Artist seeks the ‘story behind the shadows’ in her art

MHCC’s Fireplace Gallery invites you to check out the compelling and haunting works of Carolyn Campbell’s “Story of She: Through the Looking Glass.”

“Story of She” is a series of pictures exploring historical, cultural and personal social issues we often don’t want to talk about. Each picture tells a story that explores real-life experiences women have overcome with the use of dolls and a montage of images, viewed through glass that intentionally blurs the line between what is a doll and what is actually a human.

The pictures have a type of “ethereal, dreamlike imagery” that range from the compelling, provocative, melancholy, haunting, to the just plain disturbing.

Campbell’s works have a way about them that catches the viewer’s eye and draws them in for a deeper look. That’s by design, she said when discussing her art style.

“When people see a picture they can say ‘Oh, that’s a picture of a flower in a vase.’ I’m not interested in that,” she said of her work. “I’m interested in, like, what’s the story behind the shadows?

“Dolls and figurines have traditionally been used as talismans for the living and guardians for the dead. They offer us a mirror of who we are, who we’ve been and who we dream of becoming,” she said.

Campbell is an artist, teacher, coach and social activist. She has also been a mask maker, theater director, business coach, and what she calls “a curious wanderer.”

The idea for the dolls came to her about two years ago when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she said.

She began doing a photo essay using her mother’s childhood doll. As she told women about the project, they began offering their own dolls and telling their own stories. She then started “creating environments” for the dolls given to her that captured the essence of these women’s stories, she said.

This caught on, and since then, she has photographed over 200 dolls from more than 10 countries around the world.