Artist of Life, Drawing from Within by Patti Lightflower
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7 KJV Dollmakers are creators forming from earthly materials beings born of their imaginations. These figures are diverse as human like dolls, teddy bears, toy soldiers, creatures and in our time, virtual avatars. For many doll owners and doll makers there is a magical illusion of life. To quote Einstein, “Reality is merely an illusion; albeit a very persistent one.” Could this mean this illusion of a living doll is just as real as the illusion of reality? While watching sample clips on the computer screen my son shared with me, over the past year of his work developing an animated 3D game world with characters, I began to wonder about how god-like this work appears. The creation of a new world and then
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inhabiting it – along with adding a few challenges and obstacles for growth and advancement. I was fascinated. I asked him if he felt like the puppeteer, Mr. Geppetto who made Pinocchio, as I marveled at the animated human-like being moving and behaving realistically and seemingly independently across the screen in imagined fantastic realms. A friend working with clay is now finishing up the details on a realistic life size human figure. It is captured in a dance movement so ready to continue in the pivot, outstretched arms posed, eternally or momentarily paused. Being shown this work while I was preparing for this article, I asked him about the creation process. He wrote back, “I love it. It’s playing god with mud.” For several years I have been toying around with ideas for making dolls. Over this time, I have collected a
Spring Splendor 2021
