I have always loved photographs – looking at family photographs, taking snaps on school field trips, making my own memories of friends and family. I wanted to take a photography class in junior high school, but I couldn’t afford an SLR (single lens reflex – aka “fancy professional”) camera. So I continued snapping with my plastic Vivitar 35mm camera and disposable 35mm film cameras until my husband gifted me a Fuji Finepix for Christmas in 2006. Hundreds of photos of my cats, dogs, and flowers later, I wanted to earn a little extra cash on the side as a pet photographer and I enrolled in a photography class at Manchester Community College in 2010.

A short six months after learning how photography can become art, I was a victim of the Great Recession and was laid off from my job. Not having an income, I continued my education one class a semester at a time. In just about a year and a half, I was lucky enough to hear about a student job that was available to “graduating seniors” who wanted to help the professors in the wet black and white darkroom. Well, I got that job and held on to it for seven years. The money I earned helped not only pay for my classes, photo gear, and the supplies necessary to complete assignments, but also for props that I would eventually incorporate into my art.

Entering 2015 and almost meeting the requirements for a photography certificate, I found a hobby photographer who used Barbie™ dolls in her well-crafted dioramas. Mariel Clayton had given me an idea for my final portfolio; while Clayton portrayed Barbie™ as a murderer (a somewhat misandrist murderer), I wanted to reel Barbie™ in from the Dream World that Mattel® had created for her in 2012 and thrust her into reality. Whose reality? Well, I guess that just depends upon the viewer.

After I finished my portfolio, I discovered that Mattel® had introduced a brand new type of Barbie™ doll – the Made-to-Move Barbie™ with 22 articulated joints. What?! Well, these are the exact dolls that I wanted when I was a kid. It always bothered me that Barbie™ was so stiff and I couldn’t make her move more like a real person. I mean, she was supposed to imitate a real person, right? People are able to bend, not be stiff like robots (or, well, toys). Now that I’m older and finally got the toys I desired as a child, I figured it was time to return to my youth with the knowledge of an adult. And so began my long journey of using Barbie™ in my artwork.