Marina Bychkova (Nicole's Pick)

Marina Bychkova is a Russian born artist now living and working in Canada. She focuses primarily on doll making but also dabbles in painting and intaglio prints. She began creating her dolls when she was six years old and is intrigued by the idea of escapism that they create. She creates narratives of fairy tales and states that, “What intrigues me about a fairy tale is the implicit and often explicit violence that lies just beneath the surface of the magic”.

I am drawn to her work because she is able to portray a great deal of narrative through her dolls and the images of her dolls. She is also interested in the idea of what goes on beneath just the surface and pushing her work to convey those ideas.

I suppose Bychkova could be compared to Yann Arthus-Bertrand in that the both use the idea of delicacy and softness when creating art. They are both concerned with letting the images speak for themselves as opposed to trying to send a literal message.

I really like the Marc Abrahms post. After looking through some of his images, I have found that I like his "People" series. They show and immense amount of character and expression.