This blog was originally created with a great sense of respect and and infinite appreciation for some of the worlds most beautiful Artist Dolls. Some which were part of my life for a period of time. A select few remain so.
My earliest recollections of dolls was of course as a child when I spotted a most wonderful doll while I was on an outing with my father. I guess I was always a creative child and my mother always encouraged us to explore that creativity in any way we wanted so as I grew so did my interest and appreciation in many things. More recently while living overseas I chose to follow one of my interests by commencing a degree in Interior Design. This opened up even more interesting avenues of discovery. While having the privilege of visiting the Louvre and several other amazing places from Denmark to Denhaag discovering little arty nooks, I spotted some of the most mesmerizingly beautiful creations by Artists that not many people had even heard of. I wondered why so little could be known about such beautiful objects then I realised thats right I live down under where we are sometimes rather culturally challenged because we are such a young country with not a lot of exquisite history. It was then that I also realised that not everybody saw the world as I did and some people even saw art as a superficial and somewhat meaningless entity.
I have discovered that those of us who have a deep appreciation for art and its many forms are a rather unique breed. We demand perfection and often suffer what I call perfection paralysis. Good enough is not good enough, it must meet perfection in our eyes otherwise its never complete. We detest superficiality and detect it in others easily and are often seen as critical because of this. We seek honesty and integrity in every aspect of life but our fragile spirits are often disappointed when we and others don't quite live up to our own expectations. We are our own worst critics, punishing ourselves to the point of obnoxiousness sometimes. We are often misunderstood and misplaced because we don't fit the norm yet everybody without exception appreciates what we produce. Its often not easy to get others to understand just how much we appreciate the simplicity of life because the things we love and the things we create are often complex in structure and design. We have an eye for detail and desire the exquisite things in life not for what they stand for but for what they are, objets d'art. Its not the brand or label that we want, its the material and the creative process that we admire and we are rather perplexed by other people who we see as just have to have brand names and certain labels. Unfortunately along the way the bottom line has become more of a focus than the end product and we are losing many great designers because they simply cannot compete with mass production and the designer copy business.
I have discovered that those of us who have a deep appreciation for art and its many forms are a rather unique breed. We demand perfection and often suffer what I call perfection paralysis. Good enough is not good enough, it must meet perfection in our eyes otherwise its never complete. We detest superficiality and detect it in others easily and are often seen as critical because of this. We seek honesty and integrity in every aspect of life but our fragile spirits are often disappointed when we and others don't quite live up to our own expectations. We are our own worst critics, punishing ourselves to the point of obnoxiousness sometimes. We are often misunderstood and misplaced because we don't fit the norm yet everybody without exception appreciates what we produce. Its often not easy to get others to understand just how much we appreciate the simplicity of life because the things we love and the things we create are often complex in structure and design. We have an eye for detail and desire the exquisite things in life not for what they stand for but for what they are, objets d'art. Its not the brand or label that we want, its the material and the creative process that we admire and we are rather perplexed by other people who we see as just have to have brand names and certain labels. Unfortunately along the way the bottom line has become more of a focus than the end product and we are losing many great designers because they simply cannot compete with mass production and the designer copy business.
It was only after our family moved to South Korea temporarily in 1998 that I had a real excuse to discover much of what the world offered in terms of creativity. I began looking for a very special doll for a little girl who was soon to adopted into our home from South Korea. It had to be the right doll and it had to be Asian because why would an Asian child want a Caucasian doll right? Wrong, have you noticed that the Japanese adds feature western women and the western ads feature Asian women. It was me who had fallen in love with Asia and more importantly the babies in the orphanages in South Korea. This was all a perfect excuse which married well with my husband's interest in photography. So I got to discover these amazing creations and he got to hone his skills photographing them.
As a result of the addition of a daughter to our family and in my determination to find what I considered the most pleasing Asian doll I could, I discovered a special little doll called Nancy by British Artist, Philip Heath. Nancy was perfect along with her sisters Precious, Seraphina, Josephine and a several others from that group and of course brother Will. Philip has sadly since passed away but to any avid artist doll collector there is very good reason to secure his creations whenever you find them. Philip Heath took his collectors on a journey with incredible passion and great fortitude. His dolls have some of the most intense realistic expressions ever seen. He is reputed to have been the master at capturing a child's heart and soul in his creations and as soon as they were produced they were sold. After discovering his dolls it was a natural progression to search out other European Artists and so it went .... from Heath to Heloise to Himstedt to Buchwalder-Bill, etc. This was a journey uncovering some amazing creativity and passion by artists who most people I'm sure don't really even know exist.
Since those days my circumstances have changed somewhat and I have parted with most of my exquisite collection sadly but life changes and we change with it. I was thrilled to get to know the lovely people who treasured the dolls as I did and now I know they live in Russia, Ukraine, France, UK and America and a few in Australia too. I am forever grateful for what I discovered and had the privilege of experiencing. I now fully understand why people have an honest appreciation for other peoples creativity and are willing to acquire it and make it part of their own lives. I feel sad for people who have not yet found that interest and I do hope that someday they will so they too can have such a satisfying and rewarding journey as long or as short as it may be.
Since those days my circumstances have changed somewhat and I have parted with most of my exquisite collection sadly but life changes and we change with it. I was thrilled to get to know the lovely people who treasured the dolls as I did and now I know they live in Russia, Ukraine, France, UK and America and a few in Australia too. I am forever grateful for what I discovered and had the privilege of experiencing. I now fully understand why people have an honest appreciation for other peoples creativity and are willing to acquire it and make it part of their own lives. I feel sad for people who have not yet found that interest and I do hope that someday they will so they too can have such a satisfying and rewarding journey as long or as short as it may be.
Danielle
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