Upside Down, Inside Out: The Fanciful in Daily Life show at the TAG Gallery

Two weeks ago I installed my solo show at the Torpedo Factory, TAG Gallery, with the help of some fellow artists. It was challenging getting it all together but once it was all in place, I was thrilled. It's an amazing feeling to see all my dolls together in this wonderful space. I want to share this experience with you at a special reception on October 13th from 6-8 p,m. I hope that if you are in the area you will be able to come and see the work. I'm also offering a special discount to those who attend this reception. See below for more information. 

The show represents the culmination of the past four years of doll making, from the first dolls like my Gypsy Polly to my latest large dolls and felted panels (see below for detailed description of two of the panels.)

Here's some more information about this show:

Show statement:
What would it be like to put on a mask and become a wolf? What if you could transform a dragon from a dangerous monster into a trusted friend? What if you could switch from one side to another side of your personality by flipping a swing from one side to the other? What if you could shed your skin like a snake or a lobster when you are ready to grow to the next stage? What if your insides could show on your outsides? What if fairy tales had something to tell us in our lives, something practical and real? These are the kinds of questions that the artist has been exploring over the past couple years in creating these dolls. Masks, cloaks, animal skins, trees, energy systems and seeds all show up as themes in her work. Here for the first time are all of these themes in one place.
 
The show represents the evolution of the last four years of the artists’ explorations in doll-making. The idea of making panels emerged more recently, as a way of exploring themes that would be developed further in the larger dolls. In addition, the panels allow a relatively shorter time from idea to creation, compared to the large dolls. A panel can be completed in a week. This is in contrast to the slow and sometimes painstaking process of working on the larger dolls, which could sometimes take more than a year to complete. 
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This panel is called Garden of Eden Revisited. I started making the panels during the construction of my large dolls, Tumnus, Baba Yaga and Vasilisa. The panels are quicker to make and provide a welcome relief to the much longer process of making the large dolls, which can take as long as six months to a year. They were also a way of working out some of the design problems and themes for the larger dolls. This one. Garden of Eden, is about the ways in which we are connected to nature. For the Baba Yaga doll, I wanted to make a skirt of "newly hatched souls" and so, in the panels I played with various ways of depicting these souls. Here, the souls grow from the tree of wisdom, upside down and ready to hatch. ​

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This panel is called The Garden is in Me. Here again is the tree as a symbol of the seasons of life and death. A strange, archetypal goddess-like woman sits under the tree, holding the bones of some ancestor soul within her body. Out of death comes life. Out of the bones of those who came before us come our "new" ideas and new life. ​

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I've decided, for this reception to offer a special deal to you, my loyal newsletter readers, for one night only. I want to offer the panels for 10% off and the dolls for 20% off. All you have to do is come to the reception for Upside Down, Inside Out: The Fanciful in Daily Life and you can get this discount for one night only on my doll art.