Pained dolls at Gallery 9...Not thrilled with these...I've moved on.
Mom and cool Corgi dog at Gallery 9, Lincoln, NE(a painting I covet in the background.)
Ceramic dolls at Gallery 9. These rock. She also made a Leda and the Swan, which my Aunt Sharon and I both liked a lot. Think I'll make a Leda doll someday.
This is where I'd live if I felt pretty all the time:my own enchanted cottage.
I made this cottage at Art Fiber Fest. The next few posts are going to be about my trip to Portland, and what I made there. Also about our family vacation to NE last week.
Here's a story about "art camp." I met a wonderful girl at ArtFiberFest, Leslie, whom I really enjoyed. I related to her immediately because she said two things that often occur to me when I'm making art:
The first was something about the act of creating being a God-given act, as in "the creator creates...et voila! so do we!"
I used to feel humbled when I made something because I thought making (can I even claim it?) "art" was just an over-the-top, too-big-for-my-britches kind of pasttime. At the end of the day, I possessed a fully satisfied, but humbled disposition, as well as a small nagging voice in my head saying, "Who do you think you are, making that thing?" (Probably a common sentiment among young mothers who have plenty of other chores they could be doing.) And oddly, in spite of everything, I truly wasn't sure who I was. Call it hormones.
Now, thankfully, I'm beginning to know who is this person making (sure, say it!) art, and also -- this is big -- I know God approves, or at least I don't seem to need His/Her approval...for in making art/music/dance/whatever, we honor the Creator. BIG TIME. At least I think so. Making stuff is NO collossal waste of time!
The second thing Leslie said was something along these lines: "Whenever I try to make something "pretty" it just never turns out pretty. I'm not there yet."
Oy, do I know that; I know I do not have a pretty girl inside me! I went to Gallery9 in Lincoln, NE last week with my mom and my Aunt who invited me. I got to see a couple of dolls I sent as a guest exhibitor, as well as some really wonderful art like the ceramic dolls above. (And darn it; I didn't write down the artist's name!) I really did cringe a little bit, because having just returned from art camp in Portland, those dolls I made last year (to my eyes) seemed so pained and contrived. Ironically, just days before, I had felt so free. What I saw in those dolls I sent: Pretty -- with cramps. Ok, so what do I expect with a doll that has torn out her heart and extends it in front of her? And another dressed in a super-hero costume? I do realize there is something a little tart in all that. But still, I did try for "pretty" in a way...and failed.
But the cottage; ah, now there's something pretty! And yet, the broken woman's torso is stitched on as a chimney...after all, every woman has to let off a little steam now and then!
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1 comment:
Hi, It sounds a bit like you have conflict between the idea or emotion that your doll is expressing and the style or look not going with it. You might want to look at the chapter from Susanna Oroyan's book Designing the Doll, called "Considerations of Form". She talks about how you to as an artist need to learn how to put all the elements of a a doll together for "good effect" and that this "...requires working on and thinking about the whole form and its design from the start of the work, not as an afterthought to making pieces or separate parts." She even shows an example of a doll she made without thinking through her choices in creating one of her early dolls. Part of designing your own dolls is learning what your own strengths are and using them to best effect to convey the feeling or idea you want the dolls to have. I know that some of the early dolls I made are not as good as later ones in part because practice helped me improve my skills. However, sometimes an element of a doll doesn't work and redoing it or changing that element can really alter how good the doll is at expressing its personality. Just keep working at it, and you'll find your own way there. I do think that the Susana Oroyan books, Designing the Doll, and Anatomy of a Doll are two of the best books for helping you make dolls that are all your own.
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