New Old Jane...a retrospective of more portraits from the sixties

This thing slows down if you put too many photos on so I had to start a new one.

Wouldn't it be cool if the two women in the portraits from the previous blog saw it and contacted me? I lost touch with them many, many years ago.

Anyway. Here is one of my first husband Doug. He passed away in 1974 at the age of 29.

I am not sure why I made the pair of pants  on a separate sheet and stuck it to the main picture with scotch tape. Damn shame that the tape has deteriorated and messed it up now. Perhaps it was a naughty picture. I must go peek underneath later.

And last but not least my long time friend Ann. We worked together in Ottawa, drank together on the Quebec side, were working on Spark Street when Kennedy was killed, didn't go to Australia together, and we lost touch - all in the early 60's. We  were reunited about 10 years ago.

Isn't she a fresh faced young innocent? : - )

BTW dont let the signature confuse you. Liza...short for Elizabeth.  I experimented with different names and signatures for a long time before I hit on one I liked....the dragonfly icon that I use exclusively now.

You know this is one of my nicer portraits I think. I like the sunny fresh colors. thanks Ann for sharing that with me. I had forgotten all about it.

New Old Jane...a retrospective of portraits

Here are some portraits of school mates and friends done at different stages of my life. This was done sometime after I was eight or ten years of age.  Pardon my foot.

Also pardon my inability to get this page lined up properly. I can't seem to get rid of the gaps without losing the pictures so I give up! 

This next pastel is of long time friend Nancy, done around the same time. It is interesting (to me at least!) to compare how my style changed in the line drawing of her done ten or twelve years later, after my brief stint at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

The next two are of my art school dormitory room mate, Laurie circa 1961-62. The first is a pen and ink line drawing and the second is one of the very rare oil paintings I have ever done.

It was quite torturous for a shy only child to have a room mate.  But she saved the day with her wonderful singing and playing guitar. She even taught me how to play and spawned a life long interest in early folk music.

Laurie drop me a line via this post if you are still in the land of the living.

Here is another friend and dorm resident from those few months in Art School. She went on to marry a musician named Mike from the band called Notes from the Underground. Sandy if you are out there I would love to hear from you as well.

I sure would like to know what happened to my CCAC drawing teacher Ralph Borges. I had and still have great admiration for him.

Ralph if you see this drop me a line as well.

New Old Jane...a retrospective - childhood drawings

As soon as I could hold a pencil my mother sat me down at a little red table in a corner of the living room and gave me a sheet of paper. It kept me out of her hair and made me very happy. I would labor away quietly for hours. Pretty soon I was drawing recognizable horses and cowgirls and all that good stuff. None of those early works were deemed worth saving. 

I guess no one thought that it was unusual for a child of three or four to be using that much detail in their drawings.  But some of my later work from school days was saved.

Since I seem to have entered another hiatus with the dolls I thought I would fill the gap with some stuff that is pretty funny from my early days of acute fashion awareness. 

My source of inspiration was usually the Eaton's or Simpson's catalogues where I was assured of a ready supply of models that didn't move. As anyone who knows me can attest I have gotten over that keen fashion sense now, preferring to slop around in stretch pants and baggy t shirts. I do however watch America's, Canada's. Britain's and Australia's Top Model and Project Runway every chance I get.

The earliest ones I have are from when I was eight years old. The paper is quite fragile now but they have stood up incredibly well considering they spent almost 60 years rolled around a cardboard tube in one attic or another.

You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them. In this one I was ever so careful to be sure that the little red boat on the dress changed shape with the folds in the dress. Yes. I have always been anal. It is genetic.

Dig the matching socks for the broad in orange. And the pageboy hair style.

Remember this hair style? I was anal enough at eight years old to try to paint lace with my bristly little dime store brush! 

From a very young age I was attracted to stilletto heels. I wobbled around on my first pair of  four inch heels at probably 17.

I was still wearing four inchers to work and even shopping afterwards when I was in my fifties. A friend used to call them my CFM pumps. That all changed when I moved to Ecuador. The cobbled streets, muddy paths and potholes were decidedly stilletto unfriendly.  Running shoes took their place.

I have many more of these fashion type drawings and paintings but these are fairly representative. 

Some artist friends and I got together once to look at each other's art work from childhood.  One friend who hated her large flat feet never showed feet in any of her drawings. They were always off the bottom of the page somewhere.  In my own drawings most models had tiny pug noses which reflected my hatred of my own generous shnozz.

Making art represented an escape from a sometimes frightening, lonely and painful childhood into a world of my own creation where I was safe. It still does.

Orville Reilly O'Reilly

A charming gentleman by the name of Orville Reilly O'Reilly recently took up residence at Shady Grove. He is as Irish as Paddy's pig and has a lovely smile, when his teeth are in.  His quick Irish wit and his natty attire have made him a hit with the ladies already. Here we see him lounging in the lobby as he checks out the residents. 

He is wearing his black socks and his favorite brown sandals that don't press on his corns.

Reilly may have been an accountant, an editor or a teacher. He always carries colored pencils in his shirt pocket and corrects typos he sees in the newspaper or books. Here he is looking a bit dishevelled, wearing one of the pairs of glasses I made from Sculpey. 

To create Orville, or O.R. as his friends call him, I designed a new body that looks more like a leotard. It does the job of hiding the rough ends of the arms and legs..which has always bothered me aesthetically..and yet still allows quite a bit of movement.

Mixed bag

I took a breather from doll making to do some related activities. I made these accessories - eye glasses and shoes. These are made from Sculpey, a polymer clay that bakes at low temperatures in an ordinary oven.  At least I can make the soles for the shoes. I may try the tops later on. Here is a tray ready to be baked.  This is a first try so I will let you know how they work out.

When I went out to the studio this morning Tristan, the Emo kid who is Rose's great grand son ( I thought he said  his name wasThurgoode, silly me)  was wearing a pair of red sparkly high tops.  He said a friend gave them to him. Saves me the trouble of trying to make him some but they looked strangely familiar.

Rose ,Tristan and Mojo were going out for a spin.

I did some checking around and found out  that LaTricia, who does some part time work at the home, was shoeless BUT she was wearing a mink stole that looked suspiciously like the one Rose said she pawned for gas money. The plot thickens.

I have started a box that I call "The Parts Department" which contains doll parts that I have for one reason or another not used. They will come in handy at some point I hope.

BTW I heard Rose speaking about a new fellow at the home, a Mr. O'Reilly. Seems like Boomer may have some competition. 

Finding Emo continued

My research told me that I needed to make some really tight black jeans, a tight long sleeved t shirt and a short sleeved t shirt to layer over it, a scarf or tie and some fingerless gloves. Very appropriate for a fingerless doll.

Lucky for me my Muse Lorelei alerted me to Linda McPhee's workshop on Sunday. Linda was making Hallowe'en costumes for kids. She demonstrated how to make some super simple patterns. My whole doll making life was changed. What a breeze to make pants and tops now. 

Not only that but she had a dollmaker on too.  Or more properly a doll decorator. She buys ready made muslin bendable dolls, dresses them in thrift store finds and makes beaded faces. Unfortunately I did not get her name.   

Here is my first pair of black jeans using the McPhee pant pattern that I hastily scribbled down. You can see one leg cut out and one ready to be cut out. 

Nice fit.

I forgot to take a picture of the t shirt but I followed Linda's recommendations on this too and cut with the fold over the shoulder. And that may be where the name comes from. It does look like the letter T!

Here he is in his vest, and tie. I have never tied a tie in my life but remembered an episode of Six Feet Under where Claire was tying a tie for her brother and she said "The rabbit goes around the log and then he goes around again and dives into his rabbit hole." Worked for me...thanks Claire.  Sorry about the picture quality. 

The only name for our friend that has presented itself  so far is Thurgoode but I cant quite get my head around it.  I have renamed him Tristan. That to me sounds like the spanish word for sad, triste. So goodbye Thurgoode. Hello Tristan.  Very odd but he is definitely Rose's great grand son. 

And while rooting through my bits and bobs I found an eensy teensy skull meant to be an earring. I stuck it through his nose as a piercing to match his skull vest. I don't have a picture of it yet.

And just a head's up for Boomer.  There is a gentleman at the Shady Grove who is showing a keen interest in Rose.  He may make an appearance any day now to claim her as his own.  And then again...he may not.

Finding Emo

I looked around the studio and wondered if I should start something new. My better self said. "Don't waste those doll bodies you made when you were trying out the production line approach."  

So, I dragged them out and began to put them together. Lorelei (my Muse) must have been pleased because she rewarded me with this little guy.  He still needs some shoes and a name, but he is well on his way to the look I sought.

Wanna see how we got here? It was a circuitous route with me not even knowing if, after the labor pains, I was going to have a boy or a girl but finally last night he revealed himself to me when I was trying to decide on what hair to give him/her.

After stitching the body together, I painted on the face...my favorite part.

I wanted to try out eye lids this time. I glued some "eyelashes" to them first.

The mood of the character can be changed dramatically with a carefully planned eyelid placement. I won't bore you with it here. This is the final placement I decided on.

 

Next, I looked for hair. I have had this extra-long "fun fur" since 1989 when I was making dolls out of nylon stockings. And you wonder why I need to declutter every once in a while.

But as you can see, I got so caught up in what was emerging as I started making the wig that I ran ahead to the next step ...the eyes...before capturing all the steps digitally. To me, the hair said Emo.

For those of you who don't have teenagers in your life or didn't stay up late last night surfing the net in a quest for all things Emo, allow me to enlighten you. 

From my research I gather that the Emo look has morphed from Punk and Goth.  Emo kid alert ... Don't shoot the messenger here. I am just repeating what I read. Feel free to leave me a comment.

Emo is short for emotional and originated with a type of music. Emo devotees see themselves as tragic and bored. They dress in black, and dye their hair with the deepest black color with patches of blue, green or pink dyed in it. Sometimes they create an ingenious striped piece that looks like a raccoon tail. they dress in layers and wear lots of badges and icons such as skulls, crosses, and hearts. Oh yeah...and both boys and girls use a lot of black eyeliner and black smoky eye shadow. Both sexes sport short fingernails with dark polish.  Piercings and tattoos may be evident. Some revel in writing sad poetry, thinking suicidal thoughts and cutting themselves. That is the downside, but they have a great style that appeals to my shallow nature! 

Oh, stop clucking your tongue!  I bet you dressed like Perry Como, Joan Baez or Bob Dylan, whoever was popular in your day.

Now I was not liking the sharply exaggerated features that I had originally designed for a witch.  Yeah, I know I should never try to decide what they are going to be...they are in charge... scary. 

So, I poked and prodded the nose and chin and arrived at this look. Trust me it is the same doll.  I also added a long bang over the eye. Then a little patch of bright purple to make it really Emo.

Check out the next post for further details on clothing.