50 DOLL

CLOTH DOLLSCLOTH DOLLS CLOTH DOLLSCLOTH DOLLS

Sara Maddocks

Just out of college, having studied painting on canvas for many years, Kerry Kate Patterson grew tired of fl at,

square paintings and yearned for a different medium on which she could express herself. Studying art for fi ve years had given her a broad background in painting and art history, ceramics, photography, video production, graphics, and web and theatre design.

It was during a 3D design class that she also learned to make marionettes. The idea to use cloth dolls as her canvas began to develop and with it much research into the subject. “It kind of came together like nothing else ever had. It’s like I have been preparing to make them without even knowing it,” she explains.

A life-long San Franciscan, Kate moved to Los Angeles and turned a room of her home into a new art studio that has since expanded to the rest of the house. “I have two work tables and a computer

shows, with more coming up. She was involved once in a doll show, which she recalls as a rare treat. Usually her work is shown with paintings and other 3D artwork. “Preparation is not that diffi cult, as art dolls are for display only andsit nicely on a shelf or hang on a wall,” she says.

Kate tends to start her day a bit later than most people, she says, since she goes to bed quite late at night. She especially likes painting in the middle of the night, her Boston Terrier, Wednesday, and cats, Oona and Spider, nearby. “I like

that intrigued her growing up, such as Halloween, the paranormal, strange curiosities, ghost stories, horror movies, superstition, attic fi ndings, biology, animals, abnormalities, unusual botany and folklore.

Some openly attack her work as being sick and freakish, but Kate has met many wonderful, talented and extremely supportive people in the short time she has been creating this style of fi gure. To these friends she expresses warmth and gratitude. There is no denying that her artwork is exquisite and an underlying humour can be seen through the characters portrayed, such as “Guillotina and her heads,” that cannot fail to raise a smile. Indeed, one wonders whether her worst critics are as intolerant of crime and horror fi ction. After all, Kate’s oil painted characters are simply a different medium for the same self-expression.

Although she doesn’t teach classes or travel to competitions, Kate shows her fi ne art fi gures in galleries and group

desk where I research my projects,” she says. “My sewing area is in my living room and my dining table doubles as a shipping area!’”

Being creative as a child, Kate had made a couple of rag dolls and whilst she has always liked dolls,

she could never fi nd ones that truly refl ected her needs. This she believes also infl uenced her to make her own: “I work from my own patterns and designs using high quality oils, and muslin and tiny brushes, which I go through like mad. I believe the key to a clean and tight piece of art is fresh brushes. I consider my work more as fi ne art than craft.”

All the dolls she sells via her website and commissions come complete with a beautifully designed tag. She describes her characters as “unconventional, unique and a bit macabre” and they certainly have an atmosphere of the late 18th-early 19th century medicine and the Sherlock Holmes era about them.

Her inspiration comes from things

DOLL 51

Antonine

Kerry Kate shows

Row 1: Group shot Anatomy doll

Worm in the belly Voodoo lily doll

Guillotina and her headsMarchesa Luisa Casati

Row 2: KnifedLife Death Lilies

Below: Mini poison wormwood

“Although I pencil in the feature placement, the faces tend to evolve by themselves as I work. They will have their own way!” she says and laughs.

Working at home, she says can be hard, too, “because I feel that I should always be spending my time on my art and I am inclined to want to be doing something work-wise, anyway. I’m happiest when I’m workingon my projects. I even get to goout sometimes.”

Ultimately, Kate’s greatest satisfaction comes from customers expressing their appreciation of her work in letters and emails. It is those persons who seem to “get” what her work says: “I feel they are stuffed canvases with a spirit within them that often have a lamentable story of their own to tell.”

to split the day between painting, website updating, making graphics and research for new dolls; then there’s marketing and advertising,” she says.

Kate fi nds great inspiration from infl uences such as the artist Scott Radke, whose originality she greatly admires. She feels fi ercely protective of her designs and styles. Since her work is unique, she would like to keep it that way. “Serious money can only be earned by those artists who make a big name for themselves and get into the mainstream market, so it is very hard when you see your designs plagiarised and sold on eBay,” she explains.

It takes three to four hours to make her patch style dolls (wormwood and poisons). The other larger, more detailed styles take longer. The bodies are stained and machine stitched, whilst the limbs and patches are hand sewn. Each face is hand-painted using layers of oil and take several days to complete due to the lengthy drying periods.

The BEAUTIFUL side of DEATH

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