29

30

31

32

33

44

We were made aware of this event by a previous participant in our project. He thought that this would be a wild, open event where people would be relaxed about public nudity. Most of the participants were in their 20's and 30's and seemed to be uptight about nudity and unwilling to participate. We were surprised that the very few people who were in their 40's and 50's were interested in revealing themselves to our camera.

We spent a pleasant night in an oceanside hotel the next morning wandering around Point Arena we discovered in the local gallery a wonderful exhibition of transformed 8" fashion dolls. It's interesting to note that we just received photos and a note from another artist. Enclosed was the following email:

I'm a 40 year old being of ambiguous gender. My entire life has been lived in a culture defining as a stereotypical woman on the characteristics of an 8" fashion doll.Silent, misformed and asexual.

When I was a child of 6 my self and my friends in our innocence played sexual fantasies with our dolls who had no sexual organs or nipples, and we had no idea of what the sexual act was, which didn't help.  I've been fascinated to find women telling this same story in recent years.  And amazed at how many are expressing their anger at being manipulated, deluded and confused through the creative use of these dolls in their artwork, and wondering why?

I myself prefer to look at the humorous side of this madness, and have studied the history of this doll.

Her original manifestation was not innocent. And I'm fascinated by how many other people have picked up on this.  

I think the story of this doll fits right in with what you're working on , and I hope to see more photos of artwork like this from your members.