yarn instead of me utilizing hand curled wool roving. I find I prefer the scale of the hair and curls of her coiffure with this method. Obviously, some of my future art doll sculptures will still call for the thicker more dreadlock look of the hand curled roving. I want to explore this untwisted yarn method for a bit. The plan Is to do a bit more experimentation in this area. I would like to see how different types of fibers look and react using them in this manner. Who knows? Perhaps a new art doll sculpture will have truly flaxen or silky hair.

Protest Songs is currently available at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts along with a number of other creations from my studio work bench.

A Friend for Alice and Some Buzz

And a Trip Back to Wonderland…

I think that to date I have created four different interpretations of Alice from her adventures in Wonderland. One of my newest sculptures, “Alice is Late”, is my first attempt at capturing her companion the white rabbit. One of the stars of my recent feature show, he is now catching glances and keeping time for passersby in the gallery front window.

Alice is Late white rabbit figure sculpture — Alice is Late

Take a look around

Several of my needle felted creations from “April Showers, Art Flowers” have already made their way to new homes. A few, like “Alice is Late” can still be seen at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, but you will have to stroll around the gallery a bit to find them.

Alice and Some Buzz

Another of my personal favorites from my recent feature show is “Honey Dance”. Honey Dance is a queen bee figure that hangs from the ceiling. She holds a bit of honeycomb and sports a small crystal tiara. She is one of those playful sculptures that both evoke a smile and provide a sunny pop of color.

Honey Dance hanging art doll sculpture — Honey Dance

Some Other Things to Look For

I also have a fair number of new needle felted jewelry items available in my glass tower at HGA. I always like to create jewelry that reflects what is going on in my sculptures. You will find pieces from simple felted hearts on leather chords, to some more complex and colorful flower forms with hand forged closures. I find these pieces of jewelry unique and playful, and quite fun to create.

I did remove the remaining needle felted hanging ornaments that I had returned to the gallery for my show. Never fear, I will return them to the gallery in the fall with plenty of time for gift giving.

Aurora Dancing…

Travel Born Art Doll

I am often asked where I get ideas and inspiration for my art doll figure sculptures. My quick answer is, “anywhere, and everywhere.” Boleyn’s Ghost took her inspiration from a book. I pulled from a Degas painting for Local Star. The genesis of my latest sculpture was travel.

This past summer we had an adventure in Iceland. We chose a “you drive” tour. For eight days we traversed Iceland’s surreal and otherworldly landscape. Mountains, glaciers, geysers, waterfalls, and icebergs were some of the breathtaking sights we encountered. We also passed what seemed to be a never-ending supply of sheep grazing wherever they pleased.

The beautiful wool products and the inspirational scenery of Iceland percolated in my head following our trip. The result of this marriage is Aurora Dancing.

Aurora Dancing art doll

We visited in the summer, and therefore did not get to experience the northern lights dancing in the night. As a result, my figure’s felted coat employs an imagined interpretation of the aurora borealis over a snowcapped landscape. Aurora is papier mâché and paperclay over a wire armature. I needle felted this art doll’s coat, mittens, boots, and flowIng hood by hand, as well as the cover of the base. I aimed to integrate my material and visual inspiration with the magic of Icelandic lore.

More Needle Felting

Aurora will find that she is just the beginning of a number of art dolls that will have felting techniques incorporated in their construction. Needle felting is like painting with fiber. It provides an opportunity to add another dimension to my sculpture. Needle felted wool lends itself to completely different creations as well. I wrote earlier that I have already created a small herd of Icelandic inspired animal ornaments. Those ornaments will be making their way to the gallery in a couple of weeks as the holiday shopping season begins.

Summer Work

Dream Weaver at HGA

Travel and other summer distractions have kept me away from the work table somewhat the past few months. That doesn’t mean that my studio has been completely fallow, just a bit more relaxed. The last piece I delivered to the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts is Woven Dreams.

Weaving Dreams celestially colored art doll seated on the crescent moon

Woven Dreams

This piece is a papier-mâché and paperclay sculpture. I began with the crescent moon which I sculpted over a corrugated cardboard under structure. The moon contains an internal sandbag to keep it tilted at just the right angle to accommodate the seated figure. The dream weaver herself is paperclay and papier-mâché over a wire armature. I created her unique skin tone with strips of torn tissue paper, and a tiny bit of silver paint. Her “other worldly” eyes are fashioned from iridescent beads. The entire sculpture was then sealed before the addition of her silver tinsel hair, wire and beaded weaving, and glittering tulle skirt.

I’ve also been busy finishing up sculpture commissioned as a present. I will share a few images of after she is delivered to her new home.

Back to the work table.