Artist Bio

As I sit here organizing my thoughts and feelings about being a doll artist, I wonder if there is some deep intellectual and spiritual reason for making dolls. The simple truth, however, is that I cannot imagine doing anything else. It has become my life’s focus. I have found joy, passion and a never-ending challenge in this art form. I am continually amazed at how consuming this passion is. Even during mundane activities, I am experimenting in my head with thoughts such as, “What if I try this?”

When I look back, my whole life has been preparing me for this profession. I have always known I wanted to be an artist. As a child, I spent hours in my father’s workshop doing things with his tools that would have made him cringe, carved hands and feet out of soap my mother made, and filled sketch pads with faces. Over the years, a series of artistic challenges left me with the feeling, “That was fun. What next?” Then I started sculpting. This artistic expression is the first thing I have done in my life I can truly say I am proud of. When I look at a completed piece, I am amazed it came from me.

Sculpting dolls is a constant affirmation and consolidation of my talents and skills. Having been born with a natural curiosity and a strong imagination, I have always needed to understand how things work. Doll-making, being such a multifaceted art form, provides opportunities to solve problems, improve quality and techniques and develop new approaches. I seek educational opportunities wherever they present themselves, including anatomy books, photographs, and people watching.

In 1998 I began teaching my sculpting and wig techniques, this has opened a whole new aspect to my doll making career. I see my work through my students and learn as much from them as I hope they learn from me. How they interpret my techniques to there own style of sculpting.

In retrospect, I may have come full circle. Very possibly, the reason I cannot imagine doing anything else is because it is deeply satisfying, both intellectually and spiritually.

Finally, my aspirations are to keep growing as an artist, to keep searching and learning, and to help promote the doll as a respectable art form by doing the best work I can.