In 2003 and 2004 I had an art studio and I would paint giant color field paintings using a knife with thick layers of oil paint. These would take days to dry and so I started making dolls to fill the time. I made the first one, a cute sad bunny, and took it to an art opening that night sticking out of my pocket. Over the course of the evening, four strangers tried to buy it off of me! I didn’t sell, but it got me started!
The sympathy doll idea is to make a doll that is so sad and pathetic that it inspires empathy and love from people. You really can’t feel too bad around these dolls because you just know that no matter what, you don’t have it that bad! I’ve made hundreds of these dolls, and here’s a small gallery of dolls that I’ve made for you to check out. – Link
It’s the 5th anniversary of creative commons this week! I’m licensing Sympathy Dolls under the creative commons attribution license, so feel free to make them and sell them, just make sure to give attribution to me with a link to brepettis.com and you’re good! Also if you’re going to be at the CC party in Berlin tonight, make sure to say hi! – Link
Dowload the PDF to get the full instructionss for making your own Sympathy Doll! – PDF Link
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