When I was in Mt Isa a few weeks ago for a school function, I popped in for my yearly "catch up" with my good friend Marjorie. She's been a great inspiration and encouraged me in regards to getting back into and continuing with art.
Marjorie has a huge talent in many areas of art and lately has been making "Blah Blah" Dolls ...
Curious ? ... I was ... so I sent her some questions to shed light on her fantastically creative life and most recent projects ... enjoy ...
When did you know you were an artist
?
I grew up in the
remote North West
Queensland town called Julia Creek, where by chance Deborah Keats now lives
close to.
I grew up in the days of no TV, so you had to make your own fun and be creative. My earliest memories of being
creative are before I went to school. From early childhood I have always been
making, crafting, drawing, crocheting, knitting,
whatever I could find I
would do.
Unfortunately LIFE gets in the way of ART,
so for most of my adult life I have been a frustrated artist ...
but now with 4 happy, sound, grown children , it’s my time to follow my
passions.
What is your favourite medium to
work with ?
Hmmm I haven’t really found a favourite medium as I love doing everything. I
use acrylics for painting as I have no patience for oils. I love pastel work,
but Charcoal and ink even more. I like to getting really dirty so I often paint
and draw with unconventional objects, my hands etc. I also like using unconventional
materials like white spirits, acrylic paint, bitumen tar with acrylic paints
to give you an idea. I am not a realism artist, I like to experiment and my art
is more about trying to express and idea story or feeling on a subject.
I have always been computer orientated as well. I use photoshop all the time
as my main software but also use many others that do different jobs.
Photography has always been with me
throughout the years but more as a point and shoot person and using photography
for referencing ideas. However this has changed and over the last few years I
have become more educated in the use of manual camera settings and very much
use the camera as an art form.
I forgot to mention I do photo restorations as well – Love doing old photo
work.
Who or what inspires you ?
My slogan is “ Creatively Amazed Everyday”
so everyone inspires me. I am always astounded by the talent of
everyone.
I am not inspired by anybody – but I am
inspired by everyone.
How do you fit art into your
lifestyle? {eg married with kids etc}
Not very well over the past years rearing children. Pretty much I didn’t do
any art {seriously} for a long time while I had four children and a very busy
business. It would all go in the
‘TOO
HARD BASKET!!’ But now that I have reared my children, I am being quite selfish
about my life and time. It’s my time follow my artistic passions before I leave
this wonderful life on earth which I have miraculously been given the chance of
experiencing.
My mother was offered thalidomide for her
morning sickness so I am forever grateful she made the choice not to take drugs
with her pregnancy. It would have been a different life journey for me if she had!
How did the Blah Blah dolls come to you
as an idea and can you describe them ?
Firstly I should say that usually ALL my art is story based. I nearly
always create work in which I am trying to tell a story of some sort.
The Blah Blah Art Externalising dolls have developed out of the little girl
who loved dolls. She has never grown up.
But I was reading a psychology book and talking to my friend ‘Google’
and one of the topics that was of interest to me was the use of
‘Externalisation’ I was also wanting to at the same time make a unique art
doll. Not just any doll, one that had a purpose and meaning to the viewer.
It was also of interest to me to use only
recycled materials or post-consumer materials. The Blah Blah’s are about NEW
LIFE and NEW MEANING. So I eventually combined all three ideas to come up with
the idea of a very unique tribal fantasy doll to whom its owners could speak to
and externalise, problems, ideas, thoughts, worries, and so forth with.
I can’t sew for the life of me, so I had to come up with a way to make a doll
that did not involve sewing. I don’t go in with any preconceived ideas of how
the dolls will look, I know it will sound silly but after initial binding the
dolls themselves start to dictate how they look and that direction I don’t
consciously have control over. Each doll has a unique name and meaning to them.
Personally for me the dolls are very much an ART FORM ,a piece of ARTWORK.
Their creation comes from an unconscious knowing.
I make the dolls so they are unique and grow
from their own little binding seed. For me the real birth of the Blah Blah doll
is when they find their lifetime owners. I would love to think they were a
heirloom to be handed down through generations –
how incredibly cool would that be !
I am finding adult women buy them for themselves, and mothers buy
them for their teenage daughters.
Which
is really exciting for me to know how loved the dolls are in these peoples'
hearts and from what some of the mothers have expressed to me are making a
difference. Some comments back from mothers have been simply, ‘ my daughter
loves her doll’, “ Blah Blah makes her smile every day”, “ When she gets lonely
at boarding school she her doll
a good
ear chewing” etc.
Other adult ladies just
tell me they love theirs and talk every day to it.
That is incredibly inspiring to me.
Where do you see your art going in
the next few years - more dolls? photography?
I don’t really know. I love making the dolls - it's very tactile , but they do
take forever!! I love doing digital art and photography so there will be more
of that as well.
I would like to do a Blah Blah doll exhibition in the very near future with
life size dolls, which I have started making. I aim to make the exhibition
audible with sounds of people talking their concerns or thoughts along with a
multitude of other ideas I have. I want the exhibition to be an experience not
just a viewing.
So if anyone out there
would like to send me their written thoughts or concerns or even an audio file
with your own voice recording. I would aim to include it in my exhibition.
Please contact Marjorie here for any queries on her work
Marjorie's website and online store
... the perfect way to spend Sunday ... thanks Marjorie. ♥
