Elizabeth Contains Multitudes

...a new gallery piece, a fox, and just a chat.

Hi all!

I hope you are all bearing up through this mystifying year. Things are all relatively ok in Rag & Bone Land- the workshop is busy, my dogs and chickens are psyched that New England is beginning to thaw, the ice and snow are finally legit melting. The birds are getting louder and foxes, raccoons, skunks and possums are finally starting to make their nightly rounds again. We’ve been a bit starved for wildlife company, so this such good news, it feels like everything is waking up. It also feels that there are changes in the air- is anyone else feeling it?

lil visiting fox can feel it.

This year is starting out a little differently for me than previous. I’ve had a few pieces in an online gallery, Poetic Tiger, and that has been interesting and very inspirational. I tend to avoid looking at other art-dollmaker’s work in fear that I may inadvertently copy something about what they do. So seeing my work alongside others was new and enlightening- we’re all just doing such different things. It’s such an amorphous medium, there is so much room for experimentation, and it’s all jaw dropping.

On that note!

Imperfecta Gallery

I have a new piece in Portland Oregon’s Imperfecta Gallery’s show, Dark Cabinets. It was an honor to be asked- seeing my work on gallery walls alongside some artists that I’ve looked up to, is pretty crazy for me. I encourage to take a look at the show- all of the work can be seen on Imperfecta’s Instagram page- complete with a mini walk-through.

Here is my piece, Elizabeth Contains Multitudes.

She is 24 inches high x 11 inches wide. Her head and shoulders are carved from pine. The rest of her is a combination of pine, salvaged wood and assemblage. She has little doors that swing open, a little drawer that hides some secret tomes, and a little bird flying from it’s nest. We’re all made of so many mysteries. So many secret hidden drawers and nooks and innards, so many tiny treasures and perhaps some demons, for me Elizabeth encapsulated that.

The piece is currently available through Imperfecta’s online shop.

What’s next

I am spending the next few months working on a large collection of pieces that will be on display in a local gallery window. I’m having a total blast not worrying about scale and just making whatever the hell i want.

(works in progress)

I’ll probably send out a newsletter about that in May. I’ve never shown my work in my current hometown of North Adams before, so I’m really excited (and nervous?) about this one. I’ve also finished a collection of small dolls that I may put in my online shop in a month or two.

I think that’s it for news for me. How are you all doing?

x

jana

p.s. you may have noticed that I’ve changed my Instagram name from Rag and Bone Dolls to my actual name. I’m still Rag & Bone, I’m just weird and didn’t want to feel hemmed into the dolls tag. I’m not really changing anything about the way I work or what I make.