My Little Cubbyhole

This year at the Coast Collective Art Centre(CC)  in Victoria, BC, similar to last year, there will be an exhibition of poems and their interpretation by various artists.  Last year's event was a great success.

The way it works is that local poets submit their poems and the CC artists choose a poem to illustrate using their medium, be it paint, pencil, sculpture, glass, wood, or fabric.

I participated last year with the poem "The Mushroom Angel" and it was fun to try and make a figurative cloth piece to illustrate what the poem meant to me.

This year I choose the poem, "My Little Cubbyhole" by poet Chris Henry:

This poem touched my heart and I could picture a little girl with pigtails hugging her dolls and stuffed animals after hearing her parents fight.  The tears dried up and she starts to find happiness in her special little cubbyhole with her cuddly friends.

I started the head using the technique I learned last year from NAIDA doll artist, Shelley Thornton:

The head is made with a underlay of thick "fleece type" stretchy fabric that is needle sculpted to bring out the eyes, nose and mouth.  Then the head is covered with a cotton knit fabric and carefully stretched, pinned and then secured to the underlay.  Ears are then added.  I needle felted some wool fleece to the back of her head to get the proper dome shape.

I used acrylic paints, pencil crayons and sigma permanent markers to detail her face.  I then used "Diamond Glaze" to add a tear that had not yet dried.  I am happy with the result so far.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's progress.