ArT FeST ClAsS/ DoLL tRaNsFoRmED

Wow! teaching my first class at ArtFest…It was super exciting and a bit nerve racking, but oh so satisfying.  I had the best students that did the most creative work. I was great to watch a room full of people work within a format I work in all the time and see the incredible diversity of approaches and styles. I can’t help but be influenced by the creativity of my students…   So here is a photo documentation of Doll Transformed Class Artfest 2011…

 

Great to see it in print….

 

This is what a lot of the dolls looked like before we got started

These pictures that follow are from Show and Tell night, after the students have got to do some final touches and refining.   I was blown away by the creativity and quality of everyone’s work.

SpRiNg ArTwOrK

It has been a productive and good Spring so far. Well using the word “spring” metaphorically since its just been the last couple of weeks that it has actually felt like spring outside.

Keeping up with all aspects of being an artist and still having a life continues to be challenging and in that process things like my blog get neglected. I do love being self employed though! It is hard and not for everyone, but I cherish the ability to have more time with my chosen family and more flexibility to enjoy what life brings my way. My mantra these days… MAKE ART… LOVE PEOPLE… THE REST WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF.

But back to the artwork, I wanted to share with you some of the new work I have been doing this spring. Most of this work was made to go to Artfest and a fair amount of it has found new homes. Oh Artfest!!! was amazing and I have pictures and stories to come…

This piece was in the Gallery at Artfest and is still AVAILABLE.

I had these old hanging vegetable baskets in my studio forever and then suddenly brilliance struck and the smallest basket became the skirt on this girl with a bird on her head. AVAILABLE

Another smaller “snow queen” doll who started her life as a terribly tacky ballerina doll from the dollar store. SOLD

Ok a bit darker now… its hard to see from this view but there is a small baby with a skeleton face riding a cockroach on the stomach of this “clown” SOLD

Ok still having a strong fascination with Bunny people…

This falls into the sort of sweet with a heavy side of creepy or weird? How would you describe it?

This piece is using a new technique I am playing with that combines plaster on top of reclaimed porcelain dolls. AVAILABLE

Mermaid doll with apoxy sculpt octopus that I LOVE and lower body and fins made with gut over the top of a wire armature. One of my favorite pieces this spring. SOLD

A larger “snow princess” SOLD

This is probably my most favorite doll of this group of work. The face was inspired by a Picasso painting and is different than my normal style. It has a very circus feeling and I love the fact that the doll is of ambiguous gender. AVAILABLE

Bone Head doll with some darker energy and tons of fun texture! AVAILABLE

So this is another new technique I have been messing around with and I am considering submit a class proposal for next years Artfest. What do you think? The technique is basically Frankenstuffed animal. Take an ugly stuffed bunny cut its face off… replace with doll head.. cut bunny paw off replace with old doll arm… reshape and recreate with sewing and painting… SOLD

A sweet little tin with a hybrid swan woman. I do so enjoy working in a small format… AVAILABLE

So I have been recreating/ resurrecting used porcelain dolls for quite a few years now. I have also worked in ceramics for the last 12 years, and I HAD NEVER THOUGHT TO MAKE MY OWN CERAMIC DOLL HEADS! Laughing at myself! So these are some new one of a kind doll heads either for making your own doll or for just a small unique sculpture.

Bunny and Knob Head SOLD Angel AVAILABLE

TiCkLeD PiNk

I have a new gallery in Seattle

representing my work!!!

A really cute funky gallery on Greenwood ran by a great lady. 

TASTY

 

And I have work featured in there Feb group show

TICKLED PINK

featuring art by women only

Opening night Feb 11th 6-10pm

 

A LITTLE PREVIEW OF SOME OF

THE FUN PIECES  I HAVE THERE!

This piece features the body of a vintage composite doll with the original clothes just altered slightly, and one of my favorite found objects, spent firecrackers aged by the weather.

This is a tiny piece aprox 2.5” across. I am using a technique taught by Micheal de Meng  that involves deconstructing  small toys and creating new creatures utilizing  epoxy clay.

I love working small and love how this little woman turned out.   She lives in a metal strainer with the toe of a crochet baby boot as her backdrop.

Another fun small piece using similar techniques

 

One of my creepy cute stuff animal hybrids.

 

If your in the Seattle Area stop

by at the opening on Feb 11th

and say hello!

CoVeT sHoW

Here are some of the other pieces that were featured at the Dec show at Covet Boutique.

“My Lucky True Love”    $65

I think this is probably one of my favorite pieces from the show. The horse shoe is actually a pony shoe that I got at the witches market in Mexico City.  This pieces is still available.

 

“Protect My Love”  SOLD

included another favorite artifact from Mexico City

a metal rat trap that I rusted in my back yard.

 

 

 

“My Heart Grew Up to be a Swan”   SOLD

 

 

 

“Sewing Up the Wounds of My Daily Habit”  $140

The Heart started as a cheesy Halloween decoration,  I stitched, painted , and recreated the heart and then paired it with vintage wallpaper, text and mail.  My favorite part is the old sewing kit on top of the heart which I added a cigar band to.

“The wound of losing someone must be sewn up daily, over and over again”

 

 

 

“Long Long Ago”  Available  $130

 

 

 

 

“Putting the Heart to Rest”   SOLD

 

 

“She Wore Her Heart on Her Sleeves and Her Skirt”

Available $200

HaPpY NeW YeAR

The Holiday Season is officially over and I can return to the world of blogging.  Of course now I am out of the habit so do bare with me, I will find my blogging legs again.  There was So much art made and sold in the last two and a half months. Which means lots of new pictures of new art. I enjoyed some really joyful, fun time with my family of choice for the holidays and I feel incredibly blessed with my life.

(my amazing solstice present)

I think there may be a bit of a colorful phase going on with me!  Oh I am still in love with all those faded subtle tones found in weathered objects, but I have been enjoying  an affair with a more colorful palette.   These are two paintings that I did for the Heartache and Rust show at Covet boutique.

 

  

I feel like such a baby painter… I am mostly ok with these  paintings and it was good to do them. I really like the colors and the imagery.   I am still struggling with executing things the way I imagine in my head.

These pieces were about heartache and loss. They started as rough sketches in a journal while trying to process the loss of a really important friendship.  As I worked with the images, the symbolism of loss became less specific to my situation and more about the  universal human experience of loss and heartache. For me one of the most poignant visual image of loss has been that of a mother holding the body of a deceased child. That is a very literal image of grief, but in sitting with the image the mother and child became very symbolic.  I think most of us have felt like our hearts were injured and bleeding at some point in our lives, and had the desire to cradle and hold that injured part of ourselves in our arms like a  small child.  

Happy healing of all the our hurts  in this new year!!