CALVIN & RUBY BLACK Possum Trot Doll (c. 1953-1972) // Carved and painted wood and fabric
via Smithsonian American Art Museum
The “Possum Trot” art environment was located in California’s Mojave Desert, the creation of Calvin Black that included 80 life-size dolls, each with its own personality, function, and costume. Calvin and his wife, Ruby, spent nearly 20 years on a plot of land purchased in 1953 near Yermo, California that they nicknamed “Possum Trot”.
Calvin had asked Ruby to burn the dolls when he died, but she did not, preferring to keep the site intact. After her death in 1980, local interest in their art environment was not sufficient to save it, and “Possum Trot” was dismantled. Most of the dolls were sold to individual collectors.
via Kohler Foundation and SPACES
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