Not Your Child's Dolls

Dolls on the Wall, a new exhibit by the Artists' Group of Charlestown, opened at the StoveFactory Gallery on Friday night  with a reception welcoming art lovers to the gallery for a meet and greet with the artists and a look at some very interesting work. 

Dolls on the Wall was developed by Karla Quattrocchi and Anthony Abate, members of the Artists' Group of Charlestown. Both artists had work on exhibit and Quattrocchi spoke enthusiastically about the theme of dolls. 

"Dolls have been a significant part of culture throughout the world," Quattrocchi said. "Some have been held and cared for, others have been worshipped, some have decorated homes and tombs, others are given to babies and pets."

She said that at an organizational meeting they discussed including dolls of different materials, ethnic or tribal dolls, paintings or photographs of dolls.  

Not only are there dolls on the wall, but some are hanging from the ceiling. "Inga,"  a cloth doll totally made by hand sits near the entrance in an easel made to look like a chair. Dara Pannebaker, the artist, said making Inga was a labor intensive journey of following a pattern from start to finish. Not used to the stringent discipline of following a pattern, Pannebaker acknowledged that you sometimes have to "push yourself in different directions."

Pannebaker said that since she finished making Inga, she's in no hurry to part with her. It's easy to see why. Inga is an old-fashioned doll, with long braids and a soft body stuffed with fiberfill. She seems to belong in that chair. 

Maryann Broxton is exhibiting a different kind of doll. There are three: "Mother," "Massi" and "Sunday Dress," African dolls made of sculpty clay, cloth and recycled materials. Their bodies are made from Coke bottles with baked clay (baked in Broxton's kitchen oven) molded on to form the torso. The heads were made separately, then slipped onto the trunk. Broxton said that when her children were younger she made them rag dolls and, a year ago, she began to make clay dolls as gifts. 

As a student at Bunker Hill Community College, Broxton was a member of the African American Culture Society and after being part of the Body and Soul exhibit at the college heard about Dolls on the Wall. "People tell me my dolls remind them of home," Broxton said. 

"Anna Maria," a mixed media painting by Joe Trepiccione, startling in its clarity, is a portrait of a child in a long black dress which is built out with a ruffle extending  into space. Trepiccione said his original intent was to paint a primitive picture of a child, but the art work evolved instead into a work with more European roots, perhaps 18th Century Spain.  

Conversation flowed through the gallery during Friday's opening, in its beautiful space of light and fantasy. Many of the works, because of the lighting, had magnificent shadows. 

The exhibit is free of charge and most of the art is available for purchase. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 14.

For more information about the exhibit go to www.artistsgroupofcharlestown.com.