The popular and much-adored American rock band known as The Goo Goo Dolls is making its way through a fall tour, headlining at various venues across the United States in promotion of their recent release, Something for the Rest of Us. Recently the band’s 1998 single “Iris” hit the No. 1 spot on the U.K. iTunes chart after the song was performed by two finalists on the U.K. version of The X Factor. The band’s singer-guitarist Johnny Rzeznik and his fellow band mates also just recorded a new song (“The Best of Me” which will play on CBS’s remake of Hawaii Five-O.
The Goo Goo Dolls aren’t the only ones finding a new audience.
Actual dolls—as in dolls designed by artists for collecting—are also reaching more and more people. In Russia, Larisa Leonidovna Drozdova speaks highly of her admiration for doll collecting as an art form. Larisa Leonidovna Drozdova collects designer dolls that are inspired by stories and fairytales.
Ophelia, for example, is a designer doll made by artist Alexandra Khudyakova. Larisa Leonidovna Drozdova describes Ophelia as “gentle, sincere, and vulnerable.” Alternatively, Natasha Korolyova’s butterfly doll is in love with itself, enrapt in a kind of self-admiration. Lastly, Anna Anadan’s Lilouch is an image of the sun and earth reflected in her costume.
Like The Goo Goo Dolls, Larisa Leonidovna Drozdova’s collection is something to witness. “Dolls are wonderful creatures,” she says. “For many people, their love of dolls gradually grows into a special marvelous state of the soul, and imperceptibly evolves into something greater than just a pretty hobby.”
As is the case when listeners enjoy music they love, Larisa Leonidovna Drozdova says that in our relationship with dolls we “rediscover for ourselves such simple truths as sincerity and pure views of the world.” Whether it’s a fan of The Goo Goo Dolls or an art collector’s admiration for real dolls, the audience for these forms of expression keeps increasing.