LaVonne Salleé

LaVonne Salleé (born January 18, 1946) is an American artist who is best known for her work with altered Barbie dolls. Like many conceptual artists, she uses materials not usually perceived as artistic in nature. She uses found object methods and a variety of craft skills to accrue her pieces of recycled art.

Background and early life Salleé was born in Roswell, New Mexico on January 18, 1946. Her father was a cartoonist who worked for Walt Disney; her mother was a seamstress who also worked as waitstaff. She was also a bit of a tomboy. Salleé did not settle anywhere for a long period; by age 25, she had lived in 35 different places in four states and attended nine schools.

As an adult, Salleé became a successful bank teller. However, she began to develop medical problems; from about 1993 onwards, she was plagued by fibromyalgia as well as some ill effects of menopause.

Work with Barbies Salleé then turned to altering Barbies as her medium in 2007, when she first saw them at the fifth annual Altered Barbie Show. In Salleé's specific case, she stated her motivation as, "I can do just about anything I think of with a Barbie. With any other medium, it just gets boring."

While Salleé's creations sometimes feature passive Barbies being "Barbie-Q-ed", turned into chess pieces, or the like, they also fight monsters, engage in kinky rituals, or are transmogrified into hybrid beings such as centaurs, insects, or trees. Some of her creations involve religion. They include Barbie's Last Sleepover, a restaging of da Vinci's The Last Supper, they have been acquired by collectors both nationally and worldwide, from patrons as far-flung as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Her activities have widened to include offering workshops in Barbie alteration to other aspiring artists. However, she found that her altered Barbies were not selling well.

Notable awards and exhibitions Three first place ribbons,

Documentary A short documentary was made about Salleé, titled Frameline Voices: Altered Lives of LaVonne Salleé.