Juliana Sage

I am a spoken word artist and singer, for almost my whole life so far. thanks for listening to those who do.

I saw these dolls in a thrift store I frequent.  I thought about them on and off that following week.  My daughter and I used to spend a lot of time with Barbie and now that time is passed.  A week later I saw them again, hanging in their bags.  Pictures of them played in my mind for another week.  Barbie, as with Venuses before her, can initiate travel into worlds both mysterious and familiar.  Then, I bought them and brought them to my studio. I have photographed them pretty much as they were; gestures cast in polyvinyl bags, heads down, eyes open, naked, mussed. As surely as knowing limits seeing, what I say here will guide your experience with this work.

Dr Toy Endorses Barbie for President

Barbie would make an excellent candidate for President. It’s time for a qualified woman who can see both sides of the aisle to be a candidate.

Barbie has been around the world and back and knows foreign policy; she appreciates and is aware of domestic issues, knows how to keep workers busy, find and increase jobs, and expand employment. She knows the great issues facing the country. She can solve many problems as she shows her ability to collaborate and find solutions to our current and future challenges.

Submit 1-3 poems on the theme to alteredbarbie@gmail.com.

Please include the following directly in the body of your email submission: (no attachments please)

Gallery pics of BEAST BARBIE Series making off, for our recent show THE TOY SHOW, Outsider Art Gallery, Frenchtown, NJ, USA, in May 2012.http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3355706304645.141414.1628601397...

Oddly, even though I have always been drawn the the altered Barbie scene since I first became aware of it in the '90s, it did not occur to me to use Barbie as a subject in my artwork until recently. Sometime last winter, I was thumbing through some old National Geographics and stumbled upon some hilariously dated advertisements. The photos were theatrically posed with the intent of depicting an adventurous, fun-loving yet privileged lifestyles. I knew immediately that I had to recreate these ads and photos on canvas, and who better but Barbie and friends could give the paintings that absurd edge for which I was searching.

First Blog ever... Looking fwd to extracting Barbie from our Plastography exhibit and relocating her to San Francisco to mingle! http://www.plastography.com 

Thank you to Julie for many years running now of this fantastic and important show. I plan to participate again this year, after a several year hiatus. Can't wait!

The iconic American Barbie doll has gone through several transformations since her release in March 1959 by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, from beauty divas to the current trendy line for children called I Can Be..Barbie.

My tribute to Yemaya began as a Malibu Barbie.  Her dreadlocks are fashioned of hand-spun, kettle-dyed merino wool, and her outfit was reconstructed from seven different classic Barbie gowns which were then pieced together and sewn by hand into a single garment.  Around her neck is a strand of plastic shells (strangely enough, an actual Barbie accessory).  Her altar is assembled from an old wooden clock case salvaged from a junkyard and embellished with a rusted chain that symbolizes both the captivity of the Middle Passage and the resilience of its survivors.

This is Sean Manzano leading the poetry reading at the 2010 AlteredBarbie Show. We are all looking forward to the 2011 AlteredBarbie Poetry Reading with you Sean! Thank you!

I was delighted to support the Altered Barbie, when her curator Julie Andersen approached me with the idea. I had seen it years ago and thought the images were very interesting and liberating.

So it is with great pleasure that I put in the following work:

Cynthia Tom is bringing a place of her own to AlteredBarbie. If Barbie had a place that was her own what would it look like?

A PLACE OF HER OWN is a multi-phase, multi-venue arts project. The project poses the question, “If you had a place of your own, what would it be?” and invites artists and the public to respond in a variety of ways.

Women, through necessity and parental or cultural training, learn to compromise themselves. Women often set aside their own needs to support others to the point of losing them. Rarely have women learned to reclaim a place of their own, metaphorically or physically. What happens when we expand the parameters beyond the concept of a room and discover a place, in which the limitations are bound by the imagination and nothing more?

The conceptual frame work and long term goal of this project is to generate a creative place for women to reconnect with themselves and make their aspirations visible. This is not just a curatorial vision of Cynthia Tom's, but a lifelong passion.

Roaddawgz youth will create a variety of Altered Barbies for sale at the AlteredBarbie Exhibition 2011. 100% of sales of dolls go directly back to the youth! Know that your purchase supports an essential service in our community. It is a way of telling the youth they count and there is healthy support out there. Thank you Machiko for all you do!

The Roaddawgz mission is to empower homeless youth, build community, develop job and life skills through literary and artistic activities while providing vital services, information and referrals.

The Roaddawgz drop-in center is a highly unique, activity-driven, safe and supportive sanctuary for homeless youth who are writers, artists and musicians. We employ a peer-driven, harm reduction, self-help model and provide participants cash payments for their creative works and participation in our mentoring program, workshops, events and internships. The people we serve are between the ages 15 to 24. Our participants encompass all minorities including racial, sexual and gender.

The Roaddawgz Purpose-We are dedicated to help end homelessness, reducing homeless youth incarceration, hospitalization and preventable deaths by providing mental health support and creative and educational alternatives to criminal, dangerous and life threatening behavior.