Germaine found two blank canvases painted black. Being a klutz I dropped one and made a hole. So Barbie could now crash inwards. Loni helped my hang the canvases level and Miriam started by applying the clouds. I had envisioned this being a community project again but I wanted artistic license here so only Miriam was involved! Tanya told me it had to be more than just Barbie breaking through a canvas – so I made it my world.
I collected loads of stuff over many months and played around a lot with ideas.
It has lots of animals (cats/dogs/birds) as well as a cow (India). I have designated anything that is red, amber, green a traffic light and there are three sorts of these (small plastic cups/sweets that look like lego/popcorn). I found a road marking tape in the Flying Tiger store. I made the Belisha Beacons (that stand either side of a zebra crossing and flash) from painted sticks that I made stripey with white stickers. The yellow beacon is a flock bauble I found in Next in Milton Keynes! The pin broaches I get from one of my favourite Archway coffee shops – Crick’s Corner – and the money goes to the RSPB and my sister-in-law Tracy manages their supply. There are birds, small mammals, butterflies and flowers. I made the clouds from lego style blocks in pink, white and purple. There are snowflakes with whales for fun and gold sprayed terracotta pots which I used for coffee in India. They have black flowers, fishing wire with Rudolf the red nosed reindeer earrings and flat bits of plant.
One of my constant shape themes are spirals and I have illustrated them here with blue earrings in the shape of a spiral and two interlocking silver spiral earrings.
Purple is a go to colour and there are three wooden trees all painted with different purple inks. One has heart earrings and the other one animal earrings. At the bottom of each tree is a duck.
I bought astroturf with Caroline FC when I arrived to make it into small mats for use as Talulah’s garden toilet. At the bottom of these pieces is a small thin (unused!) piece. The gold sprayed Barbie torso’s came with a set with 4 Barbie outfits. The glue from the gun was so hot it melted the handle! To make the painting lie flat I had to saw off Barbie’s legs and it seemed a shame to waste them so they are at the bottom next to one of my favourite flowers (frangipane). On a wooden curved piece of thin wood I placed 6 skateboards with 6 firetrucks on top. There is a green bicycle on the grass as well as a London red bus and red post box to remind me of my UK roots! My children Betsy and Harry are very happy to see my Barbie projects. Toby less so. For him I have put in two gold elephants underneath 4 mermaids. They are surrounded by various shades of blue puff paint
