SOLANDE Art Doll Project

“The invisibleness of light, makes our lives visible” – G.Colleuil.

Early on in life, connecting the dots was something that intrigued me. The people we meet and the situations we encounter are no longer things I consider arbitrary. A short couple of years ago, I took a mind blowing course with a brilliant linguistics professor, writer, psychotherapist, philosopher, researcher of mythology, seeker of symbols, George Colleuil. Even earlier on, during my formative years in high school, my English literature teacher, a beautiful woman, writer & mother, Joyce Lott, opened up my senses and introduced me to the unspoken world of symbolism. Her “Ad Analysis” class, took psychology, and symbolism to the next level. It was my very first encounter with stories, images and an unspoken truth that I could feel deep in my bones.

Unknowingly, my mother Ella, bought me a translated deck of Tarot cards while I was studying medicine in Romania – (she thought these cards to be something too interesting and fun to pass up). As they sat for years in my study, dust gently caressing the book’s cover, their turn to shine, finally seems to have come. The cards and their symbolism have become magical tools, archetype studies and bridges that link the past to the present, making ripples in the sands of time for generations to come.

After years of research in psychology and art, scene design finally gave me the opportunity to mix and match my worlds. Symbols finally captured new perspectives.

Books, stories, turned into images, came to life.

Georges Colleuil took this love of symbolism found not only in the Tarot Cards (the Marseille and the Marrakesh) but also in the histories of many cultures, to the next level. He speaks arduously about a symbol’s therapeutic function. He tells us of the bridge that connects our worlds, and goes so far as to say that when we inscribe a symbol in our existence, we find meaning in chaotic events. Discovering a symbol’s  true dimensions is only complete when the symbol is reinvested  – in and with our personal experience, the experience of a single human being; inscribed in our culture and society.  It needs the help of our history, individual and collective, our emotional intelligence, conscious or unconscious, for it to fully bloom. Symbols need us and we need symbols to live and to transcend. Colleuil says that the absence of a symbol, is the presence of a symptom. Symbols drain a symptom’s repressed substance, making way for healing.

We all know that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. But perhaps intention preceded this word? Surely after, a palpable being came to life.

Solande Art Dolls, the 22 archetype collection seeks to unify, unite, and connect us with a missing or ever present gift of our own; one that will help in our healing and that will further unite us.

The figures are made of organic materials. The heads, hands and feet are made of cast liquid porcelain, sculpted, and fired. The body has a metal frame that is wrapped and draped in wool. The art dolls move freely with the help of wooden ball joints as they are draped in silk, cotton and linen costumes.

Now more than ever, we need to be reminded, in a world which seeks to tear us apart, that we are ONE. One being, crossing oceans, galaxies and fields.