Bob Cunningham


Bob Cunningham lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He studied at The Ontario College of Art,where he majored in Interiors. Later in his career as a displayman, he was offered the position of Display Director for three of the T. Eaton department stores, and remained in this post for 20 years. Looking way back, when he was a young man his love was "The Art of Puppetry". Following in the footsteps of the great puppeteer, Frank Paris he would dress in black and dance on stage with his 3ft floor show marionettes. Years passed and his desire to create elaborately dressed costumed figures surfaced and developed into his compulsive passion as a doll sculptor and costume designer. Bob's figures are a magical experience for him. All of his sculptures are little people. When they give pleasure,he is pleased, when they come alive, he has reached his goal, and when they move on, he misses them. Now retired, Bob lives and breathes for his love of dolls.

Comments on Bob and his Work

"Everything [he does] is incredibly beautiful"
"They are marvelous...strange,mystical...They are enchantment...They are fantasy world."
-Marlyn McKay from McKay's Secret Garden

"When ever I am having a bad doll day, I read Marlyn's comments, and all is well again."
-Bob Cunningham

"You have only to glance at these dignified, elderly gentlemen, with the splendid hierarchic clothes and the rare, wonderful beasts that they ride to know that they are magical. And I am not surprised, for their creator himself is a magician, if I ever met one.
-John Darcy Noble of Contemporary Doll Collector

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©Bob Cunningham 1999