Monika Šalkauskas

Available at the Alberta Craft Gallery - Edmonton & Calgary

Monika Šalkauskas is a dollmaker, who lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. Monika emigrated to Canada from Germany almost 30 years ago and her fanciful characters reflect this origin with the old world vibe of history and culture that imbues them. Influences of this historical connection to Europe can also be found in the way vintage fabrics and items, largely of European origin, are re-purposed to make upcycled art dolls.

Monika has tried out several figurative art forms, most recently three dimensional cake sculptures and sugar art figurines. She operated a professional cake art studio in Calgary and participated in national and international cake art competitions. She explored 3D drawing techniques, including sewing, during her 1997 BFA in drawing (UCalgary).

Her original fascination with figurines and sewing began at home, where her mother and grandmother were mentors in sewing, costume making, knitting and puppetry. The sentiment of never throwing anything out, using it for something new and reclaiming fabrics, buttons and beads for future use was also nurtured at home.

Monika is very concerned about the current fabric over consumption and has also studied the history of this socioeconomic and environmental problem. There is still much that needs to be done to reduce fabric and garment consumption on a big scale, but it is worthwhile to start very small. Determined to never throw anything out and to give any fabric scrap, vintage button or old decorative bead a new purpose Monika, with the help of some family members, has gathered all these materials to create quirky upcycled cat art characters. These can live for many more years and be passed on as heirlooms to many more generations, instead of being added to the landfill, never to decay properly, or recycled and shredded as mundane fibre seat stuffing.

Honouring vintage materials, giving everything a historical background and recycling or reusing everything we own are important themes in Monika's upcycled doll artwork.