Personal Information

Full Name

Connie Ricca

Artist Bio

I am a San Francisco native born in 1954! I grew up in South San Francisco. I graduated from El Camino High School. Colleges I have attended are: City College of San Francisco, Humbolt State University and finally graduated with a BA in Art with an emphasis in Photography from California State University of San Francisco in 1978.

I traveled for 9 months through Europe and Morocco in the years 1975-76.
I worked for Pacific Bell repairing pay-phones in San Francisco from the years 1980-85.
I married in 1986, we have two sons ages 22 and 19. We now manage apartments in Sacramento.
I have earned a black sash in Choy Li Fut, a Chinese Kung Fu from Eastern Ways.

I started collecting vintage Barbie dolls and related dolls and accessories in 1987. I have sold Barbie collectables at various Doll Shows in the Bay Area and Sacramento. I currently sell on Ebay. I have been a member of 3 different Barbie Clubs. I have soo many vintage dolls and outfits that I really don’t know how many I have. Luckily I do have a “Barbie Room”.

I am an avid Flea Market/Thrift Store junkie. Sometimes I get very lucky!

My photography has now gone digital. I have a certain fascination for weird, unusual and colorful street people. I go to many street fairs with my camera.

My family still maintains a residency in an old Victorian home in the Castro District. I even attended one of the first Gay Pride parades. I watched the 1970’s Castro morph into a world renowned openly gay urban area. Of course in the 1970’s I had many friends who loved to be photographed! Some were from the theatre groups The Cockettes and the Angels of Light.

Those were the days.

Artist Statement

As I was raising my two sons, Barbie collecting was something I could do from home. Shopping from seller’s lists was the only way to find vintage Barbie dolls at that time. Also, I was without my colorful friends by the year 1986. So Barbie became my new photographic focus. She was totally cooperative but, she did have a tendency to fall over! I took many photos of my dolls as realistically as possible. After all she is a personality! I would experience my dolls as unique individuals. I made greeting cards with 4x6 color prints. I also wanted to show Barbie as a current progressive woman. One of my numerous Barbie photo collections was my “Vinyl Pride” series of photographs, featuring Barbie, Ken and Allen as gay and lesbian dolls. Welcome Baby was so perfect to do in three different versions. All I had to do was switch the dolls for each shot, keeping the same background and accessories. I think they look so real! And this particular debate was all over the media at the time. You just never know how your dolls want to be portrayed. Being a person who has lived in the Castro District for over 36 years, the LGBT community is part of my life.

History

Member for

16 years 9 months