Life, Art and Fashion Dolls

Since 2012, I have been a part of a team of art lovers running a little neighborhood art gallery we call Art Gallery 21. The building used to serve as the Woman's Club and has now been re-purposed as a cultural center and home to the gallery.

On March 9th this year, we hosted an exhibit titled "The Art of Barbie." The international icon of fashion and style celebrated her 60th birthday and we were blown away by how many people came to the opening and to the exhibit in the weeks that followed.

It's not the first time I've been involved in an exhibit of Barbie dolls, but, this time ... this time, it was art. Beautiful art. Amazing art. Created by amazing artists.

We were blessed with the donation of two photographs from Sharon Wright, who I have the pleasure of knowing personally and whose career I have followed since she first took pictures of Poppy Parker. She's an Emmy Award Winning film maker, actress, model and all around terrific human being and the proceeds from the sale of her photos went to support the art gallery. I think it was extremely generous of her to donate her pictures and I love her for being so kind.

And, she wasn't alone. We also received a donated photograph from Rebecca Berry of "Inside The Fashion Doll Studio," which sold the first night! The artistic talent I've discovered in my journey as a doll collector continues to amaze me.

Which just goes to show you ... doll people are the best kind of people there are. They ARE artists. And, doll lovers. And, generous of spirit. And, I'm so lucky to have been a part of this. Thank you, Universe!

it's a wonderful life

I could be handy, mending a fuse
when your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me,
will you still feed me
when I'm sixty-four?

Second verse of the song by the Beatles

I had a fantastic birthday weekend. I took Friday and Monday off from work and did some things. On Friday, I mostly puttered around the house. I like puttering and I am a good putterer.

Saturday, I started my birthday morning at Jazzercise with a Personal Touch class with Darlene. It's a personal trainer kind of environment, but instead of one-on-one, it is a small class with the focus on technique and strength building. We do a lot of core work. It seems a strong core is really super important. We did a lot of planks. A lot. Planks are hard. I am much better at puttering.

Saturday afternoon I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours with a wonderful doll friend and his partner. We sat in his "workshop" surrounded by dolls dressed in his 1950s inspired fashions and drank wine and talked about dolls and love and life. It was deeee-lightful!

He made for me a miniature of the first Barbie Dream House. You can see Poppy Parker holding it in the photo there ... and there was a sweet, pink cupcake and a sweet card to make me feel sweet. It worked!

Saturday evening my darling husband took me out for dinner at an exquisite Thai restaurant I had never been to before. I asked him if he'd brought his girlfriend there. LOL! He's so funny! He goes along with my teasing because he knows I'm so terrible at it!

Sunday was a very laid back kind of day. DH did the grocery shopping, I did the laundry and we napped. My girls came over for a vegetarian dinner and mango key lime pie and they brought me flowers and made me feel special. My brother gave me a lovely gift of a stainless steel anchor with gold trim on a black cord. I put it on immediately and love it! He said I'm his anchor and a few other people's as well. I wonder if that's a good thing ...

Monday I helped a gifted artist install her one-woman show in our little neighborhood art gallery. She's interesting as a person and fascinating as an artist. She's created wonderful collage filled bird cages that are delightful and thought provoking. She uses such odd materials to create her art ... everything from vintage books and papers to store receipts, fabrics, photos and rusty metal. You just never know what you'll find in one of Janet's collages!


Now, it's hump day, the temps are falling and it's chilly by south Florida standards and we're going into a 3-day holiday weekend. You never know what might happen! So far, it's been fun being 64!

Sliding into August

It's been a wild and crazy month and, here we are, the last day of July! Oh, my!

This month was chock full of fun!

I provided the raffle dolls and table dolls for 'Tea with Barbie' at Old Davie School and enjoyed watching moms and dads and grandmothers with their little girls, all dressed in finery, some with tiaras, many accompanied by their Barbies, having fun in the lovely Barbie World we created on the second floor of the school!

We had "live" Barbie models doing a fashion show, and after tea was served, they returned to sign autographs! It was so much fun to watch little girls posing for photos with living Barbies, eyes filled with stars!  We gave away a bunch of Barbie dolls and Barbie-related items during the raffle. And, it was absolutely wonderful to see 248 people immerse themselves in the world of Barbie for a couple of hours! What joy!

The tea party was followed by the opening of Art Gallery 21 at the Woman's Club of Wilton Manors with an exhibition of artwork from eight local artists. I have lived in Wilton Manors for 25 years and have seen it change a lot over the last ten of those years, but the one thing we didn't have was a 'cultural center.' So, we're making one!

I'm not a painter or artist in the traditional sense of the word. I'm a community organizer. And, some of my art friends think that it's an art to start something from nothing, which is pretty much what we did. However, these kinds of projects ('Tea with Barbie' and 'Art Gallery 21') may have started out as my idea, but they no longer belong to just me. Other people have latched onto them and made them their own, and THAT's how it works! I call it 'cosmic velcro' when that happens!

And, the best thing? It's always way better than anything I could've imagined on my own! As you can see in the photo, Miss Lily Grace spotted the portrait her Uncle Carl had painted of her, and, lucky for me, I had my camera in hand! These are the delightful things in this life that make whatever we've done worth doing!

So, how's that for an end of July report?

I think it's pretty darned cool ...