When Awkward Paper Dolls Became a Living Exhibit

For years, Awkward Paper Dolls lived quietly inside my phone and laptop studio as an evolving body of work—something deeply personal, something still becoming.

The Conversation That Changed Everything

Then one conversation altered the path my art would travel, although it has taken 2 years.

After attending an art exhibit of one of their co-workers, my sister and her closest friend thought about my work and said something simple that stayed with me:

We could do this for you.

At first, I was overwhelmed by the idea. My art had lived online for so long that I had almost forgotten it could take up physical space.

I had spent years building worlds on screens, shaping collections in private, and imagining larger visions for someday.

But sometimes a collection waits until you are finally ready to meet it in another form.

On my 49th birthday, my sister's words to do a Art Exhibit finally begin to bud in my heart.

I realized that I wanted to stand next to my art at my very own exhibit during my 50th year.

It had become something larger—something that wanted to leave my computer and meet people face to face.

And after a lot of contemplation Awkward Paper Dolls stopped being a collection.

It became an exhibit.
It became a presence.
It became a living conversation between the work and the people willing to stand in front of it.

And now, after years of existing in silence, the dolls are finally beginning to travel.