Spirit Dolls By Paula Brinkman At Booth Library In November

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 features 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 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.

“They were originally made for a traditional Caribbean festival, but a hurricane cancelled the event,” she said recently. “I brought the first collection of dolls to a local gift store, which became their first home. Now I am fortunate to be represented by Harrison Gallery in Key West, where the latest spirit dolls can be seen in person.”

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 Paula 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 on Sunday, November 4, which will run from 2 to 4 pm.

To date, Ms Brinkman has created more than 400 dolls.

“Styles are constantly evolving, no two are exactly alike,” she said. “Earlier spirit dolls had their eyes closed. This suggested they were dreaming.”

One of those earlier dolls was also different from all others because it was a little larger. It was life-size, in fact. Ms Brinkman created and installed it at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park as part of the annual Sculpture Key West show, which ran February through April.

“After exhibiting my life-size doll in Key West I began painting new faces with eyes open — perhaps symbolizing greater awareness and observation,” said the artist.