I am one of those people who never had a celebrity crush. All those famous, talented, amazing and amazingly rich, all those brilliant and powerful - they travel orbits too high for me to ever relate to. I feel like we are from two different kinds of humanity, not even the same species, really, - and so, even though I profoundly admire many, I do not particularly want to express this admiration to any of them directly. Fan letters? They are almost never read by celebrities themselves; you will be extra-lucky if an assistant or some especially appointed secretary reads your epistle - most likely, even they won't read, but will automatically send back a picture with an autograph or something. So, to all those actors and writers and artists I admire, the best type of 'fan mail' - in my opinion - is a couple of dollars that will be added to their millions if I buy their products. I go by this rule even with the stars of my own hobby-world, BJD artists who may not have millions in their accounts - but still are, in my opinion, people far too busy and important (I mean it sincerely) to develop a personal relationship with everyone who's into their art. For somebody so talented that their creations are one step away from life, there is always a crowd lined up to express their well-deserved admiration, and I just don't like crowds :) But recently, an artist whose artwork I ordered has touched my very soul so deeply that I broke my own rules. Her name (possibly not her real name, but the one she uses on the Net) is
Nefer Kane.
So, as to the story... I was looking at J-pop dolls and noticed they offer
a doll by Nefer Kane - then, the name was new to me. To be honest with you, I didn't order that doll for it was way too expensive for me after just pre-ordering The Mushroom Peddler's
Willow, - but I decided to check out the author's other works anyway because I always like to see new artists that make unusual dolls. I saw that she had a tiny (10cm) doll for pre-order, and I got her ordered because I literally fell in love. Imagine a plump(ish) smily elf the size of a RealPuki, named Suzy... Although, why imagine? This is her prototype I saw:
SuzyIt also helped in my decision-making process that Nefer offered 3-month layaway :) I also loved Humpty (that's the doll below), but she was already all sold out.
Humpty DumptyAnyway, my story isn't really about dolls. As I was wandering about, checking out the links, I found an article about Nefer and her artistic journey, and it
really struck me at my deepest core. Here is the link to an article I read:
http://www.bjdcollectasy.com/articles/nefer-kane.html
But let me quote one part that will instantly tell you, if you know me and my life, why I felt this special connection:
Nefer Kane is a single mother of two boys, Louis and Arnaud. When her younger son Arnaud was diagnosed with autism, she and her children were forced to move in with her parents. Devastated, Nefer became distant from her friends, and spent most of her time taking care of her sons. As a child, Nefer had originally wanted to become a writer. She attempted to write in her spare time, but none of her projects panned out. She suffered from guilt over burdening her parents with her problems, and felt that Arnaud’s autism was somehow her fault. She also felt that a part of herself had been lost. “There’s a scientific fact which demonstrates that every human being, whatever his age, gender, weight, height, religion, origin, looses 21 grams at the very moment of his death. Some say that it is the weight of the soul. I do believe so. There is a great movie about this called '21 Grams'. 21 grams is the weight of a chocolate bar, of 5 coins, of a hummingbird. The weight of my Hummingbird; the weight of my soul I lost. because this is what happened to me, my profound guilt made me lose my soul.”After I placed the pre-order, I had to send her an e-mail to confirm my address; I also needed to ask her when the payment for face up and body blushing (I want it all to be done by her, start to finish, for the doll to be completely her creation) was due. As I wrote that business-required piece of mail, I couldn't resist to tell her how her life story touched me and how I felt I could understand her, because of my daughter. Well, she wrote back to me. Respectful of the privacy of that personal correspondence, I cannot quote her reply here, but just know this: she was incredibly kind to me. And first of all, she did write back - despite of me being just one of thousands of fans and hundreds of customers.
She offered to paint my doll for free, but more importantly, she acknowledged our connection, she shared the special feeling of resonance I had, and needless to say, this letter blew me away. Of course I wrote back to her saying how kind she was with her offer, but I think that to get this kind of a reply from her is even a greater gift to me than to save on a face up. She is this special, artistic person, and I - I only can appreciate the beauty others create. And to think that I could say something that touched
her, it's just overwhelming to me. Now when I get that doll - Suzy - she will be a lot more special to me than the whole rest of my collection. Although I already think about things I could sell to also adopt this beauty:
MaheyaYes, I am a fan, of the most pathetic kind. But the artist who inspires me is not so out of reach that we cannot talk or can just discuss business. She's real, like the earth clay she likes to work with; her talent shows in her interaction with people as well as her art, and I am very happy my first (and hopefully only) fangirl crush is on her :)
/ All pictures linked in this post belong to Nefer Kane and are taken from her blog /
