About Marie-Claude Dupont

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Falling in love

Sculpting

Best artists

Finding time

Ambitions

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As far as I can remember, I always loved drawing, painting, searching for new crafts' ideas, and making soft sculptures, dolls, small pieces of furniture...

Would you believe it, I was so fond of my creations I even used to offer dolls to the young men I had a crush on!

These three pictures, among my favorite ones, were taken by my father in the early 70's. To me, it evokes my early love for the arts, a passion that led me over the years to the wonderful world of dollmaking...

When did I FALL IN LOVE with dolls?

Shortly before Christmas 1995, I bought The Ultimate Doll Book by Caroline Goodfellow published by Dorling Kindersley Ltd. Among all the beautiful dolls listed in this book, I noticed a few pieces by E. J. Taylor, one of the greatest artists in dollmaking. Born in the United States, he has been living for many years in England.

Taylor's dolls (a few elves he created for the famous Tiffany window in New York) were so remarkably human and gave me such profound emotions that I decided to experiment dollcrafting myself. I must say though that I was a gifted child, talented at drawing and sculpting, so this new project of mine did not appear at first too difficult. I was wrong! I was discovering a very exciting but demanding hobby...

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When did I start SCULPTING dolls?

Soon after reading The Ultimate Doll Book, I bought everything that was published on dollmaking, maga- zines and books. For months, I tried several sculpting medium (throwing lots of unfinished figures in what I call my dolls cemetery before discovering a wonderful durable, smooth and easy-to-use product, Creative Paperclay, which I have settled upon (and recently Super Sculpey, a polymer clay) for my work. The New Yorker Robert Keene McKinley, who died in 1994, often used paperclay for his own characters and wrote, to my opinion, the best how-to book on sculpting dolls with this medium. (See my Bibliographical References).

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I dedicated myself to DOLLMAKING

Little by little, I got familiar with the work of the best contemporary doll artists, the main doll organizations (NIADA, ODACA, UFDC, AADA, etc.) and everything relating to what I call now my new life!Besides the late Robert McKinley and Bill Wiley, my favorite artists are E.J. Taylor, Bill Nelson, Nancy Wiley, Susanna Oroyan, Antonette Cely, Akira Blount, Shelley Thornton, Marlaine Verhelst (The Netherlands), Kathryn Walmsley, Julia Hills (England), Robert Doucette & Tom Slotten, Paul Robins (B.C., Canada) and the long acclaimed Canadian puppeteer Ronnie Burkett.

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FINDING TIME to create, a full-time job

I spend every hour I can creating my own character dolls, even though I work full time at Air Canada, within the e-commerce department. I also enjoy creative writing very much. During the last 15 years, I worked as the editor in chief of the biggest French Canadian web portal, Canoe.qc.ca, plus as a freelance journalist and professional writer for various magazines, including the weekly newspaper Voir.

In 1997, I wrote a book, Zoom on miniatures, based on a peculiar exhibit on miniatures that was held in Québec City at the Musée de la civilisation. Finally, I have been writing short stories, children stories and more recently screenplays that I intend to get published in the future. Let us say that I am a self-taught artist, I'm proud of it!

Although I am relatively new in this field, I hope to reach high level of artistry and to join the prestigious National Institute of Ameri- can Doll Artists, among all the best known doll artists in the world. In the meantime, I work hard to improve my techniques, and I cultivate friendships with fellow doll artists and doll enthusiasts around the world.

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