Stoop Storytelling

“Family Secrets” Performance

Center Stage Stoop Storytelling Series, Baltimore, MD, Feb. 11, 2008

problems with the player? LISTEN HERE

“O Little Town of Baltimore”

Center Stage Stoop Storytelling Series, Baltimore, MD, Dec.9, 2010

Scott the Pheasant — Me with Scott, the stuffed pheasant and star of the Thanksgiving Stoop Story

LISTEN HERE

Maternity Mug

This mug has a special place in my heart. I designed and created it when I was pregnant with my son . It has become a good luck charm for many pregnant women, who pass it along after their pregnancies.

Where can you get one?

Dale Maternity Mug
on eBay

Non-Profits / Charity

I make a lot of things for charitable causes. Some favorite projects have been Dale Art Bears for The House of Ruth and my 1985 Cartoon Aid Project.

This was a jeweled box for Art With A Heart, which makes art classes available to disadvantaged people.

I usually volunteer at Art With A Heart every Wednesday. We have created some wonderful projects. Gift items, birdhouses, large totems for school gardens, and mosaics announcing the names of neighborhoods.

Donate to Art With a Heart

Art Bears

For several years, I designed Art Bears for The House of Ruth, a battered women’s shelter in Baltimore. By the time we finished, there were over 50 bears. Every one-of-a-kind bear had its own unique, often quirky biography.

The Bears were made from donated clothing. We also got donations of jewelry and buttons. Many amazing volunteers helped craft the bears. If you have one, please send updates! It would be nice to hear about their new adventures.

Hybiscus

Hybiscus is currently attending The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She lives in an illegal Chelsea sublet at 17th and 6th, which she shares with two art students from Pratt. Her loft is 250 square ft. Her kitchen consists of a microwave balanced on top of a milk crate. Yet, every day Hybiscus leaves for school dressed to the nines. She wears Vera Wang shoes and Armani scarves, all purchased at her local resale shop. Hybiscus recently signed up for a film class where she hopes to meet a guy who shares her love for Quentin Tarantino films. On Friday afternoons, after class, Hybiscus searches the diamond district for cheap vintage jewelry. When she graduates, Hybiscus hopes to work for her idol, Donna Karan.

Hibiscus. 19”H x 11”W x 6”D. Mixed Media. Fabric, mink, jewelry, jewels, velvet, rhinestone and vintage bakelite pin. 2004.

Mamie

Mamie is a mature woman in her late sixties. She loves to laugh more than anyone you know. Often, you can find her prancing around barefoot in her Mexican-tiled kitchen, tossing vegetables into a huge soup pot, and throwing together ingredients for her prizewinning cornbread. Mamie’s tables is always full of people — family, friends, and friends of friends. She has had many, many loves in her life. Some were twenty years older than her and some twenty years younger. Some were poor (like the poet) and some were rich (like the industrialist). She doesn’t regret any of them, except maybe Ralph. These days, Mamie is content living by herself in her rambling, dusty Roland Park house, gardening, reading Anne Tyler books, and talking late on the phone at night with her best friend Audrey.

Mamie. 19”H x 11”W x 6”D. Mixed Media. Fine silk fabric and crepe from Italy bought in Columbia, SA; white fur hair, Gold and white costume jewelry. 2005.

Lilly & Pepito

Lilly is from Palm Beach, Florida. She has four hundred million dollars. She inherited it from her grandmother, who inherited it from her grandfather, who invented Hostess Twinkies. Most days, Lilly shops and plays board games, like Clue and Scrabble with friends. She gives lots of money to the arts. Recently, on a trip to Miami, she met Pepito, a Cuban refugee. They became fast friends and are virtually inseparable. No one quite understands their relationship, but they seem quite happy. Lilly’s children wonder whether she’ll leave her money to them or Pepito.

Lilly & Pepito. 19”H x 11”W x 6”D. (Plus Pepito). Mixed Media. Fabric, fur, gold jewelry, vintage blue buttons and vintage blue and gold pin. 2004.

Photos from the various sales, shows, and Dale Art Bears workshop.

Cartoon Aid

Barbara Dale organized the 1985 Cartoon Aid project, which raised money for USA for African and the Ethiopian famine. The project was later honored at the United Nations.

Learn More — read a selection from an AP article

Folks from the Funny Papers Offer ‘Cartoon Aid’ To Africa

by Karen Torry || July 17, 1985

…

Cartoon Aid…was the brainstorm of greeting-card artist Barbara Dale, who has brought together 100 cartoon characters on a $1.75 card to raise money for the starving.

All profits will go to USA for Africa, a charity organization that earlier lined up top rock stars to record the hit “We Are the World”.

Dale, whose cards are sold by Recycled Paper Products Inc. of Chicago, said Wednesday her idea got an enthusiastic reception from other artists, card companies and syndicates that distribute cartoon strips.

Almost all donated drawings for the card – a gesture that required some complicated legal maneuverings over copyrights.

…

“Cartoon Aid went from an idea to a finished product in less than a month,” Dale said in a telephone interview from her Baltimore home.

“This is sort of a historic piece of art. Never in anybody’s memory have all these characters all been on the same piece of paper,” she said.

“It was an unprecedented effort of cooperation … They’re fighting every day for that space in the newspaper,” Dale said.

The four-panel, accordion-style card shows a crowd of black-and-white cartoon characters under a ballon that reads “We all got together to help.”

Jiggs, of Maggie and Jiggs, is poking Beetle Bailey in the nose with his cane. Bullwinkle is resting his chin on Cathy’s head. Doonesbury chats with a wan, leotard-clad young woman by Jules Feiffer.

And Hagar the Horrible holds a sign urging “Help USA for Africa.”

…

She would not predict how much money will go to famine relief. Part of the proceeds will cover the company’s costs, she said, but the bulk will help buy food and medical care for the starving.

Read Full Article