As you probably know, I am participating in the Art Dolls Only Traveling Doll Project this year. My first doll, as I have already posted, went to New Orleans last month. I received the second doll I would be working on from Nicole Johnson of Mealy Monster Land in Upstate New York. Nicole's doll is called Harper. She came to me nearly naked and with very big teeth! I decided Harper really needed quite a grand story; so I gave her one. I gave Harper some underthings of animal prints an gold lame', a hat and bag and a purple stretch velvet chair with animal print cushions, and in keeping with Nicole's style, I think she is pretty amusing. You can let me know what you think. Here's her story and some pictures to go with.
HARPER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG APPLE MAGGOT
Harper quiet? Nicole said she was. But when she came to me, I could see that she really had something to say. It's hard to get a word out when people are constantly admiring you for your looks. People just never realized she was not just another pretty face. She was smart, and she had plans!
BIG ones!
Harper was always considered the "good-looking one" in her home town of Eerie Falls. Since she was a wee one, even strangers would run into her on the street and say, "my gosh, you could be a model!" For awhile she even considered it. That would be too easy, too obvious, she thought to herself.
"No," Harper said to no one in particular one day at the ripe old age of 20, "I need something I can really sink my teeth into." So she left Eerie and headed to the Big Apple Maggot..
At first things were difficult. There were lots of pretty girls in the big city; she just wasn't getting the attention she had taken for granted in Eerie Falls. Her first job, the only one she could find, was as a night janitor at the prestigious fashion magazine, VAGUE.
Being an ambitious girl, it wasn't too long before Harper had read every tossed memo in the editor's trash bin and had worked her way up the ranks to become Assistant to the Editor. There she learned the ropes, met the people who mattered, and before too long, she knew the job of her superior by heart.
Harper considered it especially good luck when her boss tripped on a light cord during a photo shoot and was laid up in bed for a month. At that point she took it upon herself to take charge. Within a month she was hired to replace her bedridden former boss, to become the highest paid person ever to come from Eerie Falls.
Within a short time, Harper noticed she just wasn't feeling as challenged as she wanted to be. In a flash of brilliance, she made the decision to break off and start her own fashion magazine, and HARPER'S BIZARRE was born.
Harper has been the reigning Queen of Fashion and Beauty ever since. Her style is impeccable, her beauty without rival. If it is fashionable, she knows about it. If people are talking about it, she probably started the talk. She has shoes and bags and hats coming out her ears. and her shelves are lined with every beauty product ever produced.
Beauty is just one of the many perks of being an editor of a major magazine. There is also a great deal of clout. And, of course, EVERYTHING she wants she practically gets for free. People send her outfits in just the right size in the hopes of being featured on one of her glossy pages.
She once was even sent a hot pink car to promote a leading lipstick color for Recover Girl.
It’s a great life! Harper loves her life and she wouldn’t change a thing. Or would she?....
Colleen Downs of LoopyBoopy Art in New Orleans has her next. She tells me she might be taking Harper down a step. Can't wait to see what she does!
I've already mentioned I am participating in Art Dolls Only's Traveling Doll Project this year. If you haven't already been over to see the TDP blog please check it out. I spent a few weeks profiling each of the participating artists (which you will find in the January archives for the blog). There are some truly amazing artists joining in this year. The starting dolls and their stories are now starting to show and there are some really terrific dolls making their rounds around the country and some around the world.
My starting doll for the project is called Delta Dawn, named and themed after the 70s hit of the same name. I had in mind a woman who had made some unfortunate choices in life and had basically lost her mind.
I made a 12" cloth headless doll, clothed her in some fancy knickers and a pair of rainboots and sent her off to New Orleans to the next person in my group, Colleen Downs of Loopy Boopy. You can head over to Colleen's blog to see what she has done with Dawn. She has done a truly smashing job, and I am thrilled to say she attached quite a lovely head to my otherwise pretty boring doll. The doll, now with a LoopyBoopy head, quite simply, is beautiful! I am so happy! Next stop for Dawn will be, believe it or not, Tasmania! Susie McMahon of Susie McMahon Dolls a fabulous artist from across the world will be working her magic on Dawn in a month or so. Can't wait to see what she does! From there, on to Nicole Johnson of Mealy Monster Land, another amazing artist from New York, and then back home to me! Can't wait to see how these other ladies interpret my doll. Very, very excited!
Not really the famous part, but it's fun to say :) I got featured and blogged about today at the Art Dolls Only Blog (Art Dolls Only). Sarah Young of Youngish (Youngish) contacted me and sent me questions to answer, and voila, I am a featured artist! Thanks, ADO, thanks, Sarah!
On another ADO note, the Traveling Doll Project for 2010 (Traveling Doll Project) has started as of early this month. The groups have been sorted, the rules have been set, the deadlines made, and the blog is ready to go again for another round. For those who don't know what a traveling doll is, let me explain. Groups of 6 artists or less have each member begin a doll. Each person decides for themselves how much of that doll they will interpret and complete. At the same time, they begin a journal with their ideas, inspiration, thoughts about the doll and so on. After one month's time, they send the incomplete doll to the next person on their list. Each person works on each of the dolls until each person has had it in their hands. It then returns to the originator. During the process, the journals are added to by each person and each person photos and blogs about their portion of each doll. On my team, there are 2 returning artists (Colleen Downs of Loopy Boopy Art (Loopy Boopy Art) and Nicole Johnson from Mealy Monster Land(Mealy Monster Land)) from last year's round and 2 new (Susie McMahon from Susie McMahon Dolls (Susie McMahon Dolls) and me). I am very excited. I got so excited, I raised my hand and said I would profile on the blog each participating artist, which is over 25! So, for the next 25 days or so, please go over to the Traveling Doll Project blog (ADO Traveling Doll Project) and check out how fab each of the artists is. I plan to do a bang-up job profiling each of them, and they deserve it. There are really some marvelous people in this group. Hands down, this it the most creative group of folks I have ever hung with. Writing about them all feels very inspiring, and is helping me avoid making shoes for my Ben Franklin doll. I really don't like making shoes...
