Cissette is my Madame Alexander doll. I received her for one of my single digit birthdays many years ago, and I loved her, literally, to pieces. That’s why her head came off, and I found it, by accident, on the floor of my garage, a month or two ago.

Of course, I was disturbed to see her delicate, small round perfect little head lying on its back in the dirty concrete. I picked her up and wiped her off on my t shirt, and brought her into the house, knowing that I would photograph her in better surroundings. For me, better surroundings means a construction of flowers and evocative natura.

I needed to glorify her, to elevate her, and to let both Cissette, and the world, know what this doll meant to me. So that is how I came to photograph a doll head.

I typically feel that incorporating a doll head into a work of art is to exploit a cliché. Any art director can take a glass jar and fill it with potatoes, snail shells and doll heads and have what he or she considers a timeless and spooky work of art. But I wanted to surround my Cissette with daffodil halos and wax flower parentheses.
So I did.