Doll Artist Robert Keene McKinley
Bob and I, at a Doll Exhibit in King of Prussia, PA 1992.
In 1993 I had the pleasure of taking a doll making class with Bob McKinley (Robert Keene McKinley) at Gloria Weiner’s (Mimi)place in New Jersey.
This class was and is the one and only class, on doll making, that I have taken so far. The whole time we were in the class Bob regaled us with stories about his life and work. He told us jokes, danced around the room and gave us all help with our sculpting and complimented us when we were doing well. It was the most fun I have ever had in any class. At the same time he was serious when it came to teaching us techniques, that he had come up with, through hard work and experimentation.
This was only a year before he died. During that year except for the last three months of his life, Bob and I talked on the phone often and exchanged letters. He was never too busy to talk on the phone, while he was talking, he was working on a doll and occasionally popping M&M’s in his mouth. One time I said to him “Bob, would you share your M&Ms with me, if I were there” he gave one of his, special cackling laughs, and said “Well you would have to bring your own chocolates and share them with me.” We would talk about chocolate and it’s merits. We had one thing in common, we were both incurable chocoholics.
Bob had a way with people, even though he claimed to be shy. I don’t think he ever met a person he could not share something with, a joke, advice in doll making, or just ordinary chit chat. He was approachable and never made you feel that you had to put him up on a pedestal, even though he was considered one of the best Doll Artists in the country. He was a member of the prestigious Doll Artist group NIADA (National Institute of American Doll Artists).Go there and read more about Bob and to see more of his dolls.
Bob’s first book “Doll Making: One Artist's Approach” came about because a lady in Kentucky wrote him and asked him questions about doll making. Bob made a doll, as he was making the doll, he would take a polaroids and write directions on each step and send those to her each week. In the end he sent her the doll. This shows you how kind and generous Bob was. This book and his book “Sculpting Dolls in Paperclay” are selling on Amazon for astronomical sums, and are worth every penny..
Bob also made a video in which he made a doll and showed step by step how he sculpted and finished a doll.
I feel that I was very lucky that I took his class, as I have the memory of a friendship, albeit short, and I use techniques he taught us in that class, to this day.
Bob with one of his creations.
Bob demostrating technique, in our class.
Front and back covers of his Doll Making books. Click to see larger immages and to read his messages to his readers.
A panel for an AIDS quilt in his memory. The drawing is a copy of one he made for his book "Sculpting Dolls in Paperclay" participates at NIADA 1995 and 1996 signed the panel.
When we were taking his class in NJ, we all went out to dinner together. I said to Bob "Take a bite of something, so that I can show people that I had dinner with you". This was the result.....I can hear his laugh right now.....he would have loved this.
Labels: Artist Profiles
19 Comments:
I have a book by him- great book. I really enjoy your blog and your art work is wonderful.
Peace-
Linda Fleming
my regret is that I didn't do a class with him when he came to Australia years ago - I'd only just started to make dolls and I remember the money involved in the class, travel to the next state and accomodation seemed astronomical to my poor pocket, Lisa Lichtenfeld was teaching there as well and someone else I've forgotten, back then I'd only vaguely heard of these people and didn't appreciate at the time what an opportunity it would have been.
I do have one of Robert's books and working from it gave me my first sculpture that was recognisable as human!
Mo'a,
Super blog! I have both of Robert's books and they were my introduction to the world of sculpting. I still refer to them from time to time, and have been offered very good $$ for them but would never consider parting with them.
You are most fortunate to have spent time and gotten to know this unbelievably talented man.
My dearest LovaMóa... I am so sad to hear he passed away!!! You brought him to life so vividly and the casual mention of his passind has me floored!
It sounds as though he was amazing and just delightful... what a doll on the cover of that book! I am sorry for his loss... the world is definitely the poorer for it...
Beautiful words you offer him here my dearest LovaMóa! I am truly touched by them, as is he, I am sure, wherever he is, reading your delightful blog and laughing away!
Besos!
thank you for photos, it was a great dollmaker, I really love all what hi does
Alexander
http://moooooz.livejournal.com/
Mo'a, thanks for visiting my blog. Yes, I would love to link up with you!
Peace-
Linda Fleming
Linda: It is so nice to see you here, a fellow artist. Your blog is wonderful, I spent a lot of time there enjoying your art. Your book on Paper Dolls is on my Xmas list :)
I have both of his books one is signed, I also have his video on dollmaking. They are worth their weight in gold.
Erica: Hello, I have missed you, how good to hear from you again.
I know how you feel about having missed out on taking Bob and Lisa's classes.....their humor alone would have been worth it. On the other hand I know what you mean. Gloria (Mimi) insisted I take the class, I had just started working in paperclay after having done cloth dolls for several years.....I think Gloria for having been so insistent.
Sarah Russell....teaches Bob's techniques and Kat Bunker.....teaches Lisa's techniques with Lisa's permission. Bob's book, as you know, is so good that one can also learn quite well by using it.
Valerie: I am with you I could never part with his books or video. One of the books is signed and would fetch quite a lot. I also have a book on Puppetts that he owned and in it, is the signature of the puppett artist that was Bob's favorite, there was also another book Bob owned given to him by Ronnie Bucket, it was not signed so I asked Ronnie to sign it for me. I feel incredibly rich having these books :)
And Yes,luck was with me, having met Bob and my short friendship with him was a great gift :)
MizBohemia: There are people in this world that touch us in a way that is hard to describe, you like Bob are one of these people :)
The art world lost a lot of wonderful and talented people to this unfathomable decease. We lost eight friends in the 80's and early 90's.....we are grateful for having known them in their short life.
I would like to think that Bob is pleased and that he is laughing, esp. about the last photo, he thought I would never be able to use it :) Boy oh boy he would have been a great blogger.
Besos back at you my dear.
Alexander, I went over to your Life Jounal.....your work is amazing, wonderful I am blown away by it. I will visit your web site when I have more time to enjoy....and I see you have many more entries in your Life Journal...looks like I will have a lot of eye candy coming up :)
Did you know Bob? He was puppetteer before he did dolls. He certainly was an amazing person.
Thank you for your visit.
Linda: I will work on linking tomorrow....on the run right now.
Thanks :)
Great post, M'oa -- Bob must have been quite a guy.
Thank you Al......He was indeed.
Have a nice weekend :)
Mo'a, you were lucky to meet him and I'm glad you posted about him too .What a talent!
What a nice tribute Mo'a. I have both of his books and treasure them. I also refer back to them from time to time. You are one of the lucky ones that knew him. Artists such as yourself keep his memory alive.
We are all so lucky that he did write those books.
Thank you.
AND have a great holiday during Thanksgiving.
Love,
Bonnie Jones
you know... i am completely devastated. well, maybe not devastated, but upset... sort of.
i had the FIRST COMMENT on this post (before you loaded up all these wonderful pictures) and now it's no where to be seen! what's up with that? it's not fair, i tell ya. i've been WRONGED!
anyway, i'm sure i said nice things about this wonderful artist/teacher and his kind face and terrific smile...that, based on the twinkle in his eye, he was clearly a lovely and gentle soul with a great zest for life -- and i highly praised his amazing works. i'm also certain i said manymany nice things about the fact that your work is equally amazing, which explains why you never took classes from anyone else. then i'm pretty sure i told you how completely beautiful you are. that i already knew this from other pictures, but this one "sealed" the deal.
i am positive i said things like that. but since my comment has disappeared (or was deleted???) i guess we'll never know! pity. it would have been nice.
lovelovelove this post... AND you, and you'd already know this if my other comments weren't apparently written in invisible ink. xoxoxox
That was a really nice post and I can say with some knowledge that if he influenced your doll-making he deserves thanks from a lot of us.
Neva: I am so sorry, but we can blame blogger....why not they are an easy target. Truthfully, I had a problem uploading the photos to the blog and had to re-publish five...yes, five times. Good thing I was given patience as a gift at birth :)
I am sure....since we are friends...that your comments were just as lovely as the ones here...and probably even more so :)
Yes, Bob was a lovely and gentle soul and as for the twinkle in his eyes it was almost always there...esp. when he was joking around. Thank you for the lovely comments on my post. Dear friend...there is a comment on puppytoes where we became friends again on Saturday LOL
Doug: Thank you and Thank you again. That is a lovely compliment :)
The people you meet, ey?
Some just leave major footsteps behind.
I know little about doll making, but I have seen a bit of what you do and if it is influenced by some of his techniques I can only appreicate his genius from afar.
A simple name like BOB for such an amazing human being!
A lovely post, indeed!
Minka: I am very lucky :) and you are right some people have a way of touching ones life is a major way. *blush, blush* Thank you and yes, he was an amazing human being.
Mo'a: What a beautiful and moving tribute to Bob. I echo what others have said in that if he incluenced you, then he must have been an amazing artist himself. Thanks again for expanding my horizons.
Oh how I wished I could get a copy of his book. :( He seems like a very wonderful teacher.
You think they'll ever reprint them?
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