Linda was curious about the dolls.    here are the two, beside the grass person, that i kept:

003

005

006

008

kneeling and seated.  both have armatures.   i didn't keep these two because they were particularly good, but because for whatever reason, i loved them a lot.   many of the faces of others were more refined, "better",  but from these, you get the idea.    i sold many many of them over some years.  some were even life size.   for a while, some had  "masks" of birds…hawks and of coyote.  most were wall hanging figures…dancing women, flying women, dreaming women, running woman, women grieving, women singing, praying, holding things,  small animals, banners, flags, bowls.   some were non gender…my favorite one like that had a small bird perched on it's head.   there were many Wind figures,  young wind, Women wind and obviously male figures,  Wind as lover.

and then,  it just became harder and harder for me to want to deal with selling them.  with packing them up and sending them to different places.    and life in general became almost more than i could deal with then, so i just quit making them.   when  my life became my own again, i tried to begin again but it just wouldn't happen.  and i realized that enough had changed.  that i was no longer able to focus on a central figure, that the world that the figure "lived" in was of equal or more interest to me.     the being and the being's world. 

and this was how it was until Spirit Cloth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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44 responses to “the dolls”

  1. Sandy Avatar

    Oh my, they are amazing. Their faces share so much…. they definitely have a lot of energy. Your cloth in the background is the perfect backdrop for them. Loving those threads from the flower. They really look like they are meant to be there. Hope all is well. xoxo

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  2. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i love them.
    now, the cloth in the background is everything.
    yes. All is Well. Very well.

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  3. Deb G Avatar

    Oh Grace, they are just beautiful. The bottom one, especially, has a face that wants to make me cry and smile at the same time…

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  4. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    well….them.
    they were what they were. i will never go back to them.
    but maybe can find a way for what they were to be inside
    this cloth work????? don’t know.
    their faces were a trip to make. began as just clumps
    of modeling paste. look for a crack and keep going.
    as much as i loved making them,
    i love the cloth more…don’t know why. just is. the
    cloth is Home for me.

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  5. Suzanna Avatar

    Oh the colors and the wisdom…lingering…

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  6. Nancy Avatar

    Oh Oh Oh Grace! They are so amazing. I right away noticed that they are wearing your colors…seems to have been your palette for some time. And their faces tell so much, so much. The top figure – her hands really spoke to me…they seem to hold so much time, experience- creating & holding close and nurturing but yet still reaching out. Amazing. And the bottom figure has a face, eyes that hold both sadness and wisdom, an elder. I love these women.
    I am glad that your life is better now. Maybe they were there for you while you needed them and now you all have moved on. I am glad you have cloth.
    I am glad to share this trail with you.
    You are one special gal.

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  7. deanna7trees Avatar

    great dolls, grace. nice company to have in your home. never imagined they were that big.

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  8. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Oh Grace–that is the creative process, isn’t it–we use whatever expresses our needs best until they are no longer needed, and then we’ve moved on–looking back at the past through the work is like peeling the onion back to it’s core again–like the process of self becoming true self–a constant circle circling the core. The dolls are exquisitely evocative–and of course–how could you part with them–would you give away your family photos–your arm–your blood? Even though we lose everything–we create so much before we evaporate–amazing how artists are. I’m going in circles myself now. Think museum, or the ancestors shrine perhaps–a major retrospective show–Meanwhile, I’m going to seed in a friends garden for the next 48 hours, and I will be thinking about this perhaps.

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  9. Jacqui Avatar

    Beautiful Grace, just beautiful. Their faces are so familiar to me.

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  10. Jeannie Avatar
    Jeannie

    Oh Grace, your women take my breath away. They say so much without uttering a word. Truly magnificent. Thank you for sharing them with us.

    Like

  11. margaret johnson Avatar
    margaret johnson

    Oh Grace, your dolls are beautiful. You have that unique ability to capture soul. Love everything about them. I find it amazing that every now and then, familiarities occur between us. I have been a dollmaker too. Infact the final section (but not the last) of magic diaries I’m working on now, is based on the first doll I have been able to make for many years. It was such a special time for me, being able to make it. I was able to make it in miniature form as well, as part of a face mask. Now I’m trying it on fabric. Thanks for sharing so much. Marg. oxox

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  12. Penny B Avatar

    Oh, Grace, I love them too. I can see that you love them…their faces are full of love and kindness. I agree with you, when something becomes a chore to create over and over, it is time to move on to something new.

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  13. Patty M Avatar

    oh! Now I understand more deeply what you’re doing now. It’s a very natural step.
    But these people you created! I can see a soul behind the eyes. And I do understand why selling them was impossible. The first photo shows how your current work IS the environment they live in.

    Like

  14. Mo Crow Avatar

    thank you for sharing these beautiful beings from your past they have big stories with deep soul you can see it in their eyes… they would have been hard to sell but that’s what people are looking for in art, without heart & soul art is an empty experience
    & where else does art come from but deep in the dreams…
    the day to day of life…
    the sorrows…
    the joys…
    the fears…
    the anger…
    the wonder…
    the excitement…
    the pain…
    that’s art & the world wants a chunk of the artist’s heart and soul…
    & we give it to them… & y’know why? cause there’s always more… we all have huge deep hearts and plenty of soul & giving a bit away just makes room for more…
    no art is made without lots of dark rich blood flowing through it, and it needs quite a few tears of frustration and even anger & a lot of sweat and stripped back to the bare bones honesty to yourself… to get to the truth… cause that’s what this artist’s life is all about… finding your truth, no one else’s otherwise it’s not the real thing & it won’t speak true
    and Grace your work speaks true

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  15. handstories Avatar

    those legs and hands, & faces that say, “this is how it is….and that’s how it should be.”
    and now you create, with cloth, a place, maybe it is the same place these dolls of spirit dwell? maybe. maybe somewhere not dreamt of yet, or a dream that you are in. may be.

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  16. Valerianna Avatar

    Grace – such beauty, myth and magic. I love these…

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  17. Phillipa Avatar

    Inspiring to see and understand how we all evolve as time passes.

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  18. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    yes..even then, most of the cloth was re-cycle clothing..
    some thrift shop.
    the faces were painted with oils. i liked that a lot.

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  19. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Nancy, you are one special gal too.
    the top one, that’s one of the really small gourds i grew
    and yes, one hand holds, the other extends. her arm is
    wound with copper wire that was my grandfathers.
    it was really great, because all of their faces were
    different and i never knew what to expect. i would just
    begin carving.
    i still don’t really know. but i remember them so well,
    what it was like to spend time that way. i still know
    where a lot of them are iE who bought them.

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  20. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i also made some little muslin angels. maybe you are
    thinking of something i’d said about them? probably.
    their faces were drawn, like the woman’s face in the
    Diary cloth
    these two are over a foot tall

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  21. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    self becoming More self
    or maybe, even,
    Less self

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  22. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Jacqui…i like that very much. that they are
    familiar to you. that is the best.

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  23. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    it’s good to see them here, now…….
    thank you

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  24. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i used to make masks too. maybe we are the same person?
    i really really really am looking forward to seeing what
    you are working on now………very

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  25. margaret johnson Avatar
    margaret johnson

    OOPS!! I meant “similarites”

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  26. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    it’s just a mystery….it wasn’t really a chore, but in
    a way it was, i guess. the faces had to be done in
    a certain order for them to dry right in the summer i
    would dry them in the sun. in winter, on the wood stove.
    and then, once the bases were dry, there would be the
    part that got carved into the features. and then the
    painting. so, hmmm.
    but what became a chore was “marketing” them, i think,
    really.
    but it’s also really none of that. i think it just stopped. for superficial reasons, but to allow that long
    gap, that became filled with an urge to Make with the hands. and then, the Spirit Cloth. which was so much
    less literal, which could be and can be anything at all.

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  27. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    that pic worked out great like that, didn’t it. i didn’t
    realize it until you mentioned it…THANK YOU for that…

    Like

  28. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    hey vic

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  29. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Mo…i can feel how You feel these words….
    and yes. it is about speaking true.
    and unless we keep working to find our own True, we can’t
    give it.
    yes.
    xoxo

    Like

  30. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Cindy…i don’t know. i really don’t know. maybe
    i’m being dreamed. that’s what it most feels like now.

    Like

  31. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    V…they would be very comfortable at RavenWood

    Like

  32. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Phillipa…thank you….and yes. it is some kind of evolving
    and it has taken time. a lot of times i have wished that i could
    have stuck to one thing, thinking maybe i could have gotten better
    and better…as in more skilled…at It. but i wouldn’t change
    this for anything in the world. i really NEED to be exactly
    where i am today.
    xoxo

    Like

  33. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    it’s kinda the same thing….
    the similarities make us familiar to one another.
    i love it when that happens.
    i feel familiar to Jude and that has meant the World to
    me. as the sense of familiarity to this community.
    so wonder full not to have to explain. what a relief.
    when everything can just be placed on the table to
    wonder about.

    Like

  34. Nancy Avatar

    I used to make…to be sold…Christmas stockings. They were nothing like this, nothing so wonderous. But, they came at a time when I needed to make ‘something’. A woman had given me the patterns a year earlier and one day, that was it and I began. 5 as gifts for my closest friend & her family. I made over 100 of them, all unique, one of a kind. I remember that time, in my making and in my life. It was a big thing for many years. I signed each one and sent them off to many families, in many locations. I remember so many, but some I no longer recall. But, that’s ok, they’ve all become a part of my fiber, remembered or not.
    I think it is part of the reason I’m sewing so many feathers, my pleasure is in sending them on their way just like the stockings.
    I like that we all have these stories inside of us and that sometimes they come out like a thread from a spool and then join other’s threads until we are all surrounded by a beautifully woven blanket.
    Yep, more sap from Nancy 🙂 But I do mean it!

    Like

  35. Valerianna Avatar

    Oh dear, my comment has gone away, so, I’ll repeat myself and hope this works…..
    These are bEAUTIFUL, so full of life, myth and magic. I’m particularly loving the one holding the pod, wrapped in her lovely, mauve wrap. I’d love to walk into the forest and find her sitting there, waiting to tell me a story or to lead my underground to the entrance of the root-world. Stunning.

    Like

  36. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i just commented on RavenWood…and don’t know if it went
    through…….?
    i think they are everywhere, these kinds of beings.
    i am sure, as in sure, that they will come to your new
    place.
    i love what you said:
    “the question will not be how can we save the Earth,
    but
    how can the Earth save us?”
    i don’t know how it works, i used to want to make it into
    some FORM, but now anymore, i don’t need to…
    it just keeps on coming on, that we see
    stuff. and it’s in a certain way, repetative and so…
    reassuring
    love to you

    Like

  37. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    dear Sappy You….
    christmas stocking have great meaning to my kids. i can
    make all kinds of stuff and they think it’s interesting,
    and they “know” me,
    but
    christmas stockings…….
    now….they have
    meaning.
    i like too, that our stories are of the fiber that we are..
    “like a thread from a spool and then join”
    isn’t that what it IS?
    such gratitude. such love. such a sense of sisterhood.
    love you,

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  38. handstories Avatar

    well, i think you’re a dream!

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  39. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    a sister would say that, huh.
    love,

    Like

  40. k Avatar
    k

    yes, Oh! everyone else has described the soulful faces so well…the pieces they’re holding seem significant, somehow give the doll such human-ness. Thank-you for sharing these.

    Like

  41. Linda Avatar

    it is very early and i have to go to work. i just found these, worked yesterday too.
    i will respond more later, but i could sit here for hours looking at them and talking about them.
    incredible

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  42. Yvonne Avatar
    Yvonne

    They are so full of feeling and thought-full at the same time. Beautiful, soulful creations.

    Like

  43. lynda howells Avatar

    What more can l say..everyone has said it. so l will just say WOW!!!xxlynda

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