The Demented Dolls Series by Kat Fitzpatrick is on display at the Mockingbird Cafe, 110 South 2nd Street, in Bay St. Louis, MS. The images rose out of a lessons — that not all lovable things are lovely — taught through her mother's affinity with salvage dolls:
Kat writes:
My mother, Jean Hammett (known to all as "Goggi") was an intrepid Hudson's Salvage Center scavenger when they still handled smoke and flood ravaged merchandise. Her particular love was for dolls who had lost their dignity through these traumas. She would buy them, bring them home and soak them in bleach. She would scrub off the mold and char, make new clothes and hats and donate the renewed dollies to the Christmas Doll and Toy Fund. The ones who still had a lazy eye or mottled, scary skin and hanging limbs were sewn up and dressed and put out to pasture in her "doll room". Grandchildren who understood the power of stories and love to heal would embrace these wounded dolls and play with them and love on them. This series of "demented dolls" was made out of those fond memories of her and seemed fitting for Christmas. I can't say they have been easy to love in every case(sometimes even disturbing) but I recognize their right to be and the wonderful tradition that my mother began that touched us all in different ways.
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