Black-Eyed Suzie Art Dolls and Oddities

An Etsy Handmade Portait Video

I had the very good fortune to be featured in this month's Etsy 'Handmade Portrait' video by the lovely and talented Ms. Tara Young, aka. weirdwolf .  In the video, you can learn a bit about how the dolls are made, as well as see some beautiful  exterior shots of Montreal.  You can see the video in its original context here, or watch it below.

Tara also wrote a short article, and  TeenAngster curated an art doll treasury to accompany the video, so I'm including these as well. Thanks, guys!  Thanks also to Espers for the beautiful music.

Canadian artist and writer Sarah Faber aka Blackeyedsuzie started making art dolls while she was living in the woods of Maine, unable to legally work in the States. Sarah tired of constantly being in her own head as she worked endlessly on her first novel, so she decided she needed to do something with her hands. She chose doll-making because she could build on her experiences as a young girl, helping her crafty mother make beautiful dolls. After buying some books Sarah started experimenting with polymer clay, and eventually paper clay.

Blackeyedsuzie's style was influenced by her love for Gothic novels, Victorian and Elizabethan costumes and Dame Darcy's comic Meat Cake. Her dolls are infused with the same elongated, wide-eyed traits as the characters of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton. However, Sarah's dolls have their own style: Victorian beauties with a dark side — card sharks, bourbon drinkers, albinos and vampires...

Sarah doesn't necessarily consider her dolls to be Gothic, although some are dark and contain elements of the supernatural or uncanny. She considers them to be "Victorian, with a certain edge." The dolls' descriptions tell tales of dire lives of Victorian England, but not without a certain playful wink.

 

A Newsletter and a Little Piece of my Heart

I've been toying with the idea of publishing a monthly newsletter for some time now, but I didn't want to send a boring one filled with nothing but text, yet I know virtually nothing about HTML and know myself well enough to know I'm not going to learn anytime soon. After considerable web-combing, I finally found a place that offers templates that don't make me gag, so I've been playing around and have come up with something I'm quite happy with so far:

It's not quite ready to go, but should be by the end of this week.  I realize reading both someone's blog and their newsletter might seem a little redundant, but I'm offering for some people who might not have time to keep up with a blog, or who just prefer the immediacy and efficiency of a newsletter.  There's a little buttony signy-uppy thingy in the right-hand column.  And, of course, I promise never to spam or share your email address...I am a hater of spam!

So, do I have any news worth a whole letter?  I do!  I can't go into details just yet, but it involves plenty of dolls, and here is a little preview of some things I've been working on:
I used those soft focus, fuzzy edges to mask what is in fact a very messy studio.  And here is little Simon, who get his own picture because he just looked so sad, I had to try to cheer him up...

In my last post I added some photographs of my grandmother and her mother in Brazil, where she and my mother were born.  Those photos are so dear to me, because they are a record of my family but also because they are so beautiful in and of themselves, and  - as  someone who tends to romanticize the past - they evoke a time and feeling that I can never really know.  Looking at them again made me think of a  movie I love, Black Orpehus.  It was made in Rio in 1959, is set during Carnaval, and is based on the myth of Orpheus.  It is funny and beautiful and dark in places - basically my three criteria for good art.  The very last scene is so sweet and charming, and I yet I always cry when I watch it...isn't it strange how you can be nostalgic for a place you've never been, for a time in which you've never lived?

And if that doesn't make you want see it, here is the trailer...love, beauty, magic, music, evil (but vanquished!)....sigh.

Oh Rio, Rio

For Christmas, I gave my husband a book of beautiful retellings of Greek myths called The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony.  I then promptly stole it.  Well, I prefer to think of it as borrowing, and for a good cause.  I've been researching the Persephone for my own flailing little book, as I'm so in love with the imagery of that tale.  Ya got flowers, ya got Hell, ya got pomegranates and snatched maidens and a bad-ass mother prepared to go up against the lord of the underworld to get her daughter back...good stuff.  So here is my figurative take on the story, entitled Persephone Ascending:

While gathering flowers in the vale of Enna, Persephone was seized by Hades and hauled off to the underworld. She just couldn't resist that pomegranate seed! And now her mother Demeter grieves for her, chokes the harvest and cloaks the world in winter for half the year. Come back to us, sweet maiden!

And with my new love (er, I mean camera) I finally got some decent pictures of Willow, who was rather underserved, I think, by those dreary shots in my last post.

Willow wanders hither and thither, through wide meadows and verdant valleys, over babbling brooks and sibilant streams. So slim, she bends with the breeze, whispers with the wind's song, wonders where her love has gone...

Finally, for reasons that cannot yet be revealed, I scanned some beloved old family photos this weekend.  My mother and grandmother were born in Brazil (though of American, British and French heritage). And so I have many wonderful photos of my Vóvó (Portuguese for grandmother) and her parents dressed in the most beautiful Edwardian and Victorian clothes against lush, tropical backgrounds.  Here she is with her mother:

And here is the beautiful statue of Christ that overlooks the harbour in Rio de Janiero. Any children of the 80's out there?  Any closeted Duran Duran fans?  Well, me too.  But in this case, I meant the city!

Fancy Schmancy

Last weekend I bought a new camera and it is just awesome.  (thank you, Christine!)  I generally try not to fetishize technology, but it is not unreasonable to say that  this camera has actually improved my quality of life.  Before this, I had a ten-year-old camera that my father very kindly bought for me on a business trip to Japan because they still cost a small fortune back then.  When I told my friend this, she asked "did they even have digital cameras ten years ago?"  Well, just barely.   And considering it is so old, it has served me quite well, but the new one is a revelation. Taking pictures is now a delightful activity instead of a tedious chore.  Observe:

This is Mme. Frontenac (available in my shop)  and a little story that, I confess, is a mishmash of fact and fiction...

According to legend, the Governor General of New France, Louis de Buade de Frontenac, was heartbroken when he discovered his wife was having an affair with the Sun King. He eventually forgave her, but left explicit instructions about the treatment of his body upon his death. After he died, Madame de Frontenac received a special delivery: her husband's heart in a lead box. So, be true to the one you love and Happy Valentine's Day!

I also had the good fortune to be featured in the Spring issue of Art Doll Quarterly, which came out this week.  The dolls in the magazine are three that I made last summer.  First there is Ivy...

...and Peggine with the Huntsman's Daughter:

 There is also a brief article (written by moi), a portion of which I'll be posting on my 'about me' page.

Tata for now! I'm off to tidy my studio, which is a true horror...