Birthday Monster Doll

This little guy started in the middle of the night when I needed to be creative to stay awake. He is based on the "ugly doll" and has morphed into the "birthday monster doll." My favorite part is the dainty pink tail.

Here is the thing about creativity; we need each other to flourish. This doll started over at my friend's blog http://www.lifemadecreations.blogspot.com/ (random posts). Then, I took him to our bi-monthly studio sessions and one of my fellow artists came up with the idea of one button eye, one pom-pom eye. Genius, really.

And speaking of genius, the New Yorker has a thought provoking article on Van Gogh and his missing ear. It seems like he had a dream, in the middle of his ascending and escalating insanity. He wanted to live and work communally with artists. He leased an old decrepit house in a small Dutch village, known for its pious prostitutes. He had struck up a brief friendship with Paul Gauguin while they were both in Paris and invited him to come live and paint with him. Gauguin was a bit of an ass and hot-tempered and carried a sword...for self-defense. Well, things got out of hand and one theory holds that Gauguin sliced Van Gogh's ear off, rather neatly and then ran back to Paris...and then on to the islands. I can see the beauty of the dream and I can see artists losing body parts. We are a persnickety bunch. I also recommend Gertrude Stein's Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, another rollicking tale of french artists. I don't know how Van Gogh lost his ear...by his own hand or at the hand of a fellow artist. I do know that he created amazing art during his years in an asylum but that ultimately, that wasn't enough to save him. It does save part of us, though.