Over the past few months, I made Cover Up (24 x 30), the newest piece in an evolving portrait series. I’m in the process of writing more posts about the making of Cover Up, which will be published soon, but, I wanted to send out a preview first. It was an engrossing project that kept me busy all through the cold snowy days of winter. Cover Up depicts women wearing cultural, national, and religious forms of head coverings and tribal markings. The portraits reflect notions of female modesty, fashion, status and conformity from different times and places.
A series of posts with photos and commentary about making Cover Up:
Cover Up (part 1), Cover Up (part 2), Cover Up (part 3 and video), Cover Up (part 4), Cover Up (part 5).
Because the many little portraits are hard to see, I decided that the finished piece (shown above) wouldn’t translate well into a reduced sized poster format. Instead, I chose to feature a selected group of women, with their photos juxtaposed in a grid. Each head is enlarged 200%, so that you can take in the details and essence of the person. The 12 x 17 poster (shown below) is available in my Etsy Shop here.
In this series, which includes Face Time and Whiskers, I’ve focused on bringing to life different people from around the world, using themes of history, style and cultural identity. In each piece, head and shoulder busts peek out of “cameo” framed holes. Their faces are painted 20mm wooden beads, with wigs and adornments, similar to the doll heads in my how-to book Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures.
2024 UPDATE: Several recent exhibitions of my artwork have included printed enlargements of the figures in Cover Up. The Wall of Women and the Cover Up piece will be part of my upcoming exhibition at the Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY (July 27, 2024 – mid-Feb. 2025)
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SALLEY MAVOR 
Wow.
Looking forward to future posts on this. An all around artistic beauty.
Thank you for your kind words, Patty!
What a gorgeous labour of love. Absolutely stunning.
Thank you for your encouragement, Stephanie!
Sally you are a very gifted artist. After purchasing two of your books, I have tried to paint the little faces — I finally gave the task to my daughter, who has a steadier hand. It is not an easy task!
What I like most about these last two pieces you’ve done is that you’ve taken people from different cultures and woven them together in a harmonious setting. I pray that through your art the message of peace and appreciation for each culture will inspire people to love one another.
I so appreciate your thoughts, Annette. Thank you
Salley this was well worth the wait. I’m speechless. Congrats…
Thank you Linda – it’s always nice to hear from you!
I love this piece….what a wonderful piece of art. Great work, Salley!!!!
Awesome work Salley!
All the dolls — their faces, hair styles and head coverings — are gorgeous… but oh my goodness! The lady with the curlers!! Thank you for adding a smile to my evening —
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You have created such wonderful Family trees. Thank you for sharing .
Thank You so very much for this beautiful artwork. Thank You so very much for sharing your talents to show us that women everywhere have much more in common than we have differences.
Well said, Kathleen and thanks for the encouragement!
You always inspire me. I love each one of these little ladies.