Kind Dolls. Old Fairy Tales

The world of the author’s doll is a real workshop where unusual and wonderful images are created. Marina Vasilieva concentrated her creative activity on the main problem of the doll art – resemblance to a man.

As a rule, such dolls are made in a single copy. And they are intended not for playing, but for contemplation, collection and decoration of the interior. To create such a miracle, an artist should be good at everything, including modelling, painting, sewing, and decoration. The master should be able to work with different materials and tools. On the whole, the creator of a doll is both a sculptor, an artist, a joiner, a decorator, a make-up artist, a tailor, a shoemaker and a jeweller. And this list can be continued. It takes hundreds of hours to make just one doll.

“The doll embodies the secret world of childhood when everything seems to be real and magic and to promise miracles. The person becomes adult, but the doll-toy, the doll-image, the doll - work of art still lives near him or her as if it had two faces: one faces the cherished world of childhood, another reminds of the other reality – the world of artwork. Perhaps this is the reason why we have a special attitude to the doll which originates from their attractive magic power. The fate and use of the doll determined the variety of its kinds and shapes. But there are dolls the practical usefulness of which is not important. They live in accordance with the laws of high art embodying profound meaning, irreproachable beauty and expressiveness of forms. These dolls are real works of art. They are created like painting or music. The most significant is an artistic image.

Creative activity for the artist making dolls is a lifestyle, one of the meanings of life; it is the air you want to breathe. When you take usual clay and model something unique, wonderful and alive using it, this world becomes a little bit better and kinder. I always want to improve my skills and to learn new techniques, to invent and to experiment. And it is so pleasant to share results with other people”, Marina Vasilieva says.

Marina Vasilieva is a professional artist-ceramist and a designer. She makes author’s dolls, terracotta sculptures, earthenware, and folk toys. Her works are kept in the collections of the Kirillo-Belozersky museum-reserve, the Vologda State Museum-Preserve, the Vologda Regional Museum of Modern Decorative and Applied Arts, the Cherepovets Museum Association, and in private collections in Russia, Germany, France and other countries.

Marina Vasilieva delivers interesting master-classes in the Cook-house of the Kirillo-Belozersky museum-reserve.