the dream syndicate art dolls
You can find the Dream Syndicate Art Dolls submission to Jack Conte's first annual Super Patron Endowment Grant. Maker of Poseable Fantasy Art Dolls, Ryan Friant, makes submission to Super Patron Grant.
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Iโm not sure what my latest polymer clay fantasy art doll Drust isโฆ I think of him as some sort of goblin I suppose. If you asked Drust, I donโt know what he would tell you he is either. I imagine him to be adventurous and likely mischievous at times. One day in his boredom, a wayfly happened by and Drust couldnโt help but chase it!
In the scene captured in โReachingโ, I imagine that Drust has scaled a column of face vaults, statues with secrets of the ages locked away within, and finds his wayfly quarry just out of his grasp! Will he catch it or will it slip through his spindly little fingers?
A wayfly is a winged-key found in the wilds of the Dream Syndicate. Found individually, in pairs, or flying in flocks, wayflies often are found near ancient ruins or in catacombs. Capturing a wayfly takes guile, but the real clever feat is to determine which lock a given wayfly calls home.
Limited Edition of 25 Print: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/thedreamsyndstore/reaching18x24print
Open Edition: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/thedreamsyndstore/reaching11x14print
Thanks for joining me so far and hereโs to the adventures we have in future! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter (in the sidebar) to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!
Iโve had a fair number of sketches similar to the image I created for my Captain Ahab piece, โOde to Obsessionโ, for years. Iโve been intending to make a Captain Ahab portrait and actually read Herman Melvilleโs โMoby Dickโ for years. Recently Iโve finally read the book and crafted a Moby Dick inspired art doll, but itโs telling that I was able to make an image that gets the theme of Moby Dick and Ahabโs disastrous pursuit of the white whale across without ever having read the book- most of us know this story without having ever read it! Thatโs the power of Melvilleโs Captain Ahab: he is THE archetype of when passion and drive crosses-over into self-destructive obsession and ruin. Heโs transcended the pages of the novel and become the cliche, the shorthand of the thing he represents.
When creating the Moby Dick art doll, Melville describes Capt. Ahab, aside from his iconic whalebone peg leg, as having a scorched face, grey hair, and a scar that runs the length of his face and body, which I wanted to capture in my interpretation. Iโve seen other interpretations of Ahab that make him look hardy and vigorous, but when I imagine him, I always see him as this hard-angled, hollowed-out sinewy character. I really liked this idea of Ahab solemnly looking out and being tangled-up in his harpoon line and though itโs kind of subtle, he has a noose cast about his neck, foretelling the doom that he seeks and the prophesy of hempen rope being his end.
I find myself thinking of Ahab as a patron saint of creatives or anyone that has a passion, a drive for what they do but the path is unclear and even perilous. Many artists find themselves making emotional, relationship, and financial sacrifices to chase that white whale of earning a livelihood doing the things that they love. And since we donโt only have an effect on our own life, we impact the liveโs of those around us, the pull of our creative pursuits could also take a toll on our loved-ones as surely as it did Ahabโs crew. The ups and downs of a creative life can be harrowing and itโs often trying to even know if youโre heading toward your white whale or if the risks and the inner turmoil will pan-out and be worth it in the end. The only thing you know for certainโs as scary as all of this has been, is, and will be, looking back and regretting not even attempting the pursuit wouldโve been infinitely worse.
I do want to pull this back from the bleakness a bit and say that we right now live in the best times to try to be a creative! The fact that you can attempt to put your art in front of thousands of people across social media and various websites, the only thing it costs you is time, and find-out if anyone cares- thatโs such an opportunity that all of us creators shouldnโt take for granted. This opportunity simply wasnโt there for creators that were trying to put themselves on their career path and previously only a few people at publishing companies were the ones to decide whether your art was โgood enoughโ. Now if you figure-out how to market your work and amass only a few thousand dedicated fans that you workโs for them, you can have a sustainable career and life, just getting there is full of headwinds and crashing waves. And for that I think itโs worth risking the venture!
Limited Edition: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/thedreamsyndstore/ode-to-obsession-captain-ahab-portrait
Open Edition: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/thedreamsyndstore/ode-to-obsession-captain-ahab-portrait-cwas5
Here is the finished Capt. Ahab illustration! If you would like a print, it is available as a Limited Edition and for a limited time, as an Open Edition Print.
Thanks for joining me so far and hereโs to the adventures we have in future! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter (in the sidebar) to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!
As I look ahead to this year before me, it begs the question, โwhatโs next?โ Iโve a few pieces that have been lurking in my sketchbook for months, if not years, I want to involve this new audience thatโs formed around my art and Iโm going to occasionally ask their input on what to make next, and Iโve an idea for a longer form book project thatโs probably going to take a couple of years to make the coolest thing Iโm able to make at this time.
Read MoreThis Saturday I'm taking a leap that I've put off for some time in years past- I'm getting ready to show at my first art booth at the Art Star Craft Bazaar here in sunny, hot, humid Philadelphia! Art Star has been running successful arts and crafts shows for several years in the area and I feel like I'm in pretty good hands. This is a pop-up show, which means it's only one day for a few hours. The first date for it is Saturday, 7/28/18 from 12-5pm.
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There's a few reasons I've put off boothing at art fairs, but I think one major one was not feeling like I'd ever had a large enough body of solid artworks to show. I don't feel like you can do this sort of a show without 10-12 images you feel strongly about. There's also a fair amount of start-up costs to running a booth- there's the cost of inventory (and the packaging of said inventory) and the display and booth decor items aren't particularly cheap if you don't happen to have what you need on-hand and want to have a certain level of professionalism to your presentation.
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Speaking of professional presentation, there's a few people I'd like to thank for inspiring me with best practices, either from watching their content or sending them the occasional frantic Facebook message. I've been following the independent genre artist podcast One Fantastic Week's YouTube content for a couple of years and I think there's few better resources for entrepreneurial artists and they've a great community of like-minded people. I also owe Pete Mohrbacher a beer for recommending El-Co Color Labs- they've produced some really fantastic prints of my art. Crystal Sully, creator of "Untamed Beastiary", was also super helpful in helping me track down a couple of vendors for booth supplies. Rather than have you track Crystal down, I'll list the vendors I've used for booth display.
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Printing: http://www.elcocolor.net/
Banner: https://www.nextdaydisplay.com/product/fabric-wrinkle-free/
Print Bags, Cardboard Backing, & Shopping Bags: https://www.clearbags.com/
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I'm doing four of these shows and I'll let you know how they ultimately went- fingers-crossed that it was worth it! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!
How rude of me- I've yet to properly introduce my YouTube channel. In this video, I do just that by giving folks a taste of what they can expect from The Dream Syndicate Art Dolls with this channel trailer.
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Throughout my videos, I share the process I use in crafting fantasy art dolls, showing you how I sculpt, paint, build, and paint them. I also show how some of the props are made for a photo shoot and a glimpse of what the photography sets look like for my dimensional art doll illustrations. When I'm not creating videos about making art dolls, I make videos about the arts, whether it's culture or thoughts about what it's like to be a professional artist today.
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To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!
