Dolls by K. Adrienne Whitmore

I have been creating art my entire life.  The first 37 years of my existence were consumed with ballet dancing, singing and theatre.  I've owned a ballet school and spent 23 years performing, teaching, and doing performance choreography.  In my younger years I played the flute in my school band and then in the folk band at church.   The arts have always been a huge part of my life. 

As a child I loved dolls.  Thank goodness my mother did too so dolls were always one of my favorite things to play with and that love has never gone away.  I mean, you're never too old to play with dolls right? After my dancing career had ended, I stumbled upon a "reborn" doll on Ebay and just knew I had to have one!  It was 2006 and I ordered a custom baby girl from a lovely woman, Patricia Jarard, whom I ended up becoming dear friends with.  She has since passed, God rest her soul, but she was very supportive in my beginning days of reborning.  When I received her dolly that she had made special for me, I just knew I had to make my own!   So I hung up the ballet shoes and pulled out the paint brushes.  My first doll baby was "born" in January of 2007.  I didn't look back!

For the next 7 years I kept a year long wait list for my babies.  I had more orders than I had ever imagined possible! To my great surprise and delight, I was commissioned by the London Opera to make a doll for them.  My babies were in a few different doll magazines over the years and I was featured artist within different artist communities.  Then one day I just stopped. 

I hit serious burn out mode.  I had decided to homeschool my children and was overwhelmed so I finished my orders,  thinking I'd only take a break for a couple of months, then life happened.  My husband had just opened a new business that I was helping him with.  Again the homeschooling. The numerous extracurricular activities, Then college and graduations and weddings.  That was 2014 when I took that break.  Sigh. Needless to say, my studio and supplies have been very lonely for a really long time. I did manage to pop into a silicone class in November of 2019 with Susan Gibbs.  It was wonderful but it still wasn't my time to return to doll making.   My older son has been married and in the Marine Corps since 2021 and my younger son has worked for our company for the last three years.  I decided it's now*/ time to do something for me again and BOY oh BOY!  I HAVE MISSED MAKING BABIES!

So I am back. As of now, October 2025, I have decided to re-enter the dolly world in a new direction, at least for the time being.  I am going to try my hand at sculpting.  I have joined up with an established artist, Laurie Sullivan Roy, who will mentor me. I have zero experience with sculpting so this should be interesting to say the least. I figure if it ends up that it's "not my thing" I will go back to painting other peoples sculpts as I was doing before.  No matter where this journey takes me, I know I want to be creating these little darlings again!  Welcome! and I am glad you are on this journey with me and interested in my art dolls.