My friend in Reston, who specializes in creating costumes that are illuminated with flashing lights, uses this miniature dress form to model designs for later full-size creation. It's only about three feet tall but has its own personality despite having no arms, legs, or head. I drew it as it stood on her craft table, along with coffee and wine and one lit candle. My drawing reminds me of the work of Italian surrealist Giorgio di Chirico, whose figures also look like either dressmaking dummies or those wooden movable dolls used by artists to represent human figures.
The dress form bears the Number Six, suggesting that the headless tiny lady is imprisoned in the surrealist "Village" of the Sixties-era TV show "The Prisoner." In my opinion one of the greatest TV shows ever, "The Prisoner" shows the struggles of a spy who is held in a resort-style village full of fanciful architecture (a real place, "Portmeirion" in Wales) while unknown but powerful people and entities attempt to break his mind down and extract secret information from him. His name is taken away and he is labeled "Number Six."
Does this Number Six think about escaping? Can she think at all without a head? I hope that she will someday have her head and limbs restored and be dressed in raiment that lights up to shine on the crafters and bring enlightenment to the dark world.
Tech pen ink on sketchbook page, about 4" x 5 1/2", February 16, 2016.
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