The Hair Suit Doll And The White Doe

I want to send you a picture of this doll I found in the trash on Clark Street. First she was just living on my fence, filthy, and then she disappeared and I started asking the kids where my doll went. She was not only filthy but had an unsightly combination of dreadlocked hair and bald patches. She then reappeared near the fence the next day, so someone brought her back. One day I decided to work on her hair, work in some black yarn, and to honor her wild sort of outdoor heritage and orphan status, I wove the hair down her back and torso so it makes a nice little jerkin to keep her warm. I feel like she is a homage to you and your dolls and thought of you when I was holding her and working with my needle and yarn.

Also including a picture of the White Doe. I think she is really special. I am going to make a crown for her, and remove the horns to make them part of her ceremonial crown, so she will be like Hapshepsut of Egypt and other woman rulers who adopted symbolic male identities for ceremonies and pagentry. Hapshepsut had a beard of gold that she wore at ceremonies.The White Doe totally reminded me of you too Sherribell!  I wish you were here!

Mary Yordy is one of my oldest and dearest friends. She is also an amazing artist and bookbinder, who's work flows from a deep source into the every day world around her. I know very few people like her. She is naturally tuned into her imagination and devoted to her craft. She rarely shows her work beyond the environment of her studio and home.

The hair suit doll and the white doe are two of Mary's latest creations. She sent me these images along with their stories in a recent email. They are published with her permission. When I look at these two creature companions I see myself as the hair suit doll and Mary as the magical white doe. I am in awe of Mary, and of her intelligence and imagination.

She might not like that I call her a visionary artist because of how loaded that term is but according to Wikipedia, "Artists may produce work loosely categorized as visionary art for its luminous content and/or for its use of artistic techniques that call for the use of extended powers of perception in the viewer." I think this describes what Mary does perfectly.

In my opinion, it's impossible to be an artist without a community of imaginative and visionary artist friends. Do you have a Mary Yordy in your life?