Textile dabbling leads to ‘VOODOO DOLL’ EXHIBITION

Mary-Ellen Belleville has dabbled with textiles since completing her Bachelor of Education (Art & Craft) in 1979, majoring in ceramics and textiles.

She exhibited in graduation student shows at the Meat Market, the Gryphon Gallery at Melbourne State College and at Distelfink Gallery, Melbourne.

A career in the food and hospitality industry took over for some 20 years, however Mary-Ellen continued attending artist workshops, and in more recent years Mary-Ellen’s three-dimensional textile pieces have been selected for exhibition at CrossXpollinatioN in Colac.

“Basically, I love to play with textiles and found objects and hence the idea for this exhibition grew from making the first voodoo doll, as I called them, as the process involves a lot of pins!

“I really enjoyed creating the first doll, and then the others came into existence simply by constantly keeping an eye out for various leaves, weather-beaten plastics, fabrics and broken jewellery.

Ms Belleville said Dolly Varden was a character in a Charles Dickens novel (Barnaby Rudge) set in 1870, and this had been the inspiration for the collection.

The DoLLy VARDENESQUE show is at Karingallery, James Street, Geelong from October 9-26.

Hours are Monday-Friday 10am-3pm, Saturday 10am-3pm with Mary-Ellen in attendance.