I am catching up and making up for missing a posting yesterday. It was my B-day and I am happy to report that I survived all of it. This is usually a day I dread and I was correct about it again this year, but all has been forgiven and I am still breathing.
Not wanting the assembly of dolls to get mixed or mired in that B-D mess I forced myself to find other work. I had planned to do my Etsy page but when I could not find it on three different computers I decided the Universe wanted me to chill out instead.
So I worked on my entry into the Surrealism exhibit at Gualala in Febuary. I had sworn off preparing anything for exhibits after all the work I did for the Art in the Redwoods show,(for so little satisfaction) but one day a couple of months ago I found myself, in a moment of confusion, making this piece.

I had ordered a set of arms for some doll whose arms I did not like (I hate those two-fisted babies). But when they came I found this elegant set of adult hands instead of small fat baby hands. Whoa. What to do with those? Without knowing where I was headed, I began to fall into my oldest pattern of making really weird babies by reversing the arms and legs. Adding to the weirdness is the fact the legs look really heavy and large and the new legs are way too delicate. Yet they do give a flipper feel to the 'feet.' You can see it was afternoon (and gray and cloudy) through the window when I got the piece this far. Then I began to try to get a better photo.

Here you can see this is one of those really cheap dolls from China with a full body. It feels so hard and is not cuddly in the least and the way the neck is attached it does lend itself to replacing the body with fabric. Later I got the idea of putting the doll on a revolving display stand and spent another hour trying to get one of those to work properly. The mirror on it was so scratched I tried covering it with aluminum foil but it was too small. In the stack of wrapping paper I found a roll of unused potato chip bag foil and was able to get that to cover.  It seems to reflect fairly good. It is not a mirror but the squishy colors are only adding to the surreal image - I imagine.

Today I am happier with the photos than I was yesterday, which tells a lot about the day and how I went through it. I finally decided to take the whole set up out to the photo table. I was pleasantly surprised how not-cold the room was but dismayed to find out how damp it was under the fur. At least it is airing again.

Catching the view of the piece I wanted while it revolved (today I realize I should have just turned the thing off and set the views I wanted) in low light conditions gave me a lot of fuzz. At least I know today how to do it better. And I need to shoot from higher up to hide the edge of folded under foil.  If I can get out in the studio between rainstorms and have the garage door open, perhaps I will have a better photo made with the Sony to show you later.