FEATURED ARTIST! Welcome to the Fantasy Creature Doll Club featured artist of the month article! We have some incredible talent and wonderful people in our club. How about we get to know a bit about each other? The following is our September 2018 interview. Enjoy!
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Interviewer: Jenny Roemmich
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Featured Artist: Kate Drakewyck
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What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work? I always like to try new things. I work with wood, taught myself to crochet and knit, work with clay, make plushes, designed my tattoos, and have done murals. If I’m tired I look at learning something (next is learning the airbrush). I also know that sometimes I’m tired and I need a break, so I choose to read or get out and dance.
What is the most interesting species of animal you’ve made up? And tell us a little about it. I think that is a tie. Gracelings are interesting in the sense I feel they will give me the best chance to progress, are the most recent animals I made up, the body and furred neck of a gryphon, but with the face being any animals or masks. They give me a wide range to work with and quite a few ways that I can have them progress (more detailed faces, change the feet to clay, and add a skeleton) toward making an art doll. The species that I found the most interesting and really loved are the Gift Dragons. I’ve always loved the idea of Anne McCaffrey’s dragons hatching and choosing someone. Dragons that I designed, that each had a special gift to share with their human partner was great and I loved the idea that people wouldn’t know who they got until they opened the egg.
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How would you like your art to be remembered? As something that I did because I enjoyed the creating and something that each individual got because it was a piece that fit with them.
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What do you take inspiration from for your artwork? Everything. I love rats, so I’ve done quite a few of the pieces I’ve kept with them in it. I enjoy reading and get ideas from that. I’ve collected unicorns and dragons, always with such a specific idea of how they look, so taking some of what I imagined and tying it in. I look at gemstones at the museum and take pictures at the zoo or I find it as a play on words.
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What is a weird or fun fact about yourself? I do have rats now, working with shelters to take unwanted rats or rats that have been abused. My big strength is rats that are biters, for different reasons come and I can find a way to make them feel safe. The fun fact is that I was terrified of rats (it was the teeth) until I was almost 20. I was working at a pet shop and a rat had babies, they wanted to throw them away and even being afraid, I couldn’t let it happen. I hand raised the litter and was able to get past my fear as they grew. I’ve loved them and considered them my family ever since.
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If you could be any animal in the world, what animal would you be and why? I don’t know. There are so many I would love to be: rat, panda, wolf, horse and it’s because of their grace and beauty, but I’ve also seen what can happen to animals in the world and I wonder what I would be wishing myself into.