Girlish Things
Are you an art doll lover? Are you an art doll maker? Do you think that art doll making is actually art, or craft? What's your medium: clay, fabric, yarn, paper? All of them? How artistic are the dolls in your collection? How old were you when you started loving and making, or collecting art dolls? Am I asking to many questions? In person, I'd ask them all but not in at once. No. I'd ask one by one, and listen to your answers. Laugh with you, agree, disagree. That’s a conversation. A good chat. I'd love to be your friend!
I love dolls. Ever since I was a girl, I love doll. The baby doll that I fed imaginary milk and baby food, I loved. Later in third grade I loved making paper dolls with my classmates. JoAnn Maddox knew how to draw the girl with the perfect hourglass figure. (This was pre Barbie days.) She drew them for me and many of my classmates. I'd make them paper clothes that I carefully painted with my Crayonex crayons, the borders with the deep colors, the centers with the light. Purses. Shoes. Then I'd cut them carefully, making sure that I didn’t cut off the tabs. I honed my cutting skills then working with those impossibly scissors with the tips cut off. We weren’t allowed to talk much in our classroom, but we girls found quiet ways to show off our creations to one another.
In the rooms of Survivors of Incest Anonymous I learned that some women don’t like dolls. Even as a child. I respect their stance, but I do have a hard time understanding this. How couldn’t you love a doll? Some movies and tv directors don’t seem to like them either and you find dolls being portrayed as a mean character. But I continue to love dolls. They are a symbol of innocence, imagination, and resilience. Even after we’re gone many dolls endure.
As I grew up I was expected to put girlish things aside. And I did. I learned to crochet from my great aunt, to sew from my mom. For many years, off and on, I sewed and crocheted for myself: dresses and bags in Puerto Rico. Scarves, mittens, and wool hats when I moved to Boston, and later, New York.
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The Return of The Dolls
Then, when I was in my mid 30’s I developed a fibroid tumor and needed a hysterectomy. I wasn’t a mother, and I was never to carry a child. It was a difficult period. I was living in New York City at the time. I spent the surgery recovery time hanging out in Barnes and Nobles when there were a lot of places to sit. One day roaming thru the magazines stacks I found DOLLS magazine. I bought a copy and headed home. I was so excited I started reading the magazine as soon as I I sat in the train. After I finished looking through all the pictures, and reading all the headlines, I heard the conductor call out a station that I never heard before. I looked up. ?? I had taken the right train in the wrong direction! It took over an hour to reach home.
With the guidance of magazines and books I discovered that I had the ability to make dolls! I wasn’t copying others people’s patterns. I was designing my own. There was such a joy in my looking at the face that I had just created! What I didn’t have was marketing knowledge. Although I wanted very much to make and sell dolls, I wasn’t successful. I didn’t know how.
For a while I didn’t make any dolls.
Then my life turned difficult: memories of sexual abuse as a child surfaced, a divorce, I could barely make a living. I didn’t have a place to live. I couch surfed for a while. I went to traditional therapy. My therapist recommended art therapy as well. I wasn’t much for brushes and canvass, but when they began to bring fabrics and threads, I began to make dolls again. Making dolls was/is healing. Through doll making, I can express my feelings. Especially my feelings about how women are treated in our society.
These Days
Today, I’m living in Puerto Rico again. I don’t like it. I miss New York with all my heart. In Puerto Rico, even living in the metropolitan area, transportation is difficult and/or expensive. I’ve learned something about marketing in YouTube. I've figured that even in your seventies, you can start new ventures. Make a dream come true. I’m alive, and in excellent health. Why not? I’m making dolls for sale. I do need to increase my fixed income. Maybe, you'd like the ones you see here. (Place connection to eBay, here.)
So, I ask you again: Are you an art doll lover? Are you an art doll maker? Do you think that art doll making is actually art, or craft? What's your medium: clay, fabric, yarn, paper? All of them? How artistic are the dolls in your collection? How old were you when you started loving and making, or collecting art dolls? Am I asking to many questions? Feel free to leave a comment answering any or all of the questions. It will make my day!
And please, do keep coming back. I have more surprising art dolls for you.
This is a blog created by Rosateresa Castro-Vargas, a Puerto Rican woman in exile in San Juan, Puerto Rico from her adored New York City, where she used to enjoy singing in the subway. Rosateresa is a vocalist-composer, textile and crochet artist that focuses her work on women’s life. She occasionally also writes songs about Puerto Rico. In the blogs she shares about her creative endeavors, presently, doll making. She blogs weekly and post of Friday nights.
