The Marais’ Other Name is Little Bear Walking

Whooping Crane

I often portray birds in my work. They are the go-betweens between sky and earth — the singers, the chirpers, the aviators. 

The Marais’ Other Name is Little Bear Walking is a meditation, a remembrance and a dream. The antique doll body’s torso is collaged with love letters, typed on an old Remington typewriter and cut into strips. The collaged letters on top spell out “Dear” and inside the “e” is the word “beloved”. The strips of paper on the torso resemble bandages as does the “x” on the abdomen. Whooping Crane has wounds that he bravely displays. All of life and what he has learned on his journey have brought him to this very moment. 

The body is collaged with old clothing patterns that were my mom’s. Whooping Crane’s head is made from repurposed cloth and embroidered with cartography symbols and totemic sky beings created from pathways walked in Paris. One map/totemic sky being is simultaneously called “Le Marais” and “Little Walking Bear,” representing the path taken that day through the Marais and also the name of the totemic sky being I envision. 

The bits of cloth used are like a patchwork quilt pieced together and a metaphor for a woman’s life. The green patterned eyelids are from my mother’s apron strings, the red cloth is from a brocante market in Paris, the fish-printed cloth used for the beak is from an old pair of shorts worn too many summers. The neck and crest are from a cloth Yum Yum fertilizer bag saved from when the bags were made from cloth. Old shells, buttons and beads collected over time and from many places adorn the neck and wings. The wings are made from old kid leather gloves and the wingtips are adorned with black seed beads. The feet are painted blue because as well as being a sky being, the whooping crane frequents watery places.

The Marais’ Other Name is Little Bear Walking is a one of a kind mixed media art doll sculpture with a hanging loop on the back for wall display and measures 26.25 x 7 x 6 inches

photo by Addison Doty