Hi Everyone!
The only think I can say is that I love this artist.
So I introduce to you
Peggy Kemp, in her own words.
Nicole has asked me to talk
about my dolls and design process.
I
can’t remember a time when I didn’t love dolls. My sister and I played
with them, made them clothes and accessories, and made dolls out of
whatever we had to hand. I enjoyed sitting in the woods, making dolls
and fairy houses out of moss and twigs.
I still do.
This
is Linda in the new combinations I made for her after the fire. I got
her for Christmas when I was 5, cut most of her blonde hair off the same
day, and got her again with a long red wig and new clothes when I was
10. She was badly damaged in the fire and ended up with a bobbed
haircut.
My mom
taught me to embroider when I was 5. She was such a patient teacher! She
would spend 10 minutes getting a knot out of her thread, something I
still do. She transferred designs to old pillowcases or sheets and
taught me all the stitches.
She never dictated what colors I used,
and I
liked bright colors from an early age.
How do we evolve
as artists? Either we specialize in one field and become very good at
it, or we move through different interests and explore different media
and ideas. In my teens, I started doing cross-stitch, and then
needlepoint. I started with printed kits and French needlepoint
canvases, and evolved into designing my own samplers, bookmarks, and
Christmas ornaments.
I fell in love with fine Italian
paper and leather and learned to bind books and set type. I applied to
apprentice in the bookbinder’s union and was offered a position at the
University of Washington bindery. I declined because it was a dark,
smelly, stuffy and noisy place, all mechanized.
That wasn’t what I
wanted to do.
In my 30’s I was living in the woods in
northern California. My husband had Lyme Disease and I was studying
alternative healing and making embroidered healing dolls under the seven
strong oaks in our back 40. This was the start of my shamanic healing
practice and healing spirit dolls. I introduced beads after I started
doing couched gold work.
I moved to Kauai in 1999. I
didn’t make dolls or anything else for nearly 6 years. I was in a hula
halau and it took all of my spare time and energy. They say “Hula is
Life.” It was my life for 6 years and I will always value the lessons I
learned and the community of other dancers. After the death of my father
and a big fire, I reconsidered my life and path. I missed making art on
a regular basis, I missed the dolls and the person I am when I’m making
them. I missed gardening. I decided to leave the halau and dedicate
that time each week to making art.
The first doll I made
was a jointed “paper doll” constructed from reinforced poster board and
dressed in removable fabric clothes. I made her up in the mountains in
Kokee,
where my new husband and I spent 5 nights on our
honeymoon. She was made for my friend Kapua’s birthday and featured her
face. She has a green body as befits a forest spirit. Searching for
flower and leaf beads, I found Robin Atkins and her spirit dolls. She’s been a
valuable mentor and friend ever since.
Where do I draw inspiration from? All around me, but especially from nature.
The
next doll I made is called “Spirit of Croton”. It has a printed paper
face and hundreds of tiny petals cut from croton leaves and glued down
individually on a felt body. I still remember the burns I got from that
glue gun. I don’t use much glue now… We were living in a tiny studio
after the fire and the only landscaping was a long hedge of croton.
There
followed many spirit dolls, gradually becoming more encrusted with
beads. I tend to make things in cycles and when I get bored, I make
something else. But everything I make has a “prayer in every stitch,” a
focused intentional blessing for good.
One of my
side-paths was into making pocket crowns. A good friend was going in for
testing for a possible tumor, and she was anxious. She had been to a
recent conference in which she was told she was a “Princess of God” and I
wanted her to remember that. I made a tiny pocket crown that she could
carry throughout the testing.
All my
friends wanted one and they eventually got bigger and more elaborate.
Matt told me he wanted to be a “Duke of God”, rather than a prince, so
his says D-O-G.
The
pocket crowns were my introduction to
Nicole’s BeadBacking, because I
needed something to bead on that was soft and easily penetrated, but
would keep its stiffness if it was carried in the pocket. The front was
embroidered separately and attached with a picot stitch to the plain
backing.
I spent many years making dolls of felt, gently
stuffed. In 2015, I broke my leg and was laid up for a couple of months.
I made a series of 21 healing dolls – 3 sizes of 7 colors that
represented different healing principles. They are soft and plain on the
back, so that you can comfortably hold them next to your face or heart.
Some of these are still for sale on my website.
I
made mermaids, too. Wailani was commissioned for a friend who lacked
confidence, so that is what I focused on during making her.
When I’m working on a
Nicole/DVArtist
Honor and integrity
in art, in life.
