My interview

I recently joined in an interview game that was posted by Carol McKenna from www.artmusedog.blogspot.com
I would love to have you join in the game. The rules and instructions for the interview game are below my interview.
Here are the questions Carol asked me and my replies.

1. When did you begin to make Art Dolls?
When I quit doing craft shows and got a "regular" job, I promised myself I would make items to express myself and challenge me to grow creatively.. I beleive that is when I began to create art dolls. When" the winter of 2002-2003.

2. What material(s) do you use to make your doll faces and how do these faces evolve?
The materials vary from doll to doll. I began doing needle-sculpture, then branched out to polymer clay, next paper clays and papier mache. Most recently I have created needle-felted faces. Oh and this last week I painted a face on canvas (first painting ever!) But I guess because of my sculpting, I did not like what a brush did so i ended up painting with my fingers!. Yep! I finger-painted on canvas. I did use a brush for the hair, eyebrows and to line the eyes.

This was a double question. How do the faces evolve. I always start with the nose. Then the mouth and then the eyes. The fun begins when I get to add all the wrinkles. That is when the character becomes "alive" to me!

3. Explain how living in different states and countries has influenced your creative life.
When I began making items for craft shows here in central New York State, a rural-state-of-mind area, I was oft advised to tone it down. I love glitz and glitter (could it be from growing up in Las Vegas?). I am not crazy about pastels. Instead I love warm to hot earth tones and jewel tones (California's influence?) Greens in all shades except light and pastel greens, are one of my most favorite colors (perhaps influenced by the thick, vigorous vegetation in Okinawa, the Oregon and Virginian coasts?)
I have always loved studying faces. the ones that interest me the most have weathered skin with lots of lines. I find myself studying peoples faces wherever I am. The different ethnic characteristics of the faces of people wherever I have lived turns up in my work. I do not create from photos or models but from the faces of my eyes' memories.
Some of the costumes I create for my dolls and the combinations of colors and prints are influenced by what I have seen where I have lived.


4. "Going Green" ~ is that something new to you? And how has recycling effected your creativity?
I have always used what I had on hand whenever possible. I never thought of it as recycling,I was just finding a way to create without having to buy anything. People have often shook their heads and grinned when learning the components of what I have made. I think it stems from having little (if any) funds for crafting. My Mom would always say "Find something you can use instead."
It has however created a problem of not knowing what to throw away. After all I might be able to use almost anything for something someday. My poor walls now are ready to burst at the seams due to my saving what might be useful someday."


5. What do you most want people to know about your chosen methods of creativity?
That they can do it too! I beleive that everyone is creative. Sometimes people just have not given themselves permission to try something new to themselves. I do not feel I necessarily have a chsen method of creativity. I just have a lack of fear to try. One should just go for it. Perhaps because I have not taken formal art training and do not know "art rules" I have more freedom. I do what I like and what makes me happy. I use what I can find to use. If I do not have a certain product or medium on hand I try to figure out how to acheive what I want with what I have. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I have tried--and through the process have learned and grown.

interview game for bloggers

"THE INTERVIEW RULES

* leave me a comment with your email address saying: “interview me”
* I will e-mail you five questions of my choice
* you can then answer the questions on your blog {with a link back to
my blog}
* you should also post these rules, along with an offer to interview
anyone else who emails you, wanting to be interviewed
* anyone who asks to be interviewed should be sent 5 questions to
answer on their blog
* it would be nice if the questions were individualized for each
blogger"

3 Potted Ladies

 

I created 3 Potted Ladies for the Rome Main Street Alliance( Rome, NY). 12 artists were selected to create a work of art upon a resin 18 inch planter. The pots will be offered through a silent auction during the summer of 2009.
There are 3 separated and distinct faces on the pot. The above cllage shows them from many different angles.

Triara Protecting the Present

Triara protecting the Present was created for the Rome Art and Community Center's Recycled Art Exhibit. Her base was made of coffee canisters. Her head and hands are air dry clay.

 

Labeling my work

On the doll-makers discussion groups I belong to, the question of whether or not to call our work dolls is brought up again and again.
I think of my work as dolls. Why? I am not sure, Perhaps that word has been a step in my journey. I started out making dolls and stuffed animals for my daughters. Then I made baby puppets to sell. Then one of my customers at a craft show asked me to join a doll guild. So I guessed I was a doll-maker. I have joined an art association and have been told by many members that I sculpt and that they do not consider my work dolls.
Oh my how we struggle with labels from crafter to doll-maker to artist or sculptor!
You know what? The pieces I make do not care about a label. Yet sometimes it seems that the viewers want work to be labeled. Does it make a work have different values in their view if I tell them it is art, or sculpture or a doll?
Even the New York State Fair has issues with it. If the item that is submitted does not have arms and legs, a traditional doll form, it cannot be put in the doll category.
So should I conform? Should I change what I call my work? Will it be taken more seriously if I do? (But then look , if you will, at my work. I do not think it is made to be viewed in a serious tone.)
Is the change in terms another step in my creative journey?

R.T. and the Cadigbra

The 2009 Central New York Doll Is Art Guild challenge was to make a doll using recycled items. I made R. T. and the Cadigbra to meet the challenge.
R.T.'s head and hands are needle-felted. His clothes are fashioned from brown packaging paper (used to fill empty space in a box for shipping.) His boots are from paper clay.
The Cadigbra was constructed with papier Mache'.I had originally planned to make a horse , but decided instead to make a fantasy creature, a mix on a Cat (Ca), dog (d), pig(ig), and zebra (bra).