New Works: Lions, Flamingos and Bears, Oh My!

Crunch time for the upcoming NIADA Conference; fly time in literally 30 days; So excited! Lots to share, but my To-Do List is still nerve-wrackingly long, so i'll just post a few pix for now and leave the storytelling for the weekend. Over the last few months of preparing my class notes for the NIADA Dollmaking School, i've been navigating the ticklish business of breaking down decades of largely intuitive aesthetic decisions and unquestioned fine-motor skills into meaningful information that i may share with my students. The result has yielded some unexpected epiphanies that border on something akin to, "Teacher, Study Thyself." [More on that in the next post, in which i discovered my Inner Student asking the question, "What do you do when you want to sculpt a Bear and your Muse won't stop singing in Lion-ese?]

Without further ado, a group photo of my latest kiln-bounty after MIXing the luscious black Cassius Basaltic Stoneware with its closest ceramic compatibility cousin, Arctic White Stoneware (both available through Mid-South Ceramic Supply) and then adding dry pigment stains INTO the clay bodies. Im getting a little giddy over the results. P.S.: there are a few new listings in my Etsy shop from this troup as i resist the temptation to keep them all and make them into finished dolls. But there are MORE coming, and kits to assemble, and my Gallery Night piece to decide on, etc.

New Work on my Etsy Shop

Running around like a madwoman with too many (just enough) projects. Writing about what i'm doing seems a superfluous luxury right now. Just DOING it at the moment and will hopefully have a moment (when the mad rush thins a bit) to pop in and embroider it with description and explanation where any might be needed.

Below is a tray of recently finished stoneware busts and limb sets for my Etsy shop. More coming. Working too on several commissions and the initial throes of a lifelong dream: taking Animation Classes at NYU... more on THAT as soon as i finish my Final Project for the first class: Concept Art &Character Design. I'm stressed, have resorted to the worst of my eating/sleeping habits as i careen from one project to another, and am loving every minute of it. The thought of trying to work in time to blog about it seems fairly absurd. So why not?

Dusting Off the Blog: A Peek at "Nellie Also"

Well it's been ages. No excuses, and a brief apology... irons in the fire must make room for one more. Without further ado, a brief visitation to my worktable for a glimpse of what's coming to doters.etsy.com.

I am inexplicably and delightfully visited by a herd of lovely people from all over the globe who commission GOATS from me; of both regular and anthropomorphic persuasions); the newest 'kid' on my block is named Nellie, and she's getting fitted with a wardrobe of 1940's style dresses constructed out of vintage fabrics. This Nellie is a reprise of a commission done for a collector in Washington D.C., who's a sheer delight to collaborate with... more on her shortly.

The first of three is a sweetheart dress with a shawl collar done up in a swingy black fabric dotted with jazzy orange graphics that look a bit like balls of yarn... Above is a sketch and swatch, along with a glimpse of the dress in progress, below. Once the collar's on, i'm making a smart shrug of that bright, yellow-orange heathered wool to the right of the swatch fabric above. This ensemble also gets a sheer black organza slip that will share double-duty with dress number two...

...which will be an elegant mix of black and silver shot silk and linen with a rose motif on a pieced bodice, and a floral sailor-inspired ensemble, which will show up next post.

The Imaginarium Team on Etsy

Proud to announce: i'm on The Imaginarium Team on Etsy! --And so eager to dig in and get acquainted!! Team Leader Priscilla http://www.readbetweenlines.etsy.com/ very graciously included one of my new reliquary pieces in a new 'all-Imaginarium' team treasury... check it out here!

More updates soon to come; i'm so inspired by the talent on this Team!!

The Year of the Rabbit: ‘Quiet, Positive & Inspiring’

According to the authors of Chinese astrology, today officially inaugurates the Year of the Rabbit, which is, according to an article I just read, “significantly less stormy than the [Tiger year] we just endured. Chinese astrologers are projecting quiet, positive and inspiring things to come.” Sounds good to me: just the recipe for heightened creativity, and I’ve got a lot planned.

Right now I’m working up a whole new group of anthropomorphic busts; everything from mice to March Hares; frogs to birds. Plus, I’m beginning a new direction: exotic creatures from other countries; a Tarsier from the Phillippines, an Aye-Aye from Madagascar, and a Jerboa from Africa, all of which I’m very enthused about….but I digress. More on all of that in upcoming posts.

In honor of today being the first day of the Year of the Rabbit, I’m sharing one of last season’s delightful and unforseen collaborations: meet here my White Rabbit (#4), an uncostumed doll from my Etsy shop’s ‘Destash’ collection purchased by a fellow Estian, talented artist in her own right and a delight to collaborate with. She asked me, immediately upon purchasing the White Rabbit, to come up with some costume sketches, and when she couldn’t decide which one she liked best, kindly commissioned me to make them all (in the midst of another collaboration we were already engaged in!! How lucky am I?) Look for more Rabbits from me in the coming weeks, of all sizes, colors and provenance.

Catch Up!

Well, things got really busy over at my Etsy shop from my last post in September, and stayed busy right up thru a long holiday hiatus with my family. So now it’s time to ramp up the blogging; lots to catch up on, and lots of new projects on the worktable…

“William, Goat of Win” scampered halfway ‘round the world to Australia, taking up residence with a lovely and talented collector/costumier there, and (thru her kindred colleagues) prompted several more goats, and a cat, as well as some interesting spins on custom ordered finishes for a few destash items already in my shop. Over the next several weeks, look for updates with pictures of each of these pieces and some words from their collectors, who’ve collaborated with me from afar, by costuming them with a finesse that’s just astonished and delighted me!! (And if you’re inspired, drop by my Etsy shop, hit that “Request Custom Item” button and start one of your own!!)

For today, meet Rascal: a Boston Terrier pet portrait commissioned by one of my oldest friends for his niece for Christmas. He was a secret right up until the holiday, so he never made it onto my Etsy shop…

Rascal is a beloved pet, apparently the subject of great doting from her; she dresses him up and takes him with her everywhere .

I did him as a puppy-boy, with two costumes: one as a mischievous scamp in a heathered sweater that has a two-pointed hood on the back for his ears, and one as a ‘little Lord Fauntleroy’ type, complete with lace collar and cuffs. I had great fun with this piece, and word from my friend’s Christmas gala was that Rascal was a ‘big hit.’ So I’m pleased to share him here.

For a glimpse at pet portraits from years gone by, during my years in Nashville, see the link to my Flickr page on the right margin of this blog. As we sit cocooned in all our snow up here in NYC, i plot my Spring lineup, replete with rabbits, eggs, and perhaps some more exotic creatures, like tarsiers, jerboas, and aye-ayes... [oh my-my...]

Happy New Year, Everybody.

New Paper Ephemera on Doters' Etsy shop

Well, it's taken me over a week, but i've created the first of a new series of digital printable downloads for my Etsy shop: the inaugural piece, inspired by all the interest in Imogene and the Golden Lotus Puppet Show, is a paper puppet of Imogene and all her shoes and puppets. Shown here are some details of the downloadable files. Please go to my Etsy shop to order.

More paper puppets based on
my anthropomorphic figures are forthcoming, now that i've figured out a system for breaking down the images into parts. Next on the paper puppet stage will be several Humpty Dumpties and a full theatre of my avatar, Virginia Wool!! If there's something specific you'd like to purchase as a paper puppet/theatre, please drop me a message, Etsy convo, or Alchemy request!!

Each digital file is 300dpi, and prints out on full 8.5"x 11" sheets, and can be resized for smaller projects. Check back soon for an image of the assembled puppet and --with any luck-- a video of her in action!!

For those who want finished puppets, check back soon; i'll be featuring a limited edition of hand-colored lithographic 'tunnel book' cards of Imogene as well.

Thanks again to Michelle Traub, on the Etsy Admin Team for featuring Imogene and the Golden Lotus Puppet Show on her "Keeping It Weird" blog on Etsy.

Outting Me Weird on Etsy

For the record, it doesn't weird me out at all. In fact, all i can say is, it's about #*$! time.

Just checked the Etsy before bed, to discover one of my pieces, "Imogene and the Golden Lotus Puppet Show" was featured on Etsy's "Keep It Weird" Blog. How awesome is that?! I mean, i've known my work was weird my whole life. But to have it acknowledged with such eloquence by a blogger on the Etsy Admin Team ten days into my tenure there is just delicious. Plus, today is my Mom's birthday! So, all together now:

"Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday Dear WeirdoDotersMom,
Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!" (Love you Mom!!)

A little bit about Imogene, since she's just made the Weirdness Shortlist (and up to now, i'd kept the weirder aspects of her nature under my hat). Certain of my anthropomorphic figures seem to channel specific energies, and like any weird artist, when that happens, i just have to go with it. Imogene is such a character. She's a Sino-American-feminist-martriarch-chimpanzee who decided to repurpose her footbinding slippers before imposing their energy on subsequent generations--as puppets. She's the ultimate "doter." Don't ask me where these things come from, i don't know. But they take on a life of their own, and Imogene was no exception. Her namesake, Imogene Coca, was one of my favorite comediennes: something about the elastic expressiveness of her face and the way she used it to make subtle statements about the human condition made me want to laugh and cry simultaneously. When i finished the facial features of the chimp, not yet knowing exactly what her character would be, i thought, "Hm. Looks a bit like Imogene Coca," --who was still alive at the time. It just happened. I swear. Not premeditated. These things never are. And i mean no disrespect to the late Ms. Coca, whom i find beautiful. I'm an anthropomorphic sculptor and a storyteller. I've done self-portraits as dog, pig, fish, sheep, and mule. I love animals; as they are in reality and as metaphors for aspects of our spiritual and natural mysteries as fellow earthlings. I hope Ms. Coca's spirit would ultimately be honored by the reference... and i'll tell you why.

I happened to be reading something about traditional footbinding slippers somewhere at the time; i remember seeing some naìve posting on eBay: someone had these ornate footbinding slippers up for auction advertised as antique baby booties. The irony of such a perception was too poignant to disregard. Since i had 'chimp' on the brain and was even then trolling through my cultural lexicon trying to imagine how to costume a chimp for maximum effect, the footbinding slippers just hit me, because chimps, of course, have opposable thumbs on their feet. Who better to exemplify the dramatic hyperbole of a foot deprived of its primary function by the very embellishment which adorns it and elevates it to a fetish? As is usually the case with my more demanding sculptures, the matter had decided itself and we were off and running, so to speak.

But i was a little confused by the Imogene Coca riff in this project. Why her, with this?

Footbinding is hardly comedy. Why her now? So i started looking up old skits she did on "Your Show of Shows" with Sid Caesar, and found the one where she plays the photographer's wife, and he poses her for various shots and she freezes in whatever position he poses her, to express his vision. He keeps making adjustments to finer and finer details, until he's posing the very muscles of her face, which Ms. Coca inimitably and dutifully 'holds,' immobilized by his agenda.
Somehow that skit, from the 1950's --the same decade in which footbinding was declared illegal in China--brought home a connection that i could no longer question. A few days after my little Imogene came intact out of the kiln ready to wax and costume, the real Imogene passed away. Story of my creative life: a private, karmic 'baton' gets passed to me on a level too weird to be believed and too convoluted to explain without sounding... well... really weird. But there it is, consistently undeniable.

Ten months of researching and sewing, embroidering, and doting. My weird little Imogene crept pedantically into my world with no commissioner (lucratively speaking) and no real prospects. Too doll-like to be really conceptual, too laden with statement to just be a pretty little dolly-doll, with her scary puppets and her unflinching revolutionary earnestness. By the time she found her way into a gallery in SoHo (where she was priced at $11,000 by the gallery owner, a number calculated from the $4,500 i told him i needed for my end of the work) we were living in a post-9/11 world, and the collector market that i'd just been orbiting into suddenly seemed to dry up. She sat there in a glass case for two years, until i came and took her home, seven years ago. Even now, she waits in veils of tissue, to tell her puppet stories to someone.

--Brand-new and yet on her way to becoming

vintage....

But the final karmic nod that i must be patient with this strange gift i have for channelling rogue energy came when i stopped in Chinatown on my way home after picking her up.

The fortune in my cookie, which i later tucked inside Imogene's cap, admonishing:

"(S)he who hurries cannot walk with dignity."

Welcome to "dotersdoting," the blog for my Etsy shop: www.doters.etsy.com ! Here i will offer background information on all my work: details on process for my one-of-a-kind anthropomorphic sculpture and handbound artist's books, previews of works-in-progress, and the occasional 'how-to.'

Thanks for dropping by!! --connie