I was the middle child of a large Catholic family. One boy and four girls. I was a shy and pensive child,and did well in my studies and in art. I went to Vassar College on a scholarship, largely to get away from home and to study abroad ( hopefully, Russia). Once in college, however, I changed my major to French and never even got to go to Paris for Junior Year studies. I was pretty disillusioned then, and put all my energies into my campus job as a seamstress for the Drama Department. After graduating from Vassar, I moved to New York where I worked as a make-up artist and costumer for stage and screen. I moved away from New York just five years later, and started making cloth dolls. It was easy to make the change, as it incorporated all my skills, reducing them to a smaller scale. I've been working on improving my dollmaking skills ever since, experimenting with new techniques rather than trying to make as many dolls as possible. So you should notice the changes as you scroll through the Scrapbook, from the early dolls to the later ones. In 1995 Richard Simmons started to collect my work. He has, to date, the largest private collection of my dolls, and he has helped to get my work shown all over the world. I'm lucky to count him as a friend. I am currently living in the Southeast with my husband, Don, an old cat, and several fish. I enjoy working in the garden and am pursuing a new line of work -- writing and editing for the screen. ARTIST'S STATEMENT I think art should reflect the artist. That is why my dolls are generally quiet and contemplative. Because I am a lazy daydreamer. I originally made the pattern for these dolls by taking measurements of myself. However, over the years I have gained 20 (or so) pounds and aged some, and I have not seen any reason to change the patterns to reflect this gain. (Why should my dolls suffer? I can suffer for my art, but why should they?) So the dolls are generally women in their twenties or thirties, lovely, bright, thoughtful and comfortably well-off. They are at that stage of life where they think the world revolves around them, and in fact, it probably does. I can remember that time of my life very well. But now that I am finally past it, I find it difficult to create dolls that reflect the stage of life in which I find myself now. It is much easier and more pleasant to make ladies who are in the "prime" of their life, and to pretend that I am there with them. (I told you, I'm a daydreamer.) RESUME EDUCATION: BA 1977 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY MEMBERSHIP: 1985 - Present: Southern Highland Craft Guild 1986 - Present: National Institute of American Doll Artists EXHIBITS: January 1999 Kansas City Toy and Miniature Museum, Kansas City, MO August 1998 UFDC exhibit, New Orleans, LA June - Aug 1998 Spruill Gallery, Atlanta, GA Oct 1996, 1997 and May 1997 International Doll Art, Chicago, IL Aug 1991 Imitation of Life Construction Co., San Diego, CA March 1991 Poupees d'hier - Creations d'aujourd'hui, Palais du Louvre, Paris, FRANCE July 1990 Mother Plays With Dolls, Traveling Exhibit June 1989 Doll Fantasies, Wenham Museum, Wenham, MA Nov 1988 Caroll Reece Museum, E. Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN Oct 1988 Dollmakers Magic, Houston Quilt Market, Houston, TX, Traveling Exhibit Oct 1987 Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC Nov 1985 Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY Nov 1984 Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY Sept 1984 Third Place, Juried Exhibit, Touchstone Gallery, Hendersonville, NC PRINT: (Books) 2001 World's Most Beautiful Dolls II, Joan Muyskens Pursley 2001 Finishing the Figure, Susanna Oroyan 2001 Here Come the Bride Dolls, Louise Fecher 2000 Free Stuff for Doll Lovers on the Internet, Judy Heim & Gloria Hansen 1999 Designing the Doll, Susanna Oroyan 1997 Anatomy of a Doll, Susanna Oroyan 1995 The Doll by Contemporary Artists, Krystyna Poray Goddu and Wendy Lavitt 1995 A Crafter's Book of Angels, Deborah Morgenthal 1994 The World's Most Beautiful Dolls, The Editors of Dolls Magazine 1993 Dollmaking: Theory and Practice Vol 2 Cloth Dollmaking by Antonette Cely 1991 Dollmaking: Theory and Practice Vol 1 Creating Your Own Fabric by Antonette Cely 1991 The Art of The Doll, National Institute of American Doll Artists 1990 Mother Plays With Dolls by Elinor Peace Bailey PRINT: (Magazines) Fall 1995 - 1999 The Cloth Doll. Writer of Costume Construction Column Feb 1994 Doll Life. Stuffing Technique by Antonette Cely Fall 1991 - 1995 The Cloth Doll. Writer of Accessories Column. July 1992 Dolls. News from the Studios by Louise Fecher May/June 1992 Contemporary Doll. Rules of the Game by Antonette Cely Fall 1991 Contemporary Doll. Gallery Fall 1988 The Cloth Doll. Cover Photograph. Summer 1988 The Cloth Doll. Renaissance Woman by Gail Enid Zimmer July 1988 Doll Reader. Doll Artistry of Antonette Giammarinaro by Susanna Oroyan Jan/Feb 1987 Dolls. Fashioned from Fabric by Rachel Stein URL:biography.html