DOLL – ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
The archetype I chose for my doll was an actress. I found that this archetype encapsulated not only myself, but also people I look up to such as my parents.
The emotional analogues of an actress that I used in my doll are passion, emotion as well as fear. It is described as, “Soul gives sensation to spirit… allows us to get involved in life, giving us passion and drive to express who we are.”
In my doll I decided to make the heart the centre of attention, which I made out of fleshy coloured buttons. Everything then flows from the heart as I felt that it showed that in this archetype everything comes from the heart, portraying emotion and passion which is so very important in the archetype of an actress. The doll has a large skirt which shows the different emotions that drives a person forward or backward. I used the colours, blue and yellow as well as the colour red that flows throughout the doll, showing linkage to the heart. Blue I thought resembled fear which is a shadow of an actress, yellow on the other hand portrays a very positive emotion. The red ribbon, as well as the lace on the skirt continues the pattern of everything coming from the heart, affecting how you do things.
One of the most important aspects of the doll would have to be the buttons which you can see sewed on to the right arm and on the back. They are all joined by the thick red string that joins them to the heart. On the arm, I have used more neutral coloured buttons which match the buttons of the heart. I wanted to put forward the message that what this actress feels is put into action. On the back however, I have used blue and red buttons, trying to show that the archetype’s emotions are very much a part of the doll, even if some of the feelings they have they may try to hide, which is exemplified by the blue buttons which often resemble a negative or shadow.
The coloured wire on the left arm and coming from the heart not only show emotion, but strength. An actress holds a lot of inner as well as outer strength; hence, I thought it appropriate to add this very symbolic material.
The head piece’s meaning is not so obvious, however probably holds one of the more important emotional analogues. In the archetype of an actress, it is described as holding fear. Although we all like to think that we don’t have much fear, it is ultimately unavoidable. The head piece is tangled showing the range of emotion and worry that often goes into ideas such as fear of falling from whatever it may be. This is shown by the tall piece of wire that suddenly falls after a lot of worry and confusion which is resembled by the tangled wire. The green thread which runs through it, as everything else goes through the heart and amidst the head piece, symbolising fear, which I think green encapsulates. Additionally, it is no surprise that I used a heart as my background and red fabric as I have based everything on the heart.
Inspiration has been drawn from Wendy Stavrianos’s work. She is very definite in the symbolic meaning in her work and uses a lot of colour to put across emotion. These techniques have helped me create my doll’s archetype as I was able to find ways to put my message across.
SELF EVALUATION:
I am really happy with the finished product. I feel that I have been able to understand the archetype of an actress and put its meaning into my doll.
I have had to think a lot about symbolism and colours as well as how to put forward this archetype as a whole in the doll. I have also worked efficiently to not only get the doll done, but to draw inspiration from other artist’s such as Wendy Stavrianos. Hence, I think I have utilized the time given at school well as well as working hard outside of school to make my piece something of a high level. Next time I think I might have taken longer in the brainstorming stage, purely so that I could think of more ideas to better put across the archetype, however I am very happy with not only my finished product, but my whole unit of work.
