NEW DOLLS

I worked the Treasures of the Gypsy booth at the Houston Quilt Festival for four days. The next week painted like crazy to prepare two banners to be paw printed at a PetFest in Old Town Spring (north of Houston where I live). Then spent this past weekend at the PetFest getting people to stamp paw prints on them. I was surprised how many were willing to put their own dogs' paw prints on the things. Had to keep talking them, and sometimes their dogs, out of it. Told 'em we didn't want to get into the mess of washing the paint off their feet.

Really lucked out with the weather. It rained furiously Thursday and Friday, making the paint dry sooooo slowly. Sat and Sun were gorgeous! Monday it poured all cotton-pickin' day from dawn deep into the night! Nearly 3 inches!

But now I have posted my new dolls on Etsy. There are two Politico Truth Bottles - Obama and Hillary - and the two dolls I did for the Quilt Festival. I don't yet understand how to navigate through Etsy but you can find my shop by selecting Sellers in the first box and typing pepperhume (no space) in the search box.

More later about the Gypsy Frog and Mistress of the Owl.

Obama is great fun to caricature, I will do him again.

Old dolls

Now that the new administration is getting settled in at the White House, I've begun doing my caricature bottle dolls. The OB and Hillary first, of course. What a team!

I call my bottle dolls Truth Bottles. The idea is that the head shows the public face/persona that the person shows to the world. The truth of what they really are or think is revealed by what is inside the bottle.

I offer political figures in caricature to emphasize their public image. The new owner of the bottle has the option of putting things inside that represent what they think that personage really is thinking.

My first Truth Bottle was a plump balding guy with a serenely bland smile. The title was "Oh No, I'm Fine." His bottle, however, was filled "up to here" with cord and rope all tied up in knots. For political figures, I just do head and collar.

During the Bush admin, I did a six-pack of Dubya and his people. Much fun. One collector ended up with the whole group. For the Obama admin, I'm having to wait until we get acquainted with his people so I can get a sense of their public personalities. That's what caricature is all about. Stay tuned.

Happy Anniversary, Tim and Jean

Last Sunday my brother celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary. Despite all the jokes about what a saint he married, we are all proud of their success. That includes two children grown and married who are throwing a bash tomorrow afternoon to honor their parents. It figures that they have requested canned goods for their church pantry in lieu of gifts.

I still want to do something a little extra to celebrate this landmark in time. I think embarrassing my brother on the international Internet should do the trick. I recently ran across this photo of him taken by our late father one night while Mom and I were gone to a movie. Dad was an amateur photographer and did all his own dark room work. So here's the baby brother who actually grew up into a responsible citizen. Go figure.

TADOA Gallery Show Opens

Sheesh! It's taken me a full week to announce the opening of our show at an honest-to-grandma art gallery... 43 art dolls by 17 artist members of TAODA - Texas Assoc. of Original Doll Artists. The gallery is in Somerville, about 60 miles NW of downtown Houston, near a popular lake in the touristy hill country. Ought to be lots of summer vacation traffic through there.

Since most art galleries are long on wall space and short on pedestals, we required at least two of the three entries allowed each artist to be wall-mounted dolls. We called the challenge "Out of the Box" but the gallery calls the show "Go Figure."

Nobody should be surprised at the variety of solutions to that challenge in the show, considering the range of styles of dollmakers in the group. The show as a whole is a seminar on what constitutes an art doll. Somebody asked me who juried the show. I was proud to say nobody did. Every doll entered was there, and every one of them deserved to be.

My pal Joyce Patterson took these photos of me with my dolls. They put Nimue in the window so you can see her from behind as well and her translucence really shows up. Don't worry, no direct sunlight, there's a deep awning over the sidewalk. Who'da thought deep red walls would actually enhance art rather than distract from it? Then add a black and white tiled floor set on the diagonal! The room is gorgeous empty!

We were thrilled that 8 members of Central Texas Art Doll Sculptors (CTADS) drove down from Austin to attend our opening. I expect we will have to go back to Somerville in a few months for the opening of a show of theirs. That's two Texas galleries we've sold on art dolls. Onward and upward!

Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter

The "letter" in the title is a sort of blog written by successful Canadian artist Robert Genn. I call it a sort of blog but you don't have to go to a blog site to read it, it comes to you twice a week as email. He has a team of helpers who collect quotes and pithy stuff and do the tech for him. But still, I don't know how the man gets all the painting and traveling done that he does and gets this letter thingie out twice a week as well!

While it is directed mainly to painters, there's always plenty there for artists of any stripe...and even non-artists. Like in the latest edition, there's a quote from Margaret Wente that needs to be posted at every school in the nation!

"People thought that kids who felt good about themselves would get higher grades. They don't. They only feel entitled to get them." Read that last sentence again!

Genn adds another quote: "Self-esteem," says cognitive psychologist Martin Seligman, "cannot be directly injected. It needs to result from doing well, from being warranted."

WOW!!!

If you're interested in getting on Robert Genn's mailing list - FREE - go to the site www.painterskeys.com/ - you can read his letters and responses by members. It's cool.

Just got back from the birthday party. PrisCilla made a hit with the nephew! Before he got her out of the gift bag, he grinned and asked me if this was the mother. I told him no, it was a little sister...it is much smaller than Ctrl Alt Delete! He pulled her out and started studying her to identify the parts I had used. Said he had just the spot to hang her in his office. Bet she gets there tomorrow. Score one for our side!

Now I gotta get another article up for associatedcontent.com. They published my Ten Tips for Arthritic Fingers this week.

PrisCilla

My nephew supplied a dead PC case and parts for Ctrl Alt Delete, so I've whipped up a little sister for CAD to give to nephew for his birthday. Sshhh. Don't tell him, the party is tomorrow.

PrisCilla is 18" tall plus hair. She can hang on the wall or pose on his computer. She could also be rigged to become a marionette.

Okay, so her arms aren't the same length. She's a PC.