The Sacred heart Orphans. Meet Margaret and Frank.
The Sacred Heart Orphans
My little girl and boy are from The Sacred Heart Orphanage. Their story is very sad. Their dear mother died when she toppled from a train platform and was crushed under a Steam Engine barreling through Philadelphia’s 30th street station in 1942. She was there to find a home for here newest baby. They were desperately poor and she had decided that she wanted this newest child to have a better life . She found a nice Irish woman waiting in the train station and asked her to hold her baby while she went to the ladies room. She then climbed out the window, leaving her baby with the Irish woman. She tried to hurry away unnoticed failing to see a large brown bear asleep on the platform. She tripped over him and fell under the passing express train. Her husband was grief stricken when he heard the news that he had lost his wife and new born child.He went stark raving mad!
So the remaining two children were sent to the Sacred Heart Orphanage.The very same place where I grew up many years later.
It’s not a nice place. The Sisters of the Sacred Heart are cruel.
Margaret and Frank have to be adopted together because at this point they have gone through too much to be seperated. I know what it’s like to be separated from your brothers. I was separated from my four brothers and even though you fight and scrap , you still love them and miss them.
The girl is about 3 inches high. So she is no trouble at all. She eats very little but her little brother can be a handful, as boys tend to be.
They are made entirely of porcelain and china painted with Mongolian sheep hair. The clothes are hand sewn by me. They took longer then the sculpting of the bodies! They will soon be for sell in my Etsy shop!
Audrey Hepburn’s head is all fixed
I can’t believe it- no cracks! I was actually able to repair everything and she looks better than ever! Sometimes if you lose your head things turn out better!
I am using a cloth body as an experiment this time. That is why she has a breast plate with holes to sew it to the body.
Now that is a beautiful bald head, don’t cha think?
The hole above her ear is for the cross wire that holds up the springs.
Audrey Hepburn
You just can’t get more perfect beauty.
My next sculpt is Audrey Hepburn. I’ve almost got her head done which is the hardest AND the most fun part. I started out doing it in super sculpt because I got this great new book.
“Doll Making- One artist’s Approach by Robert McKinnley.
Great book BUT I found out I hate, hate, hate sculpt now that I am spoiled by porcelain. So I scrapped that first head and reworked her head in luscious porcelain. Now that her head is done I really have to decide what pose and outfit she will be wearing AND how much of her will be jointed. Decisions, decisions …I also hate making decisions. They are so, ummm, final. Sigh. But there comes a time when it must be done and now is the time.
The wonderful thing about Audrey, and there are many wonderful things about her, is that she knew how to wear clothes. I so admire that since I am a totally failure at clothes wearing. But Audrey is , well a star in that department. Let me show you what I’ve narrowed it down to and maybe you can help me decide?
1. Breakfast at Tiffanys- which has been done by everyone but there is a reason for that.
Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
2. Roman Holiday-
I wonder if I could make a Vespa Scooter from clay?
3. Sabrina-
Fresh back from Paris, Sabrina turns heads in this suit by Givenchy. This is a lovely scene where David Larrabee offers her a lift, failing to recognise her.
The camera pans up, first taking in her rather stylish luggage and dog with a sparkly collar:
See, poodles are very chic! (I have a standard poodle).
I could make all the little suitcases and everything.
Could be good? What do you think?
The suit is quite boxy across the shoulder, with a nipped in waist. It appears to be double breasted. Kick pleat in the back of the pencil skirt:
Isn’t she adorable?
Close-up of the hat, which although appearing to be a turban of draped fabric is actually rigid.
4. Funny Face
This is a very classic look for Audrey. But is it the right one for me to do?
Frida is painting
She is finally done- the magnificent Frida! She is sculpted with movable arms which hold a palette of paint in one hand and a hand-made brush in the other. She is wearing a white slip underneath a full brightly colored skirt. Her blouse is stretch black with tiny embroidered roses. I mad everything by hand including her bamboo easel. I painted her little painting. I love her! Now I just have to figure out how much to charge and I will be putting her up for sale on Etsy.
Presenting Frida, the painter.
Frida quotes (you know how much I love quotes and she said some cool one)s:
described Kahlo herself as a “ribbon around a bomb”.
“I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”
“I was born a bitch. I was born a painter.”
“I suffered two grave accidents in my life…One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was Diego.”
Once when asked what to do with her body when she dies, Frida replied: “Burn it…I don’t want to be buried. I have spent too much time lying down…Just burn it!”
Her last diary entry read: “I hope the end is joyful – and I hope never to return – Frida.”.
“I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”
“I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint.”
“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly”
Who was Frida~ you say?
Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954; Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón) was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán. Perhaps best known for her self-portraits, Kahlo’s work is remembered for its “pain and passion”, and its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.
FRIDA’S BIRTH & CHILDHOOD
July 6, 1907 Frida was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent. She did not originally plan to become an artist.
A survivor of polio, she entered a pre-med program in Mexico City.
FRIDA’S HORRIBLE ACCIDENT
On September 17, 1925, at age 18,Frida was riding in a bus when the vehicle collided with a trolley car. She suffered serious injuries as a result of the accident.
- a broken spinal column,
- a broken collarbone,
- broken ribs,
- a broken pelvis,
- eleven fractures in her right leg,
- a crushed and dislocated right foot,
- a dislocated shoulder.
- an iron handrail pierced her abdomen and her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability.
The accident left her in a great deal of pain while she spent three months recovering in a full body cast. Although she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she had relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time. She had as many as thirty-five operations as a result of the accident, mainly on her back, her right leg, and her right foot. The injuries also prevented Kahlo from having a child because of the medical complications and permanent damage. All three pregnancies had to be terminated
During her convalescence she began to paint. Her mother had a special easel made for her so she could paint in bed, and her father lent her his box of oil paints and some brushes.
FRIDA’S HEALTH
1913~At the age of six, Frida developed polio, which caused her right leg to appear much thinner than the other. It was to remain that way permanently.
FRIDA’S ART
Her paintings, mostly self-portraits and still life, were deliberately naïve, and filled with the colors and forms of Mexican folk art.During her lifetime, Frida created some 200 paintings, drawings and sketches related to her experiences in life, physical and emotional pain and her turbulent relationship with Diego. She produced 143 paintings, 55 of which are self-portraits.
In 1953, when Frida Kahlo had her first solo exhibition in Mexico (the only one held in her native country during her lifetime), a local critic wrote:
“It is impossible to separate the life and work of this extraordinary person. Her paintings are her biography.”
She was influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is apparent in her use of bright colors and dramatic symbolism. She frequently included the symbolic monkey. In Mexican mythology, monkeys are symbols of lust, but Frida portrayed them as tender and protective symbols. Christian and Jewish themes often are depicted by her work
This observation serves to explain why her work is so different from that of her contemporaries. At the time of her exhibition opening, Frida’s health was such that her Doctor told her that she was not to leave her bed. She insisted that she was going to attend her opening, and, in Frida style, she did. She arrived in an ambulance and her bed in the back of a truck. She was placed in her bed and four men carried her in to the waiting guests.
Today, more than half a century after her death, her paintings fetch more money than any other female artist. A visit to theMuseo Frida Kahlo is like taking a step back in time. All of her personal effects are displayed throughout the house and everything seems to be just as she left it. One gets the feeling that she still lives there but has just briefly stepped out to allow you to tour her private sanctuary. She is gone now but her legacy will live on forever….
FRIDA’S LOVE & MARRIAGE
At 22 she married the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, 20 years her senior. Their stormy, passionate relationship survived infidelities, the pressures of careers, divorce, remarriage, Frida’s bi-sexual affairs, her poor health and her inability to have children. The streetcar accident left her crippled physically and Rivera crippled her emotionally.
FRIDA’S POLITICS
Both Frida and Diego were very active in the Communist Party in Mexico. In early July 1954, Frida made her last public appearance, when she participated in a Communist street demonstration.
FRIDA’S DEATH
Soon after, on July 13th, 1954, at the age of 47, Frida passed away. The official cause of death was given as a pulmonary embolism, although some suspected that she died from an overdose that may or may not have been accidental.An autopsy was never performed. She had been very ill throughout the previous year and her right leg had been amputated at the knee, owing to gangrene. She had a bout of bronchopneumonia about that time, which had left her quite frail.
In his autobiography, Diego Rivera would write that the day Kahlo died was the most tragic day of his life, adding that, too late, he had realized that the most wonderful part of his life had been his love for her.
On the day after her death, mourners gathered at the crematorium to witness the cremation of Mexico’s greatest and most shocking painter. Soon to be an international icon, Frida Kahlo knew how to give her fans one last unforgettable goodbye. As the cries of her admirers filled the room, the sudden blast of heat from the open incinerator doors caused her body to bolt upright. Her hair, now on fire from the flames, blazed around her head like a halo. Frida’s lips seemed to break into a seductive grin just as the doors closed.
Her ashes were placed in a pre-Columbian urn which is on display in the “Blue House” that she shared with Rivera. One year after her death, Rivera gave the house to the Mexican government to become a museum. Diego Rivera died in 1957. On July 12th, 1958, the “Blue House” was officially opened as the “Museo Frida Kahlo”.
Frida has been described as: “…one of history’s grand divas…a tequila-slamming, dirty joke-telling smoker, bi-sexual that hobbled about her bohemian barrio in lavish indigenous dress and threw festive dinner parties for the likes of Leon Trotsky, poet Pablo Neruda, Nelson Rockefeller, and her on-again, off-again husband, muralist Diego Rivera.”
Frida, self portrait 1940 oil
Jeff, my little brother , memorial sculpture
Its finished, the memorial sculpture I did of my recently decreased little brother who died of a massive heart attack at age 51. Very sad but somehow making this little sculpture of him helps- a lot. I’m thinking that I might start doing this for other people too. It would be a very nice way to remember a loved one.
My Little Bowls
I’ve been making little bowls. I’m having so much fun painting them and selling them on Etsy.
Poppa says'"Walk it off.". Momma says, "Tough tittys."
A squirrel with dropped Ice cream.
Don't worry till you have to.
My mother always said," You attract more bees with honey than vinegar."
My mother always said," If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you too?"
My mother always said," If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
I woke up wanting to kiss you
Owl always love youElephant Love
everyday art by Kathy O'Connell 