As I said in my last post, I joined a terrific art doll group, ADO, or Art Dolls Only http://www.artdollsonly.blogspot.com.This month they are having one of their quarterly challenges. The theme is all things Halloween. I've never made anything purposely, well, unattractive, before. I really wanted to give it a shot. I came up with 3 witches in the stew pot. I think they came out pretty well. I had quite a time working with polymer clay to make the pot. I have to say, I have a ton of respect for polymer clay artists! It's tricky business.
ADO is also having a mini challenge for the month, with the theme being clowns. I'm busy working on that entry now. I have to say, these folks, with all their marvelous talent and upbeat attitudes are really inspiring me. It's just what I needed!
Lately I've been thinking about why I chose as my medium something that sometimes seems so frivolous to me, namely art dolls. With all the talk about economic issues and people in general feeling the need to scale back, I often find myself in a quandry. Shouldn't I be doing something more practical? When I made portraits years back, at least that seemed more, well, necessary. But dolls? I have to ask myself, does anyone really need another one? And yet, my personal fascination with the human figure, and the human face in particular, leads me to think that YES, dolls are pertinent, and in fact, maybe even necessary.
Here's the thing, with painting you are working in 2-D. No matter how expert you are at depicting perspective and depth and everything else that goes into a painting, it is still, well, FLAT. No way around that one, is there? You can't put your hand out and feel the contours. Your mind can, in a fashion, and that is lovely for sure and even what may make a painting so exciting. But, you can't really reach out and touch a painting, now can you? But with dolls, which are 3-dimensional by their very nature, the first thing you really want to do is reach out and touch. Now granted, like most art dolls, my dolls are not meant for children. A lot of flipping, flopping, twisting and poking around is not really advocated. Getting on my high horse, they are sculptures after all; 3-dimensional representations of my idea of human form, even though distorted and comical in a sense. My particular dolls are soft, though, so really, you can get away with a bit of squeezing. That feature alone adds something to the finished work that you just can't get with a flat painting.
So, in the midst of all my philosophizing, I was recently contacted by an art doll team on Etsy. The Art Dolls Only team, ADO for short. I have to say, I am usually not much of a joiner, so joining any kind of group is a big deal for me and I am careful about who I join up with. In their literature they quote Wikipedia's definition of an art doll:
"Art Dolls are made using a wide variety of styles and mediums, some are abstract or tribal, while others are incredibly realistic. Art dolls do not always move. The term Art Doll can refer to human-like dolls. However this is not always the case. Art Dolls can depict animal, mythical creatures or abstract beings. They differ from baby dolls, Barbie dolls and other mass manufactured dolls. Even though the word 'doll' is attached, Art Dolls are not meant for play and not intended for children. The intent of an Art Doll artist is to create a work of art."
Okay, well that sounds pretty good, right? A work of ART. I mean, by that definition, what I do begins to make sense! So I joined. I can't tell you how glad I am I did. You wouldn't believe the artists in that group. I think there are about 100. The talent contained within that number is quite simply, amazing. Here's a little sample (taken from etsy shops) of the variety of human form artists in the group were able to come up with.
Etsy Shops Pictured: DollMakersMuse, nenufarblanco, AnAngelAtMyTable, PeachStreet, bartonoriginals, littlebitwired, lynnery, freakylittlethings, PolkaDotToadstool, dollproject, dellaraedezines, CateA331, mealymonster, ArchetypalTheater, Youngish, NancyWiley
Okay, so you can't see that up close as well as I want you to (click on it, though, for a bigger shot). So what you are going to have to do is go over to etsy http://www.etsy.com
and type in "ado".
That's all you really have to do. Just type ADO in the search bar, and the dolls and items available from these marvelous artists will pop up. I'm seeing 26 pages worth of stuff at the moment there. You can also type in any of the shop names I have listed above to get you started.
While you are at it, go over and check out their blog:
http://www.artdollsonly.blogspot.com
If you are an art doll artist and are interested in joining:
http://www.artdollsonly.com/joinado.htm
You can also join them on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-Dolls-Only/67485582644
I have been SO bad about posting anything in, what (??) a MONTH?!! Wow, time flies. My family and I spent a week this summer camping in the Adirondacks, got back and kids needed to be taken to the pool, to the park, to the beach, to friends and so on. We had a lovely visit from our nephew for a week, and again to the pool, to the park, to the beach. It seems like it is taking tremendous effort to get back in the swing of things! On the one hand it feels like lazy summer days, and on the other it feels like we have been quite busy. So, since I haven't contacted anyone to feature in awhile, I think I am just going to put up a few photos of portraits I drew up in the last few weeks to fill in.
This is a portrait of a lovely friend in Vermont with her child. I did an "okay" likeness. I'm not entirely satisfied with it, but I like the colors. I think they both look better in person. This is oil pencil and oil pastel done on white silk. I stretched it over a piece of heavy watercolor paper and taped it down so it can be framed. It's 11" x 14".
This portrait, I think, is a slightly better likeness, and I like the colors as well. I had a heck of a time with the guitar (which is a constant prop for this particular individual and therefore completely pertinent) for this, so kind of fudged it a bit. I am not that great with objects. But I think it turned out pretty well.
I like this portrait a lot, because of the colors. I think the children are a pretty good likeness, though I don't think the boy on the left is quite that "cheeky" in the British sense of the word, but I like how it came out anyway. I think the mom looks prettier than this in person, but I really struggled with it for some reason. I like how it came out overall. I think the boy on the right looks about that sweet, so is a good likeness.
Hope you are all busy creating lovely things, or at least enjoying the summer weather. I am finishing up a doll for a competition that I hope to post (though at the moment I am having a love/hate relationship with this particular doll) in a week or 2. Hope to be back on schedule by end of month. Enjoy these sunny days!
As I said in my last post, I joined a terrific art doll group, ADO, or Art Dolls Only http://www.artdollsonly.blogspot.com.This month they are having one of their quarterly challenges. The theme is all things Halloween. I've never made anything purposely, well, unattractive, before. I really wanted to give it a shot. I came up with 3 witches in the stew pot. I think they came out pretty well. I had quite a time working with polymer clay to make the pot. I have to say, I have a ton of respect for polymer clay artists! It's tricky business.
