Using Art Paper Dolls in Art Journals I am an artist and ARTbundance Creativity Coach who makes one of a kind art, feeling and healing dolls. My journey into dollmaking began with the design and manufacture of a set of feeling dolls called Numbfull and The Fulls. In the making of these characters and the sharing of them with children and adults I learned that a doll or puppet was a useful, nonthreatening tool that can be used to teach about feelings and emotional communication; in transforming beliefs; and in affirming healthy and helpful feeling expression. I also learned that by creating an image of an internal experience, like a feeling, I could have a dialog with it and create shifts in my awareness. Each set of The Fulls came with a set of paper dolls and instructions how to create them and play with them. This concept of taking an internal experience or energy out of me and making a tangible, three dimensional image fascinated. I began to educate myself on the subject of art, healing and transformation which included exploring the fields of art therapy, transpersonal and depth psychology and alternative, creative, art filled ways of communicating with creative energies. I came to believe that using art could be used as an instrument for learning, transformation, change and growth. I believe that The Fulls were my first healing dolls. Playing with making dolls makes me happy and is my way of expressing myself and my feelings and exploring the inner dimension of my mind, body and spirit. Creating dolls allows me to play with possibilities and with a variety of materials. Dollmaking helps me to connect, and be in relationship with myself.and lately the process is assisting me in exploring embodiment. I believe that the act of making a doll can take you through a process of imagination, healing and growth. I love the three dimensional aspect of dollmaking, however making these kinds of dolls takes time, sometimes weeks and months. Art Paper Dolls are a quicker way to make dolls. Playing with paper, paint, clay, pens, and fabric delights the graphic designer in me. I can create body parts and add them to each other using brads and then animate the doll depending on my mood, thought or wish. I like incorporating them in my Visual Journals and can reach the same transpersonal goals in less time.
I began making Art Paper Dolls as an experiment. My first Art Paper Doll was made from a pattern I found in Doll Life Magazine. I made her out of watercolor paper covered with old wallpaper. Her dress is made of fabric; face made from air dry clay and she has yarn hair. She is expressing an emotion through her facial expression and body language. It did not take me long to start making Art Paper Dolls that I interact with and could put words them. Prayer Pocket is an art paper doll, a visual prayer, made from thick watercolor paper. She has a pocket to hold little prayer paper dolls. Each of the small dolls has a prayer written on the back. Elinor Peace Bailey, author of Mother Plays With Dolls, introduced me to using Art Paper Dolls in my journals during a workshop I attended at Maureen Carlson s Center for Creativity in Jordan, MN. This Art Paper Doll is called The Queen Contemplates Her Power and Her Next Move. She is laying the groundwork for truth telling. The small paper dolls that are game pieces. Her body is glued to the journal and her arms on movable.
How Could This Be Happening to Me? is a fully joined and repositionable paper doll that can be removed from the page. I wrote What if the stories and your life experiences create wisdom stories that don t ask for pity but share humanity. What if you were positioned on the earth to be the healer, the Queen on the board who can move in all directions, the one who opens doors and offer the chance for others in pain to walk through? Elinor wrote a comment, Growing sprouting focus on the joy of it. Focus on the JOY!!!! An Art Paper Doll can be drawn right onto journal pages. Like these two that I created while on retreat in Northern Minnesota. Don t forget the view from inside was done in watercolor, markers, gel pens and pictures and words from magazines. The power to HEAL is in My Hands shape was cut from magazine. I used markers and water soluble oil pastels to draw on the shape.
Art Paper Dolls can be used to expressive a feeling response to a crisis, trauma that is witnessed in person or through any media or story. This water colored paper doll (left) with clay face was my response to the earthquake in Japan. First, You Must Defend Yourself is a paper doll I created in my journal while dealing with panic and anxiety attacks. At the top is written, You become what you believe not what you wish or want but what you truly believe. Wherever you are in life, look at your beliefs. They put you there. Art Paper Dolls can be created as an affirmation, encouragement, or as a reminder to remember something. More Play Today reminds me to play more, take myself lightly (butterfly in left hand) and giggle. Notice the small paper doll in dolls hand, whose name is Giggle. Eventually She Saw Herself was created for a mail art exchange in an on line doll group. On the back is written words of encouragement and support.
One of my favorite ways to use Art Paper Dolls is for a creative, personal transformative process. By the way, they work great for ARTsignments. These are two paper dolls I created using a process from the concept called FOCUSING by Gene Gendlin. Focusing is listening to your body in a gentle accepting way and hearing the messages that your inner self is sending you. It s a process of honoring the wisdom that you have inside, becoming aware of the subtle level of knowing that speaks to you through your body. The results of listening to your body are insight, physical release and positive life change. You understand yourself better, you feel better and you act in ways that are more likely to create the life you want. I wanted to under the feeling I had in my body of feeling so excited and happy that I could not calm down and focus. I first created paper dolls of the two parts of myself that were in conflict, then put them in my journal and wrote out the conversation between the two. At the end of the process I had come into the possibility of Calm Excitement.
During my ARTbundance Coaches Training I created a paper doll for my Muse Athena. She has colored circles on her body representing chakras. I dressed her in a gown of images from nature. She holds a white barn owl, her power animal. I scanner her and used her image for a variety of activities in the ARTbundance course and in my journal where I would have conversations with her. Making Art Paper Dolls are a wonderful, creative, animated way of playing with life s joys and struggles. They can be easily created and then integrated into your journals. You can find a variety of free resources for making paper dolls on the Internet. Barb Kobe is an artist, dollmaker, educator, and ARTbundance Creativity Coach. Barb has been creating art and healing art dolls for over twenty years. She has designed several curriculums that use dollmaking to create healing and transformation. You can find out more about her work at www.barbkobe.com; www.healingandtransformativedolls.com and her healing doll blog http://healingdoll.blogspot.com/index.html