My First Spirit Doll

... was made reluctantly a number of years ago at Arrowmont.
It was an exercise to start the flow of creativity in a week long workshop, "Healing Art", conducted by Susan Shie and James Accord. At the end of the orientation assembly the night before, everyone in our class was instructed to bring a sock to class. I was a bit put off when we were told to spend the first day making a sock doll. There was no instruction other than to make the doll. It seemed a waste of time because each of us had already spent a lot of time and effort to prepare for creating a specific piece of art that dealt with healing.
Somewhere I have a group photo with my classmates and their dolls. One that has really stuck with me is a most gorgeous beaded mermaid doll made from a grungy tube sock.

I don't know why, but the first thing I did was to turn my sock inside out. The extra lengths of thread where the knitting changed colors intrigued me. As I stuffed and shaped her body, childhood memories began to surface. For some reason I could not explain, I just couldn't give her arms. She was endowed with all other female attributes, including underarm hair. She even got a cute little hat made from the top part of the sock.
I stayed late in the studio to finish her ... there was going to be no more time wasted on a sock doll when I had a BIG serious project to work out. Just before I fell asleep, the memory of making a sock doll when I was in a children's home hit me. I really, really wanted a doll. The only way I could have one was to secretly make it and her clothes from my socks. It's pretty certain that I did have some thread and a pair of scissors. She was probably stuffed with a pair of panties. Of course, I had to hide her and could only play when everyone else was asleep. The disappearance of my socks was a mystery to everyone else.

The second day of class opened with a discussion of our experience in making the dolls. Then we were told, what by then was obvious to each of us, that the act of creating a doll with no instructions or outside input was a way of opening channels of creativity on a deeper level.

The theme for my healing art quilt was my broken family, which is why my siblings and I were in the children's home. Making the sock doll opened a floodgate of memories for those years over half a century ago. That quilt was never finished, but the process of creating it brought a closure for a difficult and painful childhood. This spirit doll is a presence in Studio South. Can you spot her?