Featured Post

2D to 3D: Artist Room Studies, Jennifer Hawkins Hock

To emphasize a captured moment in the daily life and environment of these artists is my goal ; to spotlight their appreciation for the art f...

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Malcolm Rice Dollhouse, 1929

Displayed within the Farragut Folklife Museum in Tennessee, this Malcolm Rice Dollhouse is well-engineered, imaginative, and exudes a rather mysterious aura. Rice, an architect, built the house with electric lighting and it withstood three generations of play. Several details reveal the builder and creators involved were thinking out-of-the-box: a couple of the walls have very detailed, large murals depicting flamingos and either alligators or crocodiles. One room has an elaborate and modern-for-the-time recessed ceiling light. The door at the top of a staircase looks stern and gothic - with studs and metalwork. In its entirety, the dollhouse has a feeling of something created by many hands and eyes imbued with an awareness informed by many cultures and by history.  The Rice Dollhouse offers plenty of charming details - such as a courtyard fountain which has for a base a now-very-antique shoe polish tin, three cats: including one nearly as big as the boy descending the stairs - and another perched on the kitchen table.  The curtains on the four-poster bed depict what appears to be an Asian batik or block-print fabric.  In the papa doll's room is an alcove or shrine.  A pillow on the four-poster bed is hand-embroidered and the curtains, though now worn and slightly ghostly, look to be made of women's fancy handkerchiefs - the kind with silky stitched florals or decorative borders, now to be found in a grandmother's handbag. On one wall is a framed photograph of a young woman in a chequered dress - her legs crossed and I wonder if she is someone who once received the spark of imagination from this dollhouse, but that for now is a mystery. I'm so glad to have seen this dollhouse - which tells many stories in its details and which has been so lovingly preserved as-is.
Malcolm Rice Dollhouse, Farragut Folklife Museum - TN. Photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Malcolm Rice Dollhouse, Farragut Folklife Museum - TN. Photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Malcolm Rice Dollhouse, Farragut Folklife Museum - TN. Photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Malcolm Rice Dollhouse, Farragut Folklife Museum - TN. Photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Girl in chequered dress, Malcolm Rice Dollhouse 1929 - photo JHH

Knox Asian Festival 2016 Photos

Beautiful day, great performances, music, and costumes.  Free hand-held fans to welcome cool air.  Excellent event!  Such pretty fabrics - would loved to have seen the kimono show, but fortunately met this very nice kimekomi dollmaker. What a lovely smile! 
kimekomi dollmaker, Knox Asian Festival 2016 - photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

kimekomi dolls - back bows, Knox Asian Festival 2016 - photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Knox Asian Festival 2016, photo JHH

Knox Asian Festival 2016, photo JHH

Knox Asian Festival 2016, photo JHH
Knox Asian Festival 2016 - Thailand, photo JHH

Knox Asian Festival 2016 - Thailand, photo JHH

Knox Asian Festival 2016 - Thailand, photo JHH
Enjoyed a dragon and lion dance so lively it raised the hackles and barks of onlooking dogs. Sans photo, you'll have to imagine this: Young martial arts students slipped into ferocious furry costumes and climbed on each others shoulders, then glided, jumped, and tumbled around the stage. Separately, the boys and costumes brought no response from the dogs - but the instant the boys brought the creatures to life - fierce barks galore!