Craft: Paper Dolls

What is your craft? 
The craft I chose to do is paper dolls. 


Why did you choose it?
I chose to use paper dolls as my craft because it was something I even use to play with when I was younger and I still know older ladies that have them from when they were little.


What is its history?
The craft of paper dolls have been around as long as there has been paper. Faces, or other objects, were applied to the paper and they were used during religious rituals and ceremonies in the Asian cultures. The Japanese used paper for origami, artful paper folding, and dating back to 800 AD they folded paper figurines in the shape of Kimonos. Balinese people made paper and leather into puppets since before the Christian Era. Other cultures around the world have had paper formations or paper art, including in Poland. There they were called Wy'cinanki. These early types of paper figures differ from typical paper dolls today, as no clothes were made to be used with the dolls.
In France, the first paper dolls were created during the mid-18th century. They were intended to entertain adults and spread out through high society.

What kind of people do it?
Paper dolls have spread out through the world so everyone has had a paper dolls or played with one when they were younger. Mainly little girls.


What is the culture?
They are multicultural.

Sharing My Imagination

1st Drawing Project

Our first drawing project had to do with what we think being a citizen or part of the USA meant in some way. My concept was about people who have everything an want more but still are never happy. They go and spend every cent they have and don't care about it. Other people work so many jobs and then they have very little to show for it but they are still happy with what they have.

Project Creation

Our groups in drawing had to create our own invention that made marks in an interesting manner. In our group, our invention was to place a large sheet, a blank one, up on a flat area making sure it was standing up. As it was perched up and flat enough that anything that hit against it, it would roll off and leave a mark. Our objects that we made and used to make marks were Nerf balls covered in paint that we tossed at the sheet different ways to make sure they left imprints. The other object we used was markers with little pillars on them to look like birdies so they flew further. The markers didn't make such a mark so we, in the end, ended up just marking on the sheet with the markers.

There are a lot of artists that have used the same kind of technique we did in our project. It was kind of difficult to find just one.

Squirrels, Trees, Rebels OH MY!

To start out, we had to compare our photos for this blog with the artists William Kentridge’s or Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ drawings and mainly through all the pictures, they only seem to have a relationship with Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres'.

"Zombie House Maid"

I chose this picture for my blog because the background and the figure both fit well for everything. The figure is, me, the zombie maid. The ground is everything well settled in the background that is faded in the back. You know this because the figure is closer to the viewer and the background is harder to make out what it really is in the back. It has a good relation to the artist William Kentridge’s artwork because his artwork mainly has all the portraits with the figure being the main object facing you. The background doesn't really relate to the figure.

"Rebel Girls"

In this photo, the figure, or figures I should say, are Sarah and myself. We really had a lot of fun finding different figures and backgrounds to put together. We didn't put the usual things you would expect for a figure and ground picture like an object with a weird background. The background we had many actually. It's a wide spread of the buildings, Rarick you can see in the far back, the building the men work on each day, and even the trees far back too. I tried to figure out how this picture would relate to the artists and after a bit of searching I finally noticed that the background can relate to the figure and be relating to both artists work, and then again, it doesn't. The way it doesn't is that Sarah and I, we don't live on the campus. The way it does relate is that there is 1 point perspective with the background and the figures.

"Chicken Man"

In this picture, there was a man dressed in a chicken suit over outside Al's Chickenette as

we

drove around town. He was waving at cars to

get them to stop. As we looked for the figure of this, we actually had two. There was the chicken man and cars that came closer to the camera. The background would be the signs and also the cars in the back.

On my pictures I see them all relating only to Richard Serra's artwork. His artwork is out of 

scale and shows 1 point perspective as well. In his sculptures, you can stand at any angle and see different vanishing points but there is always to be perspective in them. All three of my pictures have a vanishing point that makes you feel as if it could keep going on, and on.

The WOW Project

The WOW Project dealt with how all the garbage we throw around on the ground gets into the gutters and the sewers. Like oil, dirty diapers, dog poop, and any other things that are harmful to our water and atmosphere. Our job was to paint and outline the big portraits that showed what happened in a diagram that would be going in the van for everyone to see and understand what needed to change. It was an amazing experiance and I had a lot of fun doing it. I got to learn so much about what kind of things go put through our water and air just from sitting on the ground when someone was too lazy to through it away.

Out of my three pictures that I have chosen for this blog, my first is of this little chipmunk container. The emotion I get from it is a slight calm, yet worried and secretive feeling from just the look upon the little critter's face. The comparison between this piece and Albrecht Durer is a lot of his work has mainly animals in it. I couldn't really find an animal around and not wanting to get a dog, which everyone probably would, or a bird that would be really hard to get, I simply used a little jewlery box of a chipmunk and with the amazing wonders of the computer, you can't really tell.

I love how this one came out and how it lo

oks like someone sketched the piece out. It almost seems as if it was meant to looks this way. The emotion I wanted someone to feel was love, romance, peace, anything in those categories. These birds could be reflecting dance as well because of the way they are positioned, since they are holding onto one another, they could be connecting to one of Edgar Degas' pieces. Along with them being birds, animals, it could be Albrecht Durer's as well. 

I wanted a picture to connect to Edgar Degas and so I remembered not far back I took a picture of my friends and I each dancing around the flag pole. Most of Edgar Degas' work is of the girls in the dance studio and that's how mine reflects with his. The emotion I receive from this piece is outgoing, anything that's really out there and also free spirited. I really enjoyed posing for this picture because I just kept spinning around the pole and had a blast that day as well.

Finally, the wrap this blog up, to answer the Salina Trip question. I really enjoyed my visit to the Art Center. It was an experiance I'll never forget and will always treasure. I loved seeing all the new ways to express my mind through art. My favorite artist was Amy with the burned books under the brain in the cage. That had to be my favorite part of the lecture. The movie and the food was awesome as well.