Zombie dolls. I can’t believe I’m still making zombie dolls after about 10 years of making my first one. I’ve gone on to graduate with a fine arts degree, developed crochet sculptures, became a portrait artist and graphic designer/illustrator. Yet these little dolls persist. I engineered them because I needed a creative outlet. I say “engineered” because designing them took engineering, not just designing. My brother challenged me to make one. Here was the result:

After that, I designed the eye to fit into the socket.

Now I have my dolls for sale at a shop in Hillsborough, NC. The supply is almost gone, so I’m making a few more. They’re like Cabbage Patch Kids in that each is unique, but instead of a cute birth story, they have their own post-mortem story. My newest edition is the first to have an arm ripped out of the socket.

Damn, they might need a story for each. I have one in my head every time!

I work in several areas. I started out in fiber arts, which I did primarily for fourteen years, until I went to school for my Associates degree in fine arts in 2016. Now, my main focus is portrait illustration, both realistic and ridiculous. My fiber arts played so heavily in my studies as a means to a solution that I’ve branched out from just hats and dolls to full sculptures. In 2019, my charcoal drawing of a statue at Duke Gardens won Best in Show at the Spring Arts Show at Duke Gardens. I’ve gone on to modeling for other artists and teaching art. I consistently create parody illustrations at a local record store, which now has ink portraits and a few fiber art pieces.