Haunting Taxidermy Doll Sculptures by Stefanie Vega Make The Perfect Halloween Post.





Dolls, in general, freak me out. As they do many people. So do clowns, birds, bones and taxidermy. Now, combine all of those and you have the haunting mixed media sculptures of Brooklyn born, now Venice, California-based artist Stefanie Vega.



Dark, detailed and finely crafted, the sculptures are perfectly suited for a Halloween post. Combining bird skulls, bones, talons and animal legs with porcelain doll heads, doll parts and glass eyes, the gothic, macabre sculptures are often in cages or bondage. Victorian wardrobe elements like leather corsets. petticoats, pocket watches, metal grommets and tophats add a little Steampunk edge to them as well.

Here's a look at some of her sculptures which range in price from $150 for the smallest to $2500+

The Task:




King Krow:




The Prisoner of Folly:


The Brat:



Murder Your Darlings:




The Manipulator:



The Dolly Beast:


La Santa De Las Aves:




Dorian Gray:



The Handless Maiden:


The Pin Slave:


"From the tales that left profound impressions in my earliest childhood memories, I began working not only with unwanted doll parts, but with skull & bones & birds. They spoke to me of wanting to tell the bigger story. The dolls we played with as children were the totems of our dreams. Upon them we laid our hopes & fears...upon them we projected our greatest selves.

I was serenaded by haunting lullabies from long ago. So, drawing on an enormous pool of archetypes & folklore & developing characters based on children's literature & faerie tales, a new hybrid was born. I began to write verse in order to share the tales that influenced the work. This rogue taxidermy with discarded porcelain doll parts and accompanying limerick became a cross-breeding of the unexpected & a departure from the familiar.

Like the resurrection of the forgotten they tell the tales from the soul of the world because they jar the collective memory we have of imagery & symbolism. This collection gives voice to an age old doll tradition that insists on singing its own song." -- Stefanie Vega

The Artist, Stefanie Vega:

images courtesy of Bash Contemporary and others from the artist.

Purchase or see more of her work at Bash Contemporary Gallery
You can also purchase directly from the artist here at her online shop.

Stefanie Vega

Happy Halloween!




Wishing a very Hip Halloween to all my wonderful loyal readers and new visitors, too! Have a wonderfully spooky holiday. With love, If It's Hip, It's Here.

'Till Death Do Us Part', A Couple's Engagement Photos Emulate Friday The 13th.




Van Lawson and her fiance Josh Morden, both from Parry Sound, Ontario, have a great sense of humor - albeit a sick one. For their engagement, instead of posing for clichéed, gooey-eyed, cheesy photos, they posed for a series of 26 photos taken by professional Toronto photographer Brandon Michael Gray, that emulate a Friday the 13th horror film. Van even painted the Crystal Lake sign herself.

Here are all 26 photos, in order, of course:




























Now, theirs is one wedding I'd like to attend.

Photography by Brandon Gray
Assisted by Oceana Jordan
Jason Voorhees played by JP Borchardt

•Buy/Download Friday the 13th movies, boxed sets and DVDs here