Kate McEvoy

Kate McEvoy St. Paul

Artist Statement

I have always considered myself creative but it wasn’t until I began to “play “ with dolls that I found my inner Artist. In 1993, my husband and seven year old daughter were living and working in a “ Family Model” group home that served Teens with severe emotional and behavioral problems. I usually stayed up late at night to be sure everyone stayed in his/her own bedroom. I needed to find something creative to do to not only stay awake, but to help keep my sanity in the toughest job I’ve ever had. I had discovered Elinor Peace Bailey’s Mother Plays With Dolls and there was a sewing machine in the house. My first dolls were simple cloth, mostly angels and mermaids as I taught myself to sew. Those late nights alone with my dolls somehow became my therapy, and the simple angels began to speak to me----so much for sanity! They would tell me their names and what gift or special quality they brought so I could tell their story. After all these years and hundreds of dolls, they still speak to me, offering gifts, grace and often a lot of “attitude”.

I find the art doll the perfect medium to express my artist self because I am free to use anything and everything I enjoy. Over the years my dolls have evolved from simple cloth figures to cloth and clay, then to my Stone Crones made with stone bodies with clay heads and hands. Now I really have fun creating figures out of found objects and bits and pieces from both nature and the thrift store!

While the Art Doll frees my Artist Self to play, it also gives expression to my spiritual practice. That practice has also included more than thirty years of studying and working with the Tarot.

For me, both the Tarot and the Art Doll can be experienced on several levels. The Tarot can be used to entertain, to guide, and also to explore the rich tapestry found in the world of the Archetype. The Art Doll can also entertain, make us laugh, and evoke emotion. I have made dolls to mark major passages in my own life like becoming a mother, menopause and the empty nest. While they are very personal to me and my experience, they are certainly also universally Human. Like the Tarot, doll making can be healing, transformational, and can speak to us as to what we share rather than our differences. Sometimes as a Doll is evolving, I am consciously holding an intention, a purpose for the piece. Other times I feel I’m just the hands for Spirit to express Itself. There is nothing more satisfying for me as an artist than to have one of my Dolls find her true home.

BIO
Kate McEvoy

Born in 1946 in St. Paul, MN

B.A. University of Minnesota, Humanities in 1969

Married David Rude in 1985 and Adopted newborn daughter, Caitlin in 1986

My career path has been widely diverse. It has included elementary teacher, restaurant owner, restaurant consultant, Deli manager and caterer, Chef and professional foster parent.

I have been a Tarot Reader at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival for 30 years. My husband, David has been a Reader there with me for 25 years now. Our Daughter grew up as a “Rennie” and luckily she sees that as a good thing.
Our 3 years as foster parents to very difficult teens were by far the most challenging for us as a family.

I have been mostly self-employed since 1996, making dolls, and doing intuitive Readings.

I have rented studio/classroom space in the Everest Building in St. Paul for the past year with my friend and fellow Doll Artist, Amy Chester. We are offering classes and also open to offering the space to other artists for their classes.
I have been certified to teach classes in using a textile medium called Paverpol in doll making and hope to soon be offering Paverpol products for sale out of my studio.

Empty Nest

I worked on this doll on and off for about three years, changing her hair, finding a chair and needle felting her vest. During this time, my Daughter, Caitlin graduated, moved first into her own apartment here and then went all the way to Washington, D.C. to go to college. It wasn't until I was putting the finishing touches on this doll---wondering what to place in the nest , that it even dawned on me that I had been marking a "Passage"---my Empty Nest!

Head, hands and feet are sculpted clay that was sawdust fired.
The body is cotton and hair and vest are wool.

21" Tall- 15" sitting.
Seated on metal chair

Stone Crone - Grace

Stone body with sculpted , painted clay head and hands and glass mosaic shawl

12" tall and 21" around

$500.00

Stone Crone- Still Beautiful

Stone, pit-fired clay with Apoxy Sculpt, recycled fox fur hair, polymer clay hands, cotton treated with Paverpol shawl on wooden base
21"x 9" x 8"

$500 SOLD

She comes from Lake Superiors’ shore. She is heavy so it took some time to bring her down the beach and up a steep bank but like all my Crones, she called to me to take her home where she sat for several months before I began to give her her face. At the time, I did not have a kiln to fire my clay heads so I decided to try to fire her head and hands in a pit in my backyard. Following directions in a book with low-fire techniques, I used a fire pit with a Webber grill and a can with sawdust for a few small heads, hands and feet. After a whole day this first firing, I was really excited and pleased with the results. What had been red clay had fired to a shiny black.

Since there was still some fire left in the pit, I decided to fire five larger heads, including this Stone Crone’s. Unfortunately, the fire was too hot too fast and all five exploded in the can. It has taken me five yeas to piece these heads back together with glue and “plastic surgery” using Apoxy Sculpt. She till has scars but to me she is one of my most beautiful pieces.

Sometimes I remember a time when I felt my life had been blown to pieces, that I wasn’t whole. She reminds me that no matter how many times I may shatter, I am still Whole and Holy!

The Stone Crone comes to us as a teacher and a healer. She is "She Who Remembers". She helps us reconnect with our personal history, our physical being and our inner knowing. Meditate with your Stone Crone---follow her to that still place inside where you are guided and safe. Enter, listen and re-member you you truly are.

This piece began with a piece of driftwood that looked like the bottom half of a figure. I had found it on one of many of my trips to Lake Superior some years ago and rediscovered it in my basement when I moved into a real studio. I started with the head on my first visit to Barb Kobe’s open studio. She introduced me to paper clay which I thought was a good choice for a wooden piece. Her hair called for roots and bark and I gave her hair and a headdress that started to resemble a nest of sorts. I decided I was going to create a

Shaman /Wise Woman. Then I found another treasure in my basement—a driftwood wing. Since it was only one wing, I thought of naming this piece Roots and Wing. Then it was “On a Wing and a Prayer”! This doll was talking to me, as she evolved and I was not at all sure what she was becoming. I was impatient to finish this piece but it was a struggle to find everything she seemed to need. I had planned to do a series of dolls representing the female Archetypes of the Tarot and just couldn’t seem to set my Shaman aside. Finally, she told me who she is----The Fool! Of course she is also telling me that it is time for the next adventure on the Wheel of Life and this time, I’d best be prepared! So I’ve given her tools for the journey—a stone, and arrow, a bowl and a wand representing the suites of Tarot. She also has seeds to plant because the Fool is the seed of all potential. The Fool is both 0 and 22 in Tarot, the beginning and the end and she has reminded me that a Crone can be both wise and foolish. “There is no fool like an old fool”, she whispers in my head.

Fool 2010

Driftwood, paperclay, bark, plant fiber with Paverpol, fabric, wire, moss, gourd, stone, arrow head, beads, wool yarn, and found objects.

Sculpted, assembled

37”by 27”

NFS