charlinoToday the Squidoo Spotlight shines on 100 Club member Charlino who shares with us about her OOAK Dolls, her lovely family portraits and more.

1. Tell us about VikisFinds and those gorgeous OOAK Dolls?
I am a volunteer co-moderator of the VikisFinds group on Yahoo, and it is my job to provide the list of the top one of a kind finds of the day.    The VikisFinds Group members are comprised of artists and collectors of one of a kind (OOAK) dolls, art, and accessories.  The doll artists expertise range from full sculpts to doll repaint, doll resculpt, costume, set design, miniature and small (ACEO) art, etc.  Some dolls are made from scratch, others are dolls such as Barbie, Gene, Tonner, and others are used as the artist’s canvas.  The VikisFinds One Of A Kinds is a lens built to showcase the works of my fellow artists. When first building the lens, there were so many artists in this doll group to spotlight that the lens got too big, and was broken down into smaller lenses to better represent the artists specialties.  OOAK Barbie, Kelly’s Corner, The Fashion Plate,  TV Dolls, are a few examples of the ‘big lens’ spin offs.

2. Your Art of the Family portraits are lovely. Would you mind sharing a bit about them?
Thank you.     Most of my family portrait work begins with a photograph that either I have taken or one provided by another.   My compositions range from photo manipulations, paints,

drawings in pencil or pen and ink, or mixed media.  In my eyes the family, family members, their pets, and their homes are all unique irreplaceable living works of art.    All My Portraits are done from heart.

3. Which of your many lenses do you like best, and why?
That is a tough question.   I must admit that my doll lenses, although high maintenance, are special to me because they were made to showcase the works of fellow artists.  However, I must admit I am fond of:  (1)  What I Learned About Blind Dogs –  Years ago when my old dog went blind, finding information to help him was like finding a needle in a haystack.  It either was not available, or there was very little of it.  This was a tough lens for me to build, but what I learned from my blind dog was meant to be shared.  (2) White Horse Farm Of Hinckley Township is a lens made to showcase one of the old farms in the area near where I grew up.   (3) The Getaway Pub lens was built last year to help a small local business, and encourage local musicians to come together and make music.  (4) The Satisfiers fan site was made for one of my favorite local bands.   (5) The Art Of Glass -  I like this lens because it was built out of frustration.  A friend of ours was looking for information about art glass, and I volunteered to research and send what information I found.  After spending an afternoon with several search engines and several hours looking in hundreds (literally) of places within thousands of listings without finding one simple coherent resource for art glass information, I built the lens not only for my own simple reference guide, but for others, as well.
4. Sonny or Cher?
Ha ha ha.  Hollywood Doll Artists made 2009 the Year of Cher, and it all began with Laurie Everton’s “Cher The 80s.” Ms. Everton’s doll won 2008 Hollywood Dolls Best In Show by popular vote, and was crowned the Ambassador of Hollywood Dolls 2009.  From that day forward, doll artists who are fans of Cher began creating one of a kind tribute dolls a from 1/6  scale (Barbie size) doll by Noel Cruz to life size Cher the Mannequin by Dash N Dazzle.  This year’s doll artists recreated Cher in so many ways that Cher will have her own category at the 2009 Hollywood Doll Oscars, along with a special category for Twilight and New Moon.