Photographing the girlettes at the Source of the Mississippi River, Itasca State Park, Minnesota. (Above photo by bink.)
Pants tucked in socks for tick protection. Plus we sprayed ourselves with poison to repel mosquitoes--because, M's cousin here in town recently got West Nile Virus (from a mosquito)! It turned into encephalitis and caused a stroke. Luckily she's okay after 3 weeks in the hospital and rehab.
Anyway... Another angle on the photo I posted the other day. All that climbing around on rocks twisted my dodgy knee, but it was worth it!
It's been so long since I photographed the dolls in public, I'd sorta forgotten how people come up and ask,
What are you doing? I love that. I always say, I'm photographing my dolls.
Sometimes there's more conversation. Below:This womanwas on Day One of an RV-camper caravan trip downriver to the Gulf of Toys! (–of Mexico, that is.) They will travel for a month.
"Do you want a doll to go with you?" I said. Without hesitation, the woman said, "Yes!"
"She can ride in my bag", circled ^ in pink.
Can you see? The girlette, Marco, is beaming with happiness to go. She said she wore her sailor suit JUST IN CASE.
I didn't realize until I saw the photo: the pattern on the woman's shirt is US-flag peace signs. I wish I'd asked her what that meant to her.
(The peace sign was "designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement in 1958"--Wikipedia.)
II. Sticks
BELOW: bink with another of the Trolls around Detroit Lakes--it's a game to find them all (you need a car of willingness to bike for many miles). I'd thought the trolls would be gimmicky, but the girlettes said, "They are one of us". Us being human-made things that have living spirit.
Made of recycled and scavenged materials, by Thomas Dambo of Denmark. (Tree-bark eyebrows.) Held together with screws.
Also in the area--a woolly mammoth made of sticks collected nearby--created by artists of the Minneapolis-based Leonic Collective. It's a tree house--you can climb up inside. bink again:
Zach Shumack, lead artist, said the mammoth is named Mashaal, after an artist "who unfortunately passed away last year but was the person that taught me how to sculpt with sticks and epoxy resin.
TML constructing the FearBeast. Mixed media-- you can see old tires create a leg here:
Below: Completed. If you stand with the child, facing the beast, you hear audio messages of loving support from inside the FearBeast:
“Facing the Fearbeast” by Tigre Mashaal-Lively (Photo by Manuel Pinto) "It isn’t about good vs. evil, beast vs. child. Within the beast, there is a wounded inner child that
is often the source of destructive and damaging words and actions. ...We have the power to shift our personal
narrative and heal wounded conditioning, quieting the cycle of pain."
Obituary for Tigre Mashaal-Lively, who "left this world of their own volition to travel to the next realm of their being". ___________________________
How to "quiet the cycle of pain" rather than amplify it?
I've now made 50 God's eyes--more to come this week, plus, with several from bink, a few from other people, and the 38 from Ms Chocolate, I will have enough to line the park fence this coming Saturday morning. If you're in town, come on by! The orange-black-white one, far right, was inspired by monarch butterflies. It'd go faster if I made duplicates, but so far I like making each color combo different.
I aim to add broken glass or other trinkets, at least to some, and handwrite tags:
God's Eye/Ojo de Dios Protection & in-sight/ Protección y visión
A couple friends have sent yarn--this bounty of wool carpet yarn from K. Thank you--perfect colors!
People do not know how difficult it is to pose the Girlettes- you have so much patience an skill in balancing them. Your angles are utterly impossible but I see now how you get very close to bug height to capture the action. better you than me, I would never be able to get down and up again without a crane. And YOU with your ouchie knee! Great shots! Art is everything, We died for art. Lovely shades of yarn sent to you! The eyes have it! The burning man from past time sculpture is astonishing and powerful! Fearless! What a wonderful place for you to visit, no ticks on thee!
You know it! Not only are the Girlettes hard to balance as a matter of physics, , but they take delight in waiting until I’ve got everything almost set …and then tipping over and laughing hilariously. However, you know I love them so much that I have to laugh too.
If you look closely at the photos of them in the most precarious positions, you can see they have employed sticks (sticks again!) to help themselves balance – – and they also balance against one another.
It did hurt my knee but yes, bug’s eye view is best
Zach Shumack, lead artist, said the mammoth is named Mashaal, after an artist "who unfortunately passed away last year but was the person that taught me how to sculpt with sticks and epoxy resin. 
People do not know how difficult it is to pose the Girlettes- you have so much patience an skill in balancing them. Your angles are utterly impossible but I see now how you get very close to bug height to capture the action. better you than me, I would never be able to get down and up again without a crane. And YOU with your ouchie knee! Great shots! Art is everything, We died for art. Lovely shades of yarn sent to you! The eyes have it! The burning man from past time sculpture is astonishing and powerful! Fearless!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful place for you to visit, no ticks on thee!
You know it!
DeleteNot only are the Girlettes hard to balance as a matter of physics,
, but they take delight in waiting until I’ve got everything almost set
…and then tipping over and laughing hilariously.
However, you know I love them so much that I have to laugh too.
If you look closely at the photos of them in the most precarious positions, you can see they have employed sticks
(sticks again!)
to help themselves balance – – and they also balance against one another.
It did hurt my knee but yes, bug’s eye view is best