Opening Reception Sunday Afternoon—

Spirit Dolls By Paula Brinkman At Library

Paula Brinkman’s career has unfolded gradually, from art buyer and freelance illustrator to substitute teacher, Broadway wig stylist and now doll maker.

Ms Brinkman Hughes, who grew up in Newtown and uses her birth name professionally, is an artist whose illustrations can be found around the world on everything from greeting cards, T-shirts and gift bags to portable clocks, photo albums, diaries, and even wine labels. She and her family — husband John and their daughter Mackenzie — recently moved from Key West, Fla., to Newtown.

Local residents may have recognized Ms Brinkman’s work for McLaughlin Vineyard’s Blush wine, a wine that is sold in stores and directly from the Sandy Hook vineyard and which featured a Brinkman design on its label. One of her more recent projects was a collaboration with fellow Newtown native and grade school friend Karen Behan Pierce. Ms Brinkman Hughes provided the illustrations for Yoga Bear — Yoga for Youngsters, which was written by Ms Behan Pierce.

Ms Brinkman was also one of 14 artists who were invited to paint a star this past summer for C.H. Booth Library’s 75th anniversary gala.

Her latest art has been to create spirit dolls, each of which is handmade, unique and about seven inches tall. Ms Brinkman began creating her spirit dolls during hurricane season a few years ago, when she and her family were still living in Key West.

For the past six weeks, a framed collection of seven of Ms Brinkman’s dolls have also been exhibited at The Praxair Cancer Center at Danbury Hospital as part of the group exhibit “The Joy Of Survival: Expressions of The Cancer Journey through Art.”  That exhibition, coordinated at The Community Cancer Collaborative, invited cancer survivors, caregivers, doctors, nurses, family members and friends to contribute an original piece of art that symbolizes their feelings about cancer for display at the hospital.

Next for Ms Brinkman is a solo show in the Olga Knoepke Memorial Meeting Room at C.H. Booth Library. “A Collection of Spirit Dolls by Paul Brinkman” will be on view in the library’s lower meeting room November 1–30. The public is invited to meet Ms Brinkman during the exhibition’s opening reception Sunday, November 4, which will run from 2 to 4 pm.