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 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

few books with beautiful illustrations for inspiration and how-to instructions for gathering materials and getting started. There are many resources on the internet for inspiration. You will find delightful images and many links to hand-made dolls made from paper, textiles, wood, metal and whatever you can find that works.

Usually, I will skim through, skip or return later to introductions and forewords to books. I like to jump right in unless there is a notice that it is important to read first and go to chapter one. But now I want to know who these doll makers are and why they wanted to make dolls. I wanted to know the history of dolls and figures and I wanted to climb up into the back of a closet to pull out a yellowed and frayed cardboard box with a now antique doll that had been my birth mother’s which she gave me during a rare visit as a small child. It had red hair and freckles, like me.

All my girl dolls’ names were Suzy. Looking back this seems a little odd. Why didn’t I give them each a different name, I wonder? It seemed I was identifying an inhabitant of the doll that went from doll to doll and her name was Suzy. Even Barbie got renamed. It was natural for me to do this. I named my only boy doll, Johnny. Johnny and Suzy. I learned a few years ago that I have a multi-great aunt and uncle, Suzanne and John, in my ancestry. Asking the night sky for a sign shortly after learning this, a small shooting star made a thin line across the sky. That happened too often so I dismissed it and then forgot I had asked as I gazed on into the star dotted sky. Suddenly the biggest streak of light shot across just above the horizon and so bright that I saw it first out of the corner of my eye as I wasn’t looking in that direction. It burst open into a large blue, yellow and reddish orange flame and left a trail of smoke in the sky that lingered in the moonlight for some time. I thought, now that is a sign.

“All of my dolls are wishing dolls. Each was created to manifest a wish or a dream.” – Dayle Doroshow in “Beyond Paper Dolls” by Lynne Perrella

In searching for dolls in past societies, I found that in ancient Rome young girls offered their dolls to the goddess Diana at maturity hoping to be blessed with fertility. A rite of passage ceremony. Another remarkable find for me in doll history was discovering that Thomas Edison invented the first talking doll in 1870. It contained his newly invented miniature phonograph with real women’s voices trying to sound childlike. Edison’s nursery rhyme reciting doll did not go over very well as the recorded voices sounded scary. These dolls were likely offered to a different deity.

Dolls are found to be therapeutic and healing. Children given puppets with characters representing various emotions, expressed feelings that they would not so freely have revealed otherwise, in a process developed by Barb Kobe, author of “The Healing Doll Way”. Her book is an essential must-have resource guiding one through the process of creating an art doll “for self-discovery, awareness, and transformation” with inspiring images, personal stories, and insights into the symbolism and meanings of trinkets and findings for adornment and intentions. The author shares this quote from the book “Women Who Run with Wolves” by Clarissa Pinkola Estés:

“For centuries, humans have felt that dolls emanate both a holiness and mana – an awesome and compelling presence which acts upon persons, changing them spiritually. Dolls are believed to be infused with life by their makers. They are used as markers of authority and talismans to remind one of one’s own power.”

Some art doll makers view the experience of creating the doll as the most important part of the healing and self-awareness process and once the doll is done it is of little value to them. Perhaps their dolls had intentions of their own to serendipitously journey to their meant to be forever home. Others find the finished doll has become an extension of some part of themselves or just a silent treasured listening friend. Like most creative activities there are times when the creator becomes intuitively aware of what the doll wants or needs as it is being made. The original plan

(Continued on pg. 26)