Tag Archives: art doll

Art Dolls New, Old, and Visiting a Show

Here are the latest two art dolls to emerge from my studio this week.

Mia

Mystic

Mia is a throwback to an earlier piece titled Mimi. As with the earlier piece, Mia is a simple figure seated on the ground that I have had a bit of fun costuming. Rich fabrics and “jewels” are contrasted with her very steampunk aluminum arms and copper neckline.

Mystic is a seated figure that started out in one direction, and ended up somewhere else as a result of the fabrics I chose. Mystic also gained quite the collection of jewelry as it seemed almost necessary to match her fabulous copper shoes.

As I wrote about last week, these two new dolls, along with my entire collection of figures currently available for sale, will be attending the R.O.S.E. International Doll Show Down East – June 18-22 at the Sheraton Imperial in Durham. This will be an interesting experience for me as it is both the first doll show I am bringing my work to, and it is mainly geared at an audience that collects/creates sculpted baby dolls. My pieces may very well be the only art dolls there. Only time will tell if that distinction will be good or bad, but the fact that a doll show was being held 30 minutes from home seemed to beg me to at least check it out. If you are in the area and want to check it out, I’ll be at table #36 on the exhibit floor.

New Work, Shows, and the Concrete

This week I am turning my attention and energy into high gear getting ready for a couple of shows. The first will take place in a couple of weeks in Durham NC. It will be the first time I have attended an art doll show. Even though most of the dolls that will be in that show are not the type of figure sculpture art dolls that I create, it will still be interesting to see how they are received by a non-gallery audience. It is also a very different display format than I am used to, so my mind is full of table display ideas and projects too,

That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy in the studio as well. I have two dolls that I have just completed this week. The first is simply named Lily. She is seated and appears to be thinking about something. She has an expression as if she is just about to tell you something very interesting.

Lily

The second doll is Garden 1. She is the first of a series of indoor or outdoor art doll sculptures. I cast her torso in concrete using a discarded beverage bottle for a form. I think she would look as great sitting within a flower bed, as on some indoor display space.

Garden 1

Both will make their debut in Durham at the Down East Doll Show June 18-22.

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Another Mask and a Bit of Concrete

I had started working on a second doll with an enameled mask even before the recent sale of her predecessor “Carnivale”. Taking my hand hammered copper faces to a new place with the addition of torch fired enamel provides a multitude of new design and color options.

Mirror Mask art doll

This doll, Mirror Mask, has an additional bit of intrigue for the viewer. Where Carnivale was wearing her mask and only allowed a glimpse of her enameled eyes, Mirror Mask has pulled her mask slightly away from her face. What the viewer glimpses behind is their own image in a mirror. With her hair piled high and bejeweled, and her peacock hued gown and walking stick, she’s obviously off to a very interesting ball.

The other piece I’ve been working on this week goes in a different direction. While still technically an art doll, she will be one that can reside inside or out. I have several shows coming up in the next few months, and at least one takes place in a garden setting. I’ve decided to create some “garden dolls” for that show. the torso of the first is cast concrete utilizing a recycled plastic bottle for my form. She is still curing in my outside workspace, so ill wait to share an image of her in my next post.

Not Quite Done

Fly

I’ve been working on several projects in the studio this week. With copper faces and other “bits and pieces”, all of my art dolls have a steampunk flavor to them, but some obviously more than others. “Fly” certainly fits into that category.

I find that I time and again return to the theme of details in these small figure sculptures, and that these sometimes lead in a direction not originally intended. With “Fly”I began with the intention of creating an updated version of an earlier piece that was captured in the motion of taking off herself. When I had Fly just about done, and was preparing to take photographs, she appeared unfinished. She to need a job to do. Apparently she is the steampunk fairy that helps newly emerged butterflies and moths to fly themselves.

Lady of the Wood

This second art doll will be titled Lady of the Wood. She was created in response to an art doll challenge. I’m not quite sure if she is complete yet. After looking at her photos I felt that there is still something she needs. I’ll share a full length photo when I figure out what that something is.

For both of these dolls I think that I will be changing their positioning, as each seems to require a bit more animation . I guess another photo session is in the future of both.

Posting and Sharing

Reading

I just finished setting up a Flickr feed as another place to share images of my art dolls. Why? Like many artists I try to increase the exposure of my work to a wider audience. Exactly the best way to do this online is a question I see raised often. If I’m to believe the greatest portion of my blog comments and replies (spam) some people have Search Engine Optimization and web promotion all figured out, and they are only too happy to help you increase yours… for a fee, of course.

The fact that the landscape keeps changing, and what worked last year no longer does, makes it even more challenging. Anyone with a separate Facebook fan page for their work knows that now even those who had taken the time to “like” your page probably don’t see your posts on their news feed. You have to pay to “boost” your posts, or run ads for that to happen. I got another such surprise when I went to add a new image to my Fine Art America page last week. As a 3D artists I never had any reason to use their paid service to sell prints or canvases of my work. Recently, they limited the number of images that free users could have to 25. I have about four times that already. I’d have to sit and delete 75+ one at a time to add just one new piece of work. You can upgrade to a premium account to address the issue. Needless to say, don’t check there for my new work.

Hopefully, some of the new things I’ve added like Pinterest boards and a Flickr stream, or that I’ve done like changing the way I name and tag images will help. There are some things I’m still researching like coordinated Instagram and Twitter usage. Others, like opening an Etsy shop, I just don’t think are for me.

Right here where you are on my blog will remain the best way to keep up with what I’m working on, like “Reading” that I photographed earlier today. If you’re an artist friend, share what you do or are trying to get your work out. I’d love to hear.

Photographing a Moving Doll

Cirque II

“Cirque II” is my latest art doll figure. Like my original “Cirque” she is a fanciful aerial silks acrobat. I enjoy occasionally creating dolls like these that hang rather than sit or stand on a base. They allow for movement to enter into the design. Properly balanced and positioned, a doll like Cirque II can catch the slightest bit of air movement and dance or spin.

I like how this adds another dimension of interest to the piece. It also allows for greater flexibility in display. However, it does provide a unique challenge in the area of photography. Obtaining that crisp and clear photograph of a sculpture that is moving, no matter how slowly, can be vexing.

Thankfully, the dolls are not very large, or heavy. The addition of a couple more strands of mono-filament at strategic locations to tether her in a fixed position seems to be the answer. Trying to give the illusion that she is still moving while she is not was the goal.

Here is a shot of her predecessor…

Cirque

Fine Feathered Friend

Bird Girl

Sometimes an idea for an element of a piece becomes a project unto itself. Such was the case with my newest, Bird Girl, art doll. For this figure I decided that I wanted to try to create fabric feathers. I did a quick Google on “how to make fabric feathers” and was off.

The actual technique is not too difficult. For each feather, you stitch together two rectangles of fabric up their centerline with a zig-zag stitch. Then you cut your desired feather shape out. The last step is to fray out the feather shape from the edge to your center zig-zag line… This is where the process became a project. Some fabrics, like burlap, fray very easily. I chose some cottons that I would guess are somewhere in the middle of the “fray-able” spectrum. It still took me sitting for hours with needle in hand teasing the threads off of the edge of each feather against a tray on my lap.

Am I happy with the results? Yes. Will I most likely do it again? Yeah. Will I choose fabrics that are a bit easier to fray? Quite possibly.

Bird Girl is now happily perched on her swing, and I’m on to new friends.

Stories

Driving in Reverse

“Driving in Reverse” is my piece for “It’s All About The Story”, the February feature show at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. The area in and around Hillsborough is home to a number of acclaimed authors, and we produce a collaborative show with one each year. This year we have teamed up with Jill McCorkle, and have created work based on her Going Away Shoes collection of short stories.

The story “Driving to the Moon” follows 30 years of connections and disconnections between two high school sweethearts, and the car that registered the miles along the way. The female main character is reminiscing while driving to visit one last time. The art doll “Driving in Reverse” is driving forward while keeping one eye in her rear view. She is keenly aware of the passage of time, and obviously has some things locked up inside.

“It’s All About The Story” runs from February 24th though March 23rd with opening reception on Friday, February 28th from 6-9pm, and an author reading and signing with Jill McCorkle on Sunday, March 2 from 2-4pm.

Thinking Inside The Box

In my last post I mentioned that creating a piece for a theme can sometimes prove more of a challenge than expected. Each year we host two themed shows to start off the calendar at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. This year’s January show is titled 22 Squared. We installed this show yesterday morning, and there are as many interpretations of that title as there are artists in the gallery.

Now, you’d think that such a non-specific open-to-interpretation title would be easy to create for. But I was stumped. Most of my current work consists of art doll figure sculptures. I didn’t want to just create a doll, and put her into some contortionist pose, place her in or on a frame, or balancing on a box. Nothing stuck me.

Instead, I decided to take a step back, and think on the square. For a 3D artist this would mean a box. So I started by creating a wooden shadow box. Next, came a glass front for the box. Instead of a simple sheet of glass, I pulled out my stained glass stash and made a somewhat steampunk looking front.

For the interior, I thought on boxes themselves. What do we use them for? We use them to carry, to hold, to protect, to hide, or to contain. The box that I had made looked like it would protect something valuable, but also obscure and hide a bit of the contents. The steampunk flavor of the glass front lead me to a clockwork heart. We certainly try to protect and shield our hearts. This mechanical pacemaker needed someone to tend and maintain it. I recycled a simple figure from a previous piece to wind this delicate time piece and become The Clock Keeper. The interior was made complete with the addition of an antique looking paper with a pattern of watch faces that I applied to the back before installing the contents.

The Clock Keeper

22 squared will be on display at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts from January 27th to February 23rd. The opening reception is this Friday the 31st from 6-9 pm.

Themes and Challenges

I would guess that most often artists find themselves creating from their own ideas, or perhaps those of a patron for a commission. Occasionally we do create for an upcoming show’s predetermined theme. For these shows serendipity can sometimes play a role, and when a “call-to-artists” is read there is already something completed and on hand that is just right. Other times you have to sit down with the sketchbook and think of something that perhaps you wouldn’t have.

In general, I like creating for these shows, and the way they force you to stretch creatively. That is not to say that some do not drive me to distraction. About a month ago I worked on one such piece. I’ll share that one in a couple of weeks when the show goes up in the gallery.

Below is my newest art doll “Wednesday’s Child.” She was created in answer to a monthly challenge that is posted by an art doll group that I belong to. I hadn’t created any dolls to date that were based on nursery rhymes, though it does seem a natural area for fodder given the medium. Gesture in these small figures is always a focus for me. I think her body language says woe, but hopefully she’s thinking of ways to make things better.

Wednesday’s Child

Lynn Wartski Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture