Memorial Dolls by Jennifer Stocks-Dearborn

I don’t really care for OOAK “baby” dolls but the story behind these are really touching and worth taking notice. This appeared in my local news rag this week.

“Despite that somewhat humorous description, Stocks-Dearborn’s art began with anything but laughter. As much creativity does, hers originated in darkness — death, to be precise. Her 16-month-old daughter Madison died of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) on October 8, 2000. Within the next three years, Stocks-Dearborn married and had two sons. But the healing process from her daughter’s death did not really begin until April 2006, when a friend forwarded an email about Canadian sculptor Camille Allen’s “Marzipan Babies.”

“As I stared at these tiny, hand-sculpted babies made from clay, I thought, I can do that,” Stocks-Dearborn recalls. “And I did. I remember sculpting my very first piece, and how my anxieties and overwhelming tidal waves of emotions subsided. From that first one, I was hooked.”

By June 2006 she had started selling her own “creepy, naked babies” on eBay. A month later, she created a clay baby memorial piece for a mournful parent. “From that point on,” Stocks-Dearborn says, “I knew this was something I was supposed to do. This hobby of mine that aids in mending my broken heart doesn’t just stop when I have completed it. It’s meant to move me forward — on to others who walk my path.” Source

This is a great little bio movie about her and her work:
Memorial Dolls Video