My First Doll Show part 4

"So you're already in the mom's taxi business?  What kind of class does a 2-year-old take?  :-)"

I sent this joking response to a friend’s emailed excuse for not meeting me at the Atlanta Doll Collectors’ annual doll show last Saturday.  Yet Ree's situation reflects the historical challenges women artists have always faced.  Although she has an MA in Cultural Production from Brandeis, for the foreseeable future, most of her creative energy will be invested in raising her daughter.  Thus, while Ree is a full-time mom by choice, it is still no wonder that Virginia Woolf asked in A Room of One’s Own “Why is it that men have always had power and influence and wealth and fame – while women have had nothing but children?”

Fabric, yarn, beads, feathers, and even bits of wire and wood blocks to build stands for dolls are relatively cheap when acquired a few dollars’ worth at a time.  Still, finding the material resources to create art is another challenge that has often kept women and other economically marginalized people from being recognized as serious artists for In the fine art world, there has always been a bias that values art objects more depending on the materials used in their construction.

Yet some artists have been able to transcend such limitations.  William Edmonson, for example, was born the son of formerly enslaved parents in 1870.  He spent most of his life working as a handy man, but in 1932 after his retirement, Jesus “planted the seed of carving in me” so he began carving gravestones, figurative sculptures, and garden ornaments from discarded blocks of limestone.  Normally the tools required to work with such materials are expensive, but Edmonson fashioned chisels from railroad spikes to create his “mirkels.”  Today his works command as much as $25,000 at auction and are among the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s holdings.

Like Edmonson, Martha Dudley distills a lifetime of experience into her intricately embellished, one of a kind soft sculptures.  If good things come to those who wait, then one day when her daughter is older, Ree will be amazing audiences with the power and beauty of her artistic vision and Martha Dudley's work will be featured in galleries and museums.

***
“I’m just speechless”  -- visitor to Martha Dudley's booth

Fancy Smancy – Martha Dudley
sherm401@bellsouth.net
(770)399-6340
(678)779-7121












Miss Senior Georgia 2006 has always had a needle in her talented hand.  She made her first dress in home economics class and then worked for a time in a design center.  She is accomplished at embroidery, crochet, and all forms of embellishment, but her beadwork is what makes her dolls "fancy smancy."  Depending on how intricate the design is, Dudley’s one of a kind creations can take up to four months to complete.  The process involves hand dyeing the hair and materials, painting the face, and stitching the beaded details.  “When I get started, it evolves,” she says.  “I have no idea what she’s going to look like.”  Thus Dudley finds deep satisfaction in the joy of seeing the finished doll.  The Fancy Smancy booth attracted so many visitors that I couldn’t get close enough to shoot more pictures.  These fancy smancy art dolls are truly exquisite.

 À Bientôt

My First Doll Show part 3

48 years ago this month, Helen Bullard founded the National Institute of American Doll Artists to promote the recognition of original handmade dolls as fine art. "Collections of mass-produced dolls, originally made for children to play with, are everywhere.”  Bullard said to the doll makers gathered at the Watts Barr resort near Ozone, Tennessee. “Far rarer and generally unknown to the public are the original dolls handmade by artists with the same creative approach which is used in painting and sculpture. Their dolls, many of which express American culture, are not intended for play."  Today, many dolls by NIADA artists are prized additions to collections held by art museums including the Louvre (Musée des Arts Décoratifs) in Paris, France, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, Georgia.

Artists accepted into the NIADA must meet exacting standards for excellence of execution and must show a unique and recognizable identity of design.  The NIADA has always pursued a strong educational mission to help artists meet these standards and each year at their annual conference, visiting artists may bring one or two pieces of their work to informal critique seminars where NIADA artists share their knowledge and expertise.

The 2011 NIADA Classic Conference will take place August 25-28th in Denver, Colorado.  In addition to speakers, exhibits, and doll making demonstrations, the NIADA will host a doll-making school from August 22 – 25th with workshops on topics such as “Choosing, Coloring, Manipulating and Embellishing Textiles for the Doll Artist” by Stephanie Blythe and “How to Make an Innocent Doll Face” by Ankie Daanen.

Vanessa Morrison of Van’s Doll Treasures first called my attention to the innocent faces of Embraceable Memories’ reborn dolls at the Atlanta Doll Collectors' annual doll show last Saturday.  As I mentioned in my inaugural post, I am not a fan of baby dolls, but the life-like sculpting of these innocent little faces really made me appreciate these dolls as works of art.

***

“The alternative is I could play golf” – Celeste Morris

Embraceable Memories

Celeste Morris                               
(770)654-6917   

C.J. DeFreese
(770)654-4634





 Celeste Morris and C.J. De Freese already have a cool day job.  As partners in a theater arts business they design sets and create large Styrofoam sculptures, but they were looking for a hobby that wasn’t directed by a client.  “In theater you can’t hedge the deadline,” C.J. explained.  While a one of a kind reborn doll represents about 20 hours of labor depending on the hairstyle, the work process can be piecemeal in between folding laundry or watching TV.  From the glass beads that give the dolls the comforting weight of a live infant to the realistic hair, materials can run $100-$150 while sculpt molds start around $65 and go as high as $150 for new models.  Celeste justified her new hobby to her husband by pointing out that the end product has value.  Indeed she and C.J. have supplied churches with Baby Jesus reborn dolls in place of real infants who sometimes disrupt the solemnity of services.

 Edward

Hannah was C.J.’s first doll while Celeste’s first attempt, Edward, won 2nd prize at the Gwinett county fair. 

Amani

Embraceable Memories recognizes the need for beautiful dolls representing the whole human family, so Celeste crafted Amani, an African American reborn whose name means “peace” in Swahili.

Ileana

 Ileana was named after the youngest child in a Mexican family of Celeste’s acquaintance while Olivia looks like her own babies.  

Olivia

Embraceable Memories reborns are truly a work of love.

For more adorable photos of Embraceable Memories dolls see my Flickr Stream:

 À Bientôt

My First Doll Show part 2

“What did it mean for a black woman to be an artist in our grandmother’s time?  In our great-grandmothers’ day? It is a question with an answer cruel enough to stop the blood.”

When Alice Walker raised this question a generation ago in her 1974 essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” she was expanding on Virginia Woolf’s  musing “Why is it that men have always had power and influence while women have had nothing but children?”  Woolf’s 1928 address to The Arts Society at Newnham College for Women is celebrated as one of the first works of feminist criticism.  The title, A Room of One’s Own comes from Woolf’s observation that a woman needs an independent income and a room of her own with a door she can lock in order to create great art.

“What then are we to make of Phillis Wheatley, a slave, who owned not even herself? (235)” asks Walker in the midst of imagining the lives of other frustrated black women artists forced to “bake biscuits for a lazy backwater tramp, when she cried out in her soul to paint watercolors of sunsets, or the rain falling on the green and peaceful pasturelands…” (233)

Walker ultimately recognizes the creative expression black women invested in everyday tasks such as tending flower gardens and traces her own artistic lineage back to Africa where perhaps some foremother “wove the most stunning mats or told the most ingenious stories of all the village storytellers (243).”

At the Atlanta Doll Collectors' annual doll show last Saturday, however, I met a community of women artists who are creating space for their work within their visions of their present and future lives.  Unlike Virginia Woolf, none had a legacy from an Auntie to support their creative endeavors, but all were professionals able to earn the means to pursue their artistic passions.

Getting to know these women has truly inspired me to follow my own dreams.

***

Bohemian Threads – Jocelyn Y. Carter
carter791@yahoo.com
678-668-3252









“If I had to take all of them back home, I would be fine with that.”

For Jocelyn Carter, making dolls was a natural progression from quilting.  While her professional training was in the sciences rather than in fine arts, she has been quilting for twelve years and has been making dolls for three.  She makes huggable rag dolls from a wide-eyed pattern but also keeps 5 or 6 one of a kind dolls in progress – “I never just do one,” she explains.  She draws a face and then determines where to go from there, but sewing the doll, stuffing it, finding the right color fabric for her dress can take time.  Still the process is satisfying because it is something that she loves.  “It is my peace.”

À Bientôt

My First Doll Show part 1

Last Friday night I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve – “The doll show is tomorrow!” I kept thinking excitedly and imagining all the treasures I would find.  Despite years of avid doll collecting, I had never attended a doll show and I had never heard of groups like the Atlanta Doll Collectors who meet on the third Saturday of every month at the Buckhead Library in Atlanta to share their love of Barbie and other collectible dolls.  I had never encountered other adults who would proclaim proudly “Yes, I still play with dolls” so the best thing I found at the Atlanta Doll Collectors doll show was a community of people who share my love of dolls.  I also got the chance to meet my doll blogging “big sister,” Vanessa Morrison of Van’s Doll Treasures, who radiates joy in living everywhere she goes.

Yet, more than the smiling, friendly faces I encountered or the profoundly satisfying purchases I made (which included two Liv bodies at $3 a piece) the doll show ultimately offered a kind of spiritual nourishment because it gave me the opportunity to view a wide variety of art dolls and to talk with their creators.  This week I will be profiling seven doll artists whose works encourage viewers to “play the games of their instincts” and show them how to “become myself once more/ myself again.”

***

“I didn’t find any dolls that looked like my daughter so I decided to make my own.”

The self-taught artist behind The KenJa Company started with a Raggedy Ann pattern twenty-eight years ago when her daughter was three.  She was not happy with this design, however, and eventually developed her own.  She still sets every stitch in her dolls’ bodies by hand.  She can do three of her popular 15” ballerina dolls in a week, but larger dolls take more time.

She cuts pieces of felt for the eyes and other facial features to ensure that no small pieces will come off in little hands and become choking hazards.  The KenJa Company offers three lines of dolls – My BFF, My Ballerina Princess, and topsy turvy two-headed dolls in the My Little TTF line.

Each doll is unique and comes with a certificate of authenticity, but Build Your Own models can also be customized in a variety of skin tones to represent all ethnicities.

If you missed your BFF at the doll show, you can order on-line at:

The KenJa Company
info@thekenjacompany.com
www.TheKenJaCompany.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop/thekenjacompany



À Bientôt

Down Memory Lane 3

 

When I was five years old Mattel offered a free trade in deal so I sent in an off brand doll and got a Twist and Turn Barbie in return.  Of course that doll was white, but here Christie models an outfit that has lasted longer than my first Barbie or any of my other dolls. 

 

 

I’m very proud of the fact that I still have the original shoes.

 

My mother was an accomplished seamstress.

She made the coat on the left and the skirt on the right.

Must have been Christmas 1970 when I got Brad and Christie.

 

I got the lace outfit at the same time. 

I still think the shoes are the bomb.

I made six or eight of these black suits for my brother’s action figures as a Christmas present when I was about 12.  The turtleneck shirt used to be a sock.

The snooty, rich characters in our stories always wore this outfit which Ningyoboy’s Closet on Flickr identifies as “Golden n Glamour” from 1965.

Unfortunately I have lost the brown elbow length gloves that made it the last word in elegance and sophistication.  I still have the original shoes, though.

And to think this seemed like a scandalously short skirt back in the day!

À Bientôt

Paper Bag and Blow

Lucien has invited some friends over to swim.  He wants his grandmother to meet Alexis, a young lady he has been spending a lot of time with of late.  He thinks Alexis could turn out to be very special so he brings Bianca and Phuong along in the hopes that Mémère won’t say anything “off color” in front of witnesses.

The introductions go smoothly and he and Alexis show Mémère one of the moves they do on the cheering squad at Xavier University where they are both pre-med students.

After the company leaves, Lucien interrupts Mémère’s Yoga practice because he can’t wait to ask “What do you think of Lexie?”

“Well, to be a dancer that child has no behind to speak of,”

“And you don’t usually see a dark-skinned girl with such long, pretty hair unless it came from the store.  Her people must be part Indian.  Where did you say she was from?”

Lucien breathes a sigh of relief.  Maybe Mémère will warm up to Lexie in time.

***
Twist and Dance Alexis comes with a cute outfit

 

and her milk chocolate complexion is a step in the right direction,

but let’s hope that the Liv company will make some fully articulated dolls (this one’s knees don’t bend and she can’t sit down) whose complexions are darker than a paper bag and whose interchangeable wigs have tightly coiled hair that doesn’t blow in the wind.

Cast
Lucien –  Matching a light-skinned Mattel Steven with a tanned “Making Waves” Jake body is as close as we can get to a black male Fashionista at the moment.

Alexis – a Chic Boutique doll from Kmart was the best complexion match for “Twist and Dance” Alexis.

Bianca – a Chic Boutique Snow White from Big Lots loves the "Moonlight Dance" Daniela body that Phuong turned down.

Phuong – from Integrity Toys did not think that exchanging her womanly curves for greater articulation was a good bargain.

Mémère – an African American “Princess and the Pauper” Barbie on an Alexis “Makng Waves” body, Mémère has traveled to Mysore, India several times to study at Shri K. Pattabhi Jois’ Ashtanga Yoga Institute and hopes to star in a Yoga video soon.

 À Bientôt

Down Memory Lane 2

General Ivan Zacker (Adventure Team Talking Commander G.I. Joe) was the richest, most important man in our Barbie’s town.  He was married to Babette Dupont-Zacker (Talking Barbie circa 1969) and they had two children, Melissa and Burt (Little Kiddles).  Babette’s niece, Marilyn (Quick Curl Skipper) lived with them as did Ivan’s niece, Julie (Growing Up Skipper).  Sears sold this inflatable living room set in the 1970s.

Sears also sold this inflatable bedroom suite.  My character, Barbara Mason (Twist and Turn Barbie) relaxes in the arm chair.  The shag rug was a piece of fake fur. 

I asked for a Polaroid camera for my 13th birthday.  The lens didn’t have good close-up capabilities and for a kid on an allowance, the film was expensive so I usually only got one chance to capture the image I was hoping to create.  If only Photoshop had been available back then!

We had a day off from my all girls Catholic high school for a holy day of obligation.  I was so excited about my new Barbie from Hawaii that I spent the whole day drawing this back drop.








My parents gave me a French name and pushed me to study French because they wanted me to be a citizen of the world.  I made these costumes and took this photo when I was about 15 because I was fascinated with the extravagance of 18th century fashion and the court at Versailles.

Later, while working towards my Ph.D. in French,  I realized that a lot of the money supporting that society came from sugar plantations in the West Indies.  So here I imagine Brad and Christie are the hero and heroine of a romance novel set in Saint Domingue on the eve of the Haitian Revolution.  Of course they sided with the enslaved and fought to extend liberté, egalité, fraternité to all. 


 À Bientôt