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Portobello dolls > Introduction | Inspiration | Te Papa conception | Portobello I | Portobello II | Projects with artists
Inspiration
Inspired by the traditional doll-like figures she had collected in Mexico, Kerry Mackay and her combined class of years 6, 7 and 8 students investigated the figure. They developed the figures through to ceramic and collage sculptures like those Kerry had bought in Mexico.
Local stories
The children created figures that told stories which grew from their local environment at Portobello, a small township on the Otago Peninsula, near Dunedin.
In response to these stories, mermaids, starfish women, and devil-type creatures emerged from the clay.
Local artist's dolls
Kerry was aware that Dunedin-based artist Nicola Jackson was working with doll imagery in her latest work, and that she also had an interest in Mexican folk art.
The ways that Nicola used colour, pattern, and subject matter to tell her stories gave a local and contemporary spin to a source of inspiration from another place and time.
Kerry's students visited Nicola in her studio to look at her work, to ask her questions, and to hear her stories.
Beyond the classroom
This experience could have been the end of what was a very successful art investigation into the work of an artist in the community. However, this initial classroom-based project led to a much larger and more ambitious project.
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