Halloween Makes Ugly Beautiful

A call for entries to the Artworks of Trenton annual Halloween show inspired some art making and resulted in three pieces completed this week.

First for your enjoyment, this lovely lady's visage on a pillow cover. She is drawn with fabric markers and is embellished with a few sequins and gems to add sparkle to her eyes and a pair of brass earrings. I dyed a cut-up crocheted doily with blue black dye and sewed the random bits as a fringe around the perimeter. Written at the bottom edge, invisible in the photo, are the words, "SWEET DREAMS." 

"Blood on the Bayou" was drawn with a brush on canvas with leftover dye from the pillow fringe. Its adhesion to the primed canvas is uncertain, but anyway, I forged on and added color with oil pastel, watercolors and acrylic paint. Will it survive? I'll let it dry further and encase it in fixative and pray. Or cast a spell?

And finally, the most crudely designed piece of all - the "Witch Bride." She evolved from merely "Blue Witch" to bride when I determined that her svelte form was enhanced by the addition of my favorite round tablecloth.




































She is fashioned from sticks that are from my property - a forked limb of Japanese Honeysuckle for legs and torso, and a branch from the magnolia for her arms which extend behind her in a very awkward manner. I used to make small stick dolls and taught children in school to make them using this basic technique of tying two sticks together. The clothes were always wrapped and tied on with strips of cloth. With this large doll though, I did some sewing.

She has red sequin shoes on the end of her naked honeysuckle legs, but sleeves of black chiffon.

Her face was made with notions from my sewing box, her hair from yarn. The perfect teeth were found at last when I stumbled upon some shards of oyster shell. To these I added broken buttons.
Perhaps she will yet get a bouquet, but essentially she is complete. A tall gal, she must be hung and appear to float with supernatural grace and aplomb.

Though she sticks out her tongue, she is essentially a sweet one. Notice the red cloth that is a sign of her loving heart. You can see it in her eyes, too. She will be a loving though eccentric wife.

If she were alive that is. With dolls, especially ones you make, one always forgets.