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Thank you for taking a minute to learn a little about me. As you already know my name is Tracy, I live in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA with my incredible husband Michael. I am blessed to have a husband that truly understands how important my art is to me. His support means the world to me and it has helped me to grow even more in my work. As a child art was a huge part of my idenity. I loved creating things and would try anything I could get my hands on, drom drawing with different mediums, to crocheting and sewing, you name it I wanted to try it. By middle school my passion for drawing had really become my focus. I won a few state wide competitions for my work and can even recall selling a few pieces to the kids in my class for ice cream money. By high school I became intrigued with drawing portraits. However as an adult I just couldn't find an art form that totally captured my heart and soul until I discovered reborning.
I found the reborn world after a friend started talking about the dolls she collects. I was then gifted a reborn doll by an incredibly talented artist who started to really encourage me to give it a try. But at the time I lacked the self confidence and of course it didn't help that money was also a little tight. I worried that I would only be wasting money if I bought all of the supplies needed and never really be able to accomplish creating a doll that someone would be interested in. It would end up being my son Zane who at the time was 12 that pushed me to give it a try. We decided we would do a doll together. It was just a cheap doll that we stripped down and we only bought paints from the craft store. But we ended up actually finishing him, even rooting his hair. It will always be such an incredible memory. My son even named the doll, his name is Cody, and as you can see by the picture, yes he is so ugly that only a mother could love him. He will forever remain here with me, because of how very special he is. Hard to believe that little boy that assisted me on that very first doll is now a grown man, married to an incredible woman and now a parent to my beautiful granddaughter Mileena.
From there I became addicted to learning anything I could about the art form. And finally about a year after our first attempt I splurged on the heat set paints and a real reborn doll kit. I finished that baby May of 2008 and he sold within days on EBay. Talk about a boost in my confidence, I did it, I actually created a baby and was able to recoup the entire amount it cost to create. That was a huge win for me and the sign I needed, to know I was on the right path.
This art form became a part of me. There is nothing more joyful for me than a day at home working on my babies, whether it's painting, rooting, creating their outfits and toys or assembling, I feel like a little girl when I'm working on them and I absolutely love that feeling. It's been 13 years since I started creating my babies and my passion and love for it has grown even stronger. I feel like I learn even more with each baby I create. My goal when I first started was to someday be good enough to create memorial dolls for others because of how much my own memorial doll helped me. Within a year I met that goal and I can't begin to say how honored I am to be able to say that the majority of my work is in fact memorial work. Knowing that so many families have trusted me to create such a precious memory is beyond rewarding. This art has given me my purpose and has also given me a way to share my own sweet angel with other.
Thank you for taking a moment to get to know me, I look forward to hearing from you and to getting to know you too!
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