0 My Entry for EBSQ's February 'What a Doll' Show: 'Beryl Moon'

Meet 

"Beryl Moon"

"Beryl Moon", a sculpted Art Doll created from re-purposed objects

Last month, EBSQ, the online art community I've long been a member of, hosted their monthly art exhibit, with the theme for February being, "What a Doll".  This was my entry: "Beryl Moon", an Art Doll sculpted using paper mache plus a whole host of all-recycled materials 

(to see my entry in the exhibit).....

"The Moon Was But a Chin of Gold", by Emily Dickinson

I painted and finished her as inspired by the following poem, by Emily Dickinson:

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold
A Night or two ago—
And now she turns Her perfect Face
Upon the World below—

Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde—
Her Cheek—a Beryl hewn—
Her Eye unto the Summer Dew
The likest I have known—

Her Lips of Amber never part—
But what must be the smile
Upon Her Friend she could confer
Were such Her Silver Will—

And what a privilege to be
But the remotest Star—
For Certainty She take Her Way
Beside Your Palace Door—

Her Bonnet is the Firmament—
The Universe—Her Shoe—
The Stars—the Trinkets at Her Belt—
Her Dimities—of Blue—

"Beryl Moon", a view from behind

She was actually a long time coming, my "Beryl Moon", because I initially began her many moons (ha-ha) ago, only to set her aside for some reason (ADHD mostly, I suppose), abandoned and unfinished.   Started as part of a project to rescue the dead, mangled barbies left behind after my daughter's childhood, it was my intention to breath new life into these hopelessly broken objects so as to keep them out of the waste stream, where they were surely destined.  And I did get a reasonably good and interesting start on a few of them, before I became distracted by something else and rudely shoved them all onto the back-burner (story of my life?)....

An in-progress project I call the "Dead Barbies Society" -- its mission being to turn useless broken junk into Art, people!  ART...!

However, this one in particular was the furthest along....: 

....thus she was the one I grabbed when I decided I needed something to enter into the EBSQ "Doll" show last month...:

And so I got her finished, finally....! 

The following is cut and pasted from my artist/entry statement (because I'm lazy like that):

Buried deep inside 'Beryl Moon', under Celluclay (a commercial paper clay product) and layers of paper mache, is a wee 'injured' action figure, but a few inches tall, and missing an arm. Spared from a landfill life, he now provides some inner armature for this Art Doll, though little of him is actually recognizable anymore, given that an entirely new being was sculpted over and around his original form, using re-purposed items (including but not limited to: a plastic cup, multiple plastic cup lids, and newspaper), for a complete and thorough transformation. A whole new, crescent-moon shaped head was sculpted from Celluclay and attached (the head of the original figure/doll ends somewhere deep within in the present neck/chest area), along with a newly sculpted arm, and new hands. In addition to gaining inches in height (now standing about a foot tall), "he' also became a 'she', complete with a newly sculpted bosom, as well as a big, bustled and flowing skirt of Stars -- using as my inspiration the poem, "The Moon Was But a Chin of Gold", by the wonderful and talented poet, Emily Dickinson....: 

"....now she turns Her perfect Face
Upon the World below—...."

And so there you have it, my "What a Doll" show entry.  

Which..., I'm happy to be able to report tied for "Member's Mention" (2nd Place) in the show...!  Thanks so much, EBSQ...!

Detail: My Entry for EBSQ's February 'What a Doll' Show: 'Beryl Moon'

0 Day 11 of the '29 Faces' Challenge: Work In Progress Altered-Art Dolls

WIP Altered Art Doll

Well, I had a nice blog past all written up late (very!) last night, only to have it  irretrievably eaten by Blogger.  How does that even happen...???  Not very nice of you, Blogger! (shakes fist)   And so here we are on Day 12 of the '29 Faces for February' art blog Challenge, but I will be posting twice today -- now this morning with my (reconstructed) Day 11 Face post from last night (grr), and then again this evening with my Day 12 Face post....   

Being as that it was Saturday yesterday, and a fairly quiet one at that, I woke up with my head full of ALL kinds of grand schemes of getting ALL manner of stuff done in the studio.   Of course as the day wore on things didn't quite go along with my lofty initial plans, though I was able to spend a bit of time last evening to work on several ongoing projects.  Nothing that I can declare officially 'Finis!' to show off  as Day 11's Face -- however I do have a Work-in-Progress project involving faces to share....

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I really despite waste.   I understand of course that some waste is unavoidable in life, but it's really pretty appalling to me the extent that our modern day society has become so very...disposable.  I myself do try to personally tread as lightly as I can in this regard -- by recycling whenever possible, buying second-hand and in bulk, schlepping my own grocery bags (when I'm not forgetting them at home that is), avoiding excessive packaging and that sort of thing.   I know I likely could always be doing more in my attempts to be green, as we all could -- still, I do try to maintain an on-going awareness, and make responsible choices based on that.  Also, as I've written before, it's a mindset that has become absorbed into my personal philosophies as an artist, propelling me in my attempts to satisfy my creativity and make art, by using materials I already have at hand, or with objects that would otherwise make their way into our nation's waste stream. To make something, from nothing....

So, on that note, I guess that's why I'd held on to my daughter's aforementioned dead and broken barbie dolls all these long years....:

Sad Collection of Dead and Broken Barbies

Either my kids were especially hard on toys, or they just don't make 'em like they used to (I suspect a bit of both) -- whatever the case, by the time my now teen daughter was done with this stage in her life, we had amassed quite a collection of dead barbie dolls.  Too practical to throw them out (actually it's a balance, and I have to be very mindful or I know it would be entirely too easy for me to slip into 'Hoarderism' --  but that's a topic for another post), I held onto them with the intention of upcycling them into something useful and beautiful one day, a project that I finally started some while back:

WIP: Dead Barbies in the process of being given New Life with the Papier Mache Cure

And so this brings us to my Face of Day 11.  Meet Myrtle:

Moon-Faced 'Myrtle', a Work In Progress....

 Myrtle's internal armature was actually some sort of small, broken and discarded action figure of my son's.  I've fashioned an entirely new moon-shaped head from paper clay, and an entirely new papier mache body, complete with a long, sumptuous skirt:

Myrtle's View to the Side

Least of not which is her ample bustle and train:

'Myrtle': A view to her back

I really wish I could show you before pictures (never remember to take those!), because her transformation from broken/small action figure to her current lovely, statuesque state is pretty radical.  In any case, I'm really pleased with how she is turning out thus far, and will continue to work on her and my other Dead Barbie Projects here as I go along.....

(And, in other late breaking news, do you recall my poor faceless, rabbit-bitten crow from a few entries ago?  Well, he's still faceless, but at least he now has a leg to stand properly on, with his nice, new, garbage-constructed base (which will make it far easier for me to actually WORK on his new face)...):

Detail: Day 11 of the '29 Faces' Challenge: Work In Progress Altered-Art Dolls

0 EBSQ Halloween Doll Challenge

Whew, it's been a busy fall around here....

But, I was able to squeeze in a small, but fun, project. The 'Art Doll' message board on the EBSQ forums hosted a Halloween Doll Challenge this past month. Despite my bestest intentions, I put if off for ages yet still managed to pull something together rather quickly at the last minute, at least enough to squeak by and enter a piece just under the wire: http://tinyurl.com/5qfwv6

Behold, the 'Halloween Witch Cat'.... standing tall and erect (at a petite 6 inches), with her witchy hat tucked under her arm....

She was sculpted with papier mache and paper pulp. It's a little funny how it all came about actually. While I had wanted to participate in the challenge, and adore anything Halloween and always have, I just couldn't put my mind into exactly what I wanted to do. Naturally, my 'solution' was to stall and stall (plus, like I said, it's been pretty busy around here as of late).

Finally, scouring my studio for inspiration the other day, I came across three wee 'eggs' I'd made with leftover Celluclay pulp several months ago. I had about a third cup of pulp left after completing a project back then. Pulp doesn't keep obviously, and since I hate wasting anything, I simply fashioned three little balls. Which then dried. Pretty useless as is -- however, when I ran across them, I got the bright idea to use them as starts for little sculpted 'heads' of some kind. Adding more pulp to one of the balls, on impulse I fashioned a little cat's head. A reasonable start, cute little head-- but, I still had to come up with a body/a pose/a theme. And I was running out of time. Rifling through a bag of toys I'd sorted this past summer, I found a small odd-and-end plastic figure thingie (likely from a Happy Meal or some such? Though we are veg and have never in our lives purchased a Happy Meal) which was likely destined eventually for the landfill, and decided to use it as my internal structural armature. I attached my cat head (not he easiest thing to do, actually), and further fleshed out the figure and pose with papier mache, enclosing her neck (the neck being the head of the plastic toy figure), adding her witch hat (which was a little projection on the plastic toy figure), shaping and filling out her right arm, adding/attaching her left arm, and just overall going for a 'folksy' sort of look.

All in all? Not too shabby, I dont' think....

Detail: EBSQ Halloween Doll Challenge