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Art Dolls After searching for several years for ways to meld my studio work and my digital art work, in the year 2005 I began to find just the vehicles I need to accomplish the task. Art dolls and art paper dolls provide the necessary opportunities for wide open creativity in which I can utilize my studio skills as well as my computer art skills. Art dolls are unique. They are not traditional baby dolls, fashion dolls nor necessarily beautiful exhibition and collectors' dolls. An art doll does not even have to have a human shape. They are not judged as more traditional dolls have been judged, although they require good craftsmanship and the use of the principles and elements of design just as a good painting does. The primary characteristic on which art dolls are judged is whether they evoke an emotional response in the viewer. Does the doll make you smile? Does it make you wonder? Does it make you feel sad? Does it make you uncomfortable? Does it cause you to ask a question? Do you love it or hate it on sight? Does it delight you for some reason? If so, it is an art doll! The doll's purpose may be to elicit a response in the viewer, or it may be made just to express an idea, emotion or thought or whim of its creator. Similarly, art paper dolls are nothing like the traditional paper dolls one may be familiar with from childhood. They can be flat, three dimensional, rigid, have limbs that will move, have twigs added, or beads, or thread. but they should be made primarily of paper products such as paper clay, found paper, foil, fibers, even cloth can sometimes be added. Again, the principles and elements of design come into play and the opportunity for creativity is wide open. You can see some of my three dimensional art paper dolls on collages here. On the present gallery page I am displaying some of my art dolls and one art paper doll. Generally, I confine myself to art dolls made of fabric. I design the dolls by sketching on the computer in Painter. I often draw the pattern for the doll in Painter and print it on paper to use in cutting out the fabric for the doll's body. Sometimes I use Painter to paint a face "from scratch" using a photographic reference or I modify an ancestor's face from an old photograph using Painter's many techniques. I print these on specially prepared fabric and adhere them to the doll's head. Another way I use the computer in making my dolls is to select a fractal that I have created, bring it into Painter and size it, add embellishments (such as a poem) and print it to fabric to make a one-of-a kind fabric from which I make the bodies of my line of fracTalisman dolls. Sometimes the dolls are stitched by hand, the beading designs if used are derived in the studio and are sewed on by hand. Almost anything can be used as embellishment, even printing pictures on fabric and adding the images to the doll's body. I hope you enjoy these dolls and that they inspire you to think of new ways to combine your digital and studio art. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image.
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Last Revised: July 17, 2005 |
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