Vivian Girls

I’ve been immersed in Henry Darger the last few days. I visited the Henry Darger room installation at Intuit Gallery here in Chicago last year, as well as the exhibition of some of his collages, and have been enamored by his work ever since. I love the muted colors, the fantastical creatures and all that can be read into his androgynous children vs. grown-ups storyline. The installation, too, as amazing– the piles and piles of ephemera, all the paints and art supplies, the feel of his tiny little room.

This week I worked on a custom order for Ben’s mom– 3 of the 7 Vivian Girls as a gift for his aunt. The Vivian Girls, if you aren’t familiar with Darger’s work, are the heroines of his epic story/paintings. They’re seven little girls, based on paper dolls and other advertising images, who battle evil adults who would enslave all the children of the world. Yeah, weird, I know. But awesome.

There were so many depictions of them to chose from, but I based my girls mostly on these paintings–