As you may have already guessed, these are not my dolls or my photos. I gathered them by searching Flikr - some of them are tiny (sorry) but worth sharing.
Blythe dolls were originally released in 1972 and was only sold for one year in the United States. I guess they were ahead of the times because decades later, they are the hottest trend in art doll collecting/making.
The dolls have a string that changes their eye color when pulled. In 2001 the dolls were re-released and sold out the same day. Thanks to awesome japanese fan girls they have recently become popular again. The originals will set you back up to $2,500- As much as I love vintage toys and nostalgic items, I have to say wholeheartedly that the newer ones are way cooler. Artists have started to use existing doll parts, epoxy, paint and more to customize the dolls for private collectors. Below are just a few examples of amazing altered Blythe dolls: Anastasia & Alexei are 22cm tall porcelain dolls portraying an opulent nautical scene. This reminds me of Marie Antoinette. The never-ending doors look like versaille and they seem to come complete with their own little worlds.
My favorite part of all of this are the metal, gold encrusted Lobster and all of the intricate lace detail. These ball-joint dolls are absolutely gorgeous and elegant. They will be displayed at Scope New York 2014 art fair via Copro Gallery (http://copronason.com/). Details and more photos are on the artist's bloghttp://pickled.free.fr/index_en.html (also look carefully at the ship tattoos on Alexei's legs!) I'm honestly not sure what is going on with this particular art doll, but I absolutely love it. Is this a sleepy bedtime story? Or has the book died- note the pose and the flowers clutched in his hand.
As always, the personality and back story of this doll is up for interpretation, so let's just look at what's going on visually for now. I really like how the colors, face and ethereal background create a serene and surreal composition. I also for some reason really like this worn down little character and feel like he could use a hug. In 2013, this beautiful doll (Titled: Each Bird Needs Freedom) was released. For more, check out her personal website at http://dorotesdolls.com/the-author/ As you may have noticed, I tend to gravitate towards Marie Antoinette style costumes for dolls. I love the delicate mask, but only when she's holding it away from her beautiful face, of course. My only problem with this doll is that I can't imagine where it would possible be- I can see it in a museum or a fine art gallery- but in a house? it seems a bit much...
These dolls literally took my breath away when I first saw them. Take a look at this first one up close. She is both visually and conceptually striking. The "extra" legs are actually coming from a stool that she poses with or sits on. Fittingly, the sisters take a lot of mirror-image pictures. It makes for a haunting and disorienting photo.
According to the bio on their webpage: "We are twin sisters Ekaterina and Elena Popovy, professional artists and fashion designers. We were born and grew up in Perm, Russia. We graduated Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts in Yekaterinburg. We started making dolls in 2004. At the beginning we were interested in realistic human gesture. The magic of certain personalities inspired us to create their images. We tried not only to make portrait dolls but also to convey the nature of the characters through the gesture and costumes. Before making a portrait doll of the personality we were interested in we made a thorough research of the biography, read interviews, gathered photos and videos. Thanks to this interest we deepened our knowledge of human anatomy and facial gesture. We also learned to work with various artistic materials: china, self fusing plastics (paperclay, efa plast, la doll), fumo, baked plastics." http://dorotesdolls.com/
According to her website: "Dorote Zaukaite has studied in Kaunas collegium Art faculty. After 7+ years of working as a graphic and interior designer, since 2009 she has become a full time independant artist mainly specializing in art dolls. Dorote’s art pieces are collected all over the world. They have reached collectors in USA, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Australia and other countries." Of her work, Dorote simply says: Art is not my hobby, and it is not my job – it is much much more than that. You can’t be an artist just on weekends or to be an artist just 8 hours a day and stop being an artist when you go for vacations. Being an artist – is being born with this strange state of mind and living with this never ending need to create for each second of your life. |