Sunday, March 11, 2012

Raggedy Barbie

Yesterday, inspired by a call for submissions for an Altered Barbie art show at happy delusions, I spent a rainy Seattle afternoon holed up in my studio making this:


I call it Raggedy Barbie.

I printed the face onto photo transfer paper, ironed it onto canvas material and using McKenna's Raggedy Ann doll as a reference, cut out all the body parts like this:


 Then stuffed it, sewed on yarn hair, and made a patchwork print dress and ribbon belt.


Here's a close-up. 

I probably spent over 6 hours making it. Minus the Barbie face, it looks a lot like a rag doll I had when I was little - her name was Minneapolis and she had yellow yarn hair and a patchwork dress. In college, I made several rag doll-related works of art including a 3-dimensional fabric collage atop an antique quilt titled Annabelle Lives in A Patchwork World. It was a girl (composed of my clothes) with yellow yarn hair leaning against a fabric tree. I also made a painting of Raggedy Anne all grown up and stuck in a toy box.


 It hangs in McKenna's room now. I suppose rag dolls are a theme for me, which is why when I thought about how to alter Barbie I instantly thought of making a her into a traditional rag doll. Barbies are usually sexy and stylish. Rag dolls? Not so much. The juxtaposition of the two is a wee bit off-putting. When I was nearly finished making it McKenna walked in, looked at it, screamed! and said, "That's a creepy doll mom!"


 Ha! She warmed up to her though.


And now they're friends.

4 comments:

peggy aplSEEDS said...

oh how cute!

Anonymous said...

Wе аre a gаggle of ѵоlunteеrѕ
and opening a brand new scheme in our сommunity.
Үour wеbѕite proνidеd us with useful іnfo to woгk on.
You've done a formidable task and our whole neighborhood will be thankful to you.

Here is my page - Same Day Payday Loans

Anonymous said...

I'd like to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this website. I really hope to check out the same high-grade content from you in the future as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my very own website now ;)

My web-site: Instant Payday Loans

Anonymous said...

I'd like to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this website. I really hope to check out the same high-grade content from you in the future as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my very own website now ;)

Also visit my page: Instant Payday Loans

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...