HEALING
DOLLS
Doll Artist:
Chanelle Reid
Pt Macquarie in
New South Wales
Australia
ABUSE
The Challenge is a Doll
From Deep within your heart.
We're sending little trims'n things
To help you make a start.
Tell us a story if you like
Show us your inner soul
There's tales out there we need to hear
Let it all unfold
One Millennium has past
Another one we face
Our pioneers helped shape our lives
To create a better race.
Salt of the Earth we are
As we look into the Future
Dance and be a soul maker
As our spirit within we Nurture.
Author unknown.
NEW LIFE
FEELING BALL
closeup
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Chanelle calls making her
healing dolls her sanity and prefers to call
them “meaning dolls.”
She lives in a small coastal country town in Australia. She has been
making and designing dolls for four years. These healing dolls, Abuse and
New Life. began with a cloth doll challenge called Millennium Madness.
This was the Australian Doll Retreat ran by Doll-a-Rama. The
challenge began with each participant receiving the poem and fabric to use
on her doll.
Chanelle made two dolls, one that focused on the pain, the other on the
growth beyond the pain. Her first doll is
called ABUSE. She was inspired by the poem and
the fabric she received from a doll challenge. The blue and purple fabric
reminded her of a big bruise. She made a doll
that has a
blue, bruised body, her legs are wrapped with blue fabric and she has blue
hair. The doll is kneeling, pulling at her
hair, with an open mouth like she was screaming, and beads for tears streaming down her face. She
has a happy face, beaded mask lying at her knees. Her
story tells of how when she took away the mask and clothes (things that
hide her true self), this is how she felt – bruised, screaming and
wanting to pull her hair out.
She says, “I didn't want to make just another doll, a doll that people
would say - isn't that pretty and sit it up on the shelf. I
wanted a doll that made a statement, I wanted to make a doll that told a
story, a doll that meant something, that spoke to someone, as if to say -
I know how you feel, because I've felt like that too. I
wanted a doll that spoke out and didn't hold the secrets. I
want people to know a small part of the effect that abuse had on people-
whether it was sexual, physical or emotional abuse.”
"I learned through making the doll that, I could speak through my dolls
without saying any words, I could express myself. I’ve
met others who have had similar experiences and lived through them.
It has been my experience that many doctors put people on
medication, instead of letting them deal with there feelings.
Many people are scared to express what they are feeling,
because they were worried what other people would think of them, or that
they wouldn’t be able to stay in control."
"This doll did cause a bit of a "ruckus”. People
said "how could you make such a hideous doll" and "fancy
making such a morbid doll". I know the
person who had the most problem with it was still dealing with her past
hurts. When I sent the doll to the exhibition,
I expected it to come back in tatters, it didn’t. I didn't win any
awards, but I did get a letter from elinor peace bailey saying how much
she admired my work and its message."
Chanelle’s second doll, NEW LIFE, was inspired from the poem as well
and fabric in shades of green and olive.
This doll is about her healing process. She wrapped her
with vines and flowers. She has a mirror for a
face and holds a clay face in her hands. She
has a ball of different emotions. This doll
represents moving through the healing process and carrying on with living
your life.
Chanelle says, “With the NEW LIFE doll, I wanted to give hope, and not
just leave it as a tale of woe, or this is what you will feel like forever
with the Abuse Doll.”
But with the rain to wash away and rejuvenate, the shoots
of greenery start to grow. Life starts again.
I wanted people to know you can get through this and start
to live again. The doll became a symbol for
Chanelle, a reminder that when things get me her down, life can start
again.
“A person said to me once,” she says, “when bad things happen to you
- you can get bitter or you can get better.” “You
can learn something and apply it to your life or you can be always
miserable wondering Why me?! I choose the Why
not me!”
“There are four faces on the ball, with beads as a vine baked into the
clay, You choose the face you want to wear. Not
saying that we should always be happy or always were the mask of
contentment, but there are many faces to reflect, of different emotion, at
different times in our lives.”
“Most of the crafts that I have done in life, never spoke to me.”, she
says. This was a different, wonderful experience for Chanelle, to make
something, that can speak without words. “I hope to show my dolls to
other young girls and women who gone through abuse.”
This doll can stand as a symbol of the experience and acknowledgement
there is new life beyond it. “I showed the
abuse doll to a young
girl who said, "I know how that doll feels". I want to show her
the New Life doll, and hope that she will understand that
through healing, she can also know how this doll feels too.”
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