Willow Tree (figurines)

Last updated

Willow Tree is a line of figurine sculptures created by artist Susan Lordi in January 2000.

Contents

Overview

The Willow Tree line is made up rustic faceless people and angels (and also dogs and cats) intended to represent feelings or life events. [1] The figurines, which include a nativity scene, are made from hand-painted resin which is cast from Lordi's hand-carved clay sculptures.

Lordi partnered with the Demdaco company to produce, market and distribute Willow Tree figurines. [2] The line is available nationwide in independent gift shops and Hallmark stores. It is often a top seller. [3] [4]

Lawsuits

Creator Susan Lordi filed a lawsuit against CVS Pharmacy in for selling figurines that she alleged were plagiarized from her designs. CVS had produced their own line of angel figures with wire-loop wings, which Lordi characterized as imitating a feature of her designs. [3] [5] In her lawsuit, she reported her monthly sales as $4.6 million in the US [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorenzo Ghiberti</span> Italian Early Renaissance artist (1378-1455)

Lorenzo Ghiberti, born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery, the later one called by Michelangelo the Gates of Paradise. Trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, he established an important workshop for sculpture in metal. His book of Commentarii contains important writing on art, as well as what may be the earliest surviving autobiography by any artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nativity scene</span> Representation of the birth of Christ

In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene is the special exhibition, particularly during the Christmas season, of art objects representing the birth of Jesus. While the term "nativity scene" may be used of any representation of the very common subject of the Nativity of Jesus in art, it has a more specialized sense referring to seasonal displays, either using model figures in a setting or reenactments called "living nativity scenes" in which real humans and animals participate. Nativity scenes exhibit figures representing the infant Jesus, his mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom From Religion Foundation</span> American nonprofit organization

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization, which advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of many federal and state programs that are faith-based. It supports groups such as nonreligious students and clergy who want to leave their faith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CVS Pharmacy</span> U.S. pharmacy chain

CVS Pharmacy, Inc. is an American retail corporation. A subsidiary of CVS Health, it is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was also known as, and originally named, the Consumer Value Store and was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1963.

Walgreens is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States, behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, and photo services. It was founded in Chicago in 1901, and is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois.. On December 31, 2014, Walgreens and Switzerland-based Alliance Boots merged to form a new holding company, Walgreens Boots Alliance. Walgreens became a subsidiary of the new company, which retained its Deerfield headquarters and trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol WBA. The company was found by a federal jury to have "substantially contributed to" the opioid crisis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caganer</span> Figurine depicted in the act of defecation

A Caganer is a figurine depicted in the act of defecation appearing in nativity scenes in Catalonia and neighbouring areas with Catalan culture such as Andorra, Valencia, Balearic Islands, and Northern Catalonia. It is most popular and widespread in these areas, but can also be found in other areas of Spain (Murcia), Portugal, and southern Italy (Naples).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willow pattern</span> Chinese-style pattern used on pottery

The Willow pattern is a distinctive and elaborate chinoiserie pattern used on ceramic tableware. It became popular at the end of the 18th century in England when, in its standard form, it was developed by English ceramic artists combining and adapting motifs inspired by fashionable hand-painted blue-and-white wares imported from China. Its creation occurred at a time when mass-production of decorative tableware, at Stoke-on-Trent and elsewhere, was already making use of engraved and printed glaze transfers, rather than hand-painting, for the application of ornament to standardized vessels.

<i>Willow Man</i> Outdoor sculpture in Somerset, England

Willow Man is a large outdoor sculpture by Serena de la Hey. It is in a field to the west of the M5 motorway, near Bridgwater in Somerset, South West England, near to the Bristol to Exeter railway line and south of junction 23 of the motorway. It stands 40 feet (12 m), with a 16-foot (5 m) arm span, and is made of black maul willow withies woven over a 3-tonne steel frame.

Juanita Suazo Dubray also known as Juanita DuBray, is a Native American potter from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. She is a lifelong resident of Taos Pueblo and descends from an unbroken line of Taos Pueblo natives. Her mother Tonita made traditional micaceous pottery for utilitarian use. She became interested in the micaceous pottery tradition in 1980 after a career of working as a pharmaceutical technician.

CVS Health Corporation is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance provider, among many other brands. The company is the world's largest healthcare company, and its headquarters are in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nativity of Jesus in art</span> Artistic depictions of the Nativity or birth of Jesus, celebrated at Christmas

The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century.

Baby Jesus theft is the theft of figurines of the infant Jesus from outdoor public and private nativity displays during the Christmas season. It is an "enduring practice" according to New York Times journalist Katie Rogers, "believed to be part of a yearly tradition, often carried out by bored teenagers looking for an easy prank." Sometimes these are stolen for resale, other times the associated pranks are more involved and include dropping it off somewhere else.

<i>The Figurine</i> 2009 film by Kunle Afolayan

The Figurine: Araromire is a 2009 Nigerian supernatural suspense thriller film written by Kemi Adesoye, produced and directed by Kunle Afolayan, who also stars in the film as one of the main protagonists. It also stars Ramsey Nouah and Omoni Oboli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican ceramics</span>

Ceramics in Mexico date back thousands of years before the Pre-Columbian period, when ceramic arts and pottery crafts developed with the first advanced civilizations and cultures of Mesoamerica. With one exception, pre-Hispanic wares were not glazed, but rather burnished and painted with colored fine clay slips. The potter's wheel was unknown as well; pieces were shaped by molding, coiling and other methods,

Sherry Wolf is an American photorealist painter and fashion designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Agee</span> American visual artist

Ann Agee is an American visual artist whose practice centers on ceramic figurines, objects and installations, hand-painted wallpaper drawings, and sprawling exhibitions that merge installation art, domestic environment and showroom. Her art celebrates everyday objects and experiences, decorative and utilitarian arts, and the dignity of work and craftsmanship, engaging issues involving gender, labor and fine art with a subversive, feminist stance. Agee's work fits within a multi-decade shift in American art in which ceramics and considerations of craft and domestic life rose from relegation to second-class status to recognition as "serious" art. She first received critical attention in the influential and divisive "Bad Girls" exhibition, curated by Marcia Tucker at the New Museum in 1994, where she installed a functional, handmade ceramic bathroom, rendered in the classic blue-and-white style of Delftware. Art in America critic Lilly Wei describes Agee's later work as "the mischievous, wonderfully misbegotten offspring of sculpture, painting, objet d'art, and kitschy souvenir."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvary at Tronoën</span> Calvary located in Finistère, France

Calvary at Tronoën is a calvary located at Saint-Jean-Trolimon in the Quimper arrondissement. It is located in the "pays bigouden", a particularly wind swept area of Brittany; the nearby chapelle was called the "cathédrale des dunes".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Handcrafts and folk art in Jalisco</span>

Jalisco handcrafts and folk art are noted among Mexican handcraft traditions. The state is one of the main producers of handcrafts, which are noted for quality. The main handcraft tradition is ceramics, which has produced a number of known ceramicists, including Jorge Wilmot, who introduced high fire work into the state. In addition to ceramics, the state also makes blown glass, textiles, wood furniture including the equipal chair, baskets, metal items, piteado and Huichol art.

<i>Tanagra</i> (Gérôme sculpture) Polychromic marble sculpture created by French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme

Tanagra is a polychromic marble sculpture created by French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) as a personification of the "spirit of Tanagra," his own mythic invention tied to the Tanagra figurines from the village of that name in ancient Greece. The sculpture was first shown at the Paris Salon of 1890. Gérôme subsequently created smaller, gilded bronze versions of Tanagra; several versions of the "Hoop Dancer" figurine held by Tanagra; two paintings of an imaginary ancient Tanagra workshop; and two self-portraits of himself sculpting Tanagra from a living model in his Paris atelier. These sculptures and paintings comprise a complex, self-referential artistic program in which one of the most celebrated artists of his generation explored reception of Classical antiquity, creative inspiration, doppelgängers, and female beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas traditions</span> Overview of the various traditions practised at Christmas

Christmas traditions include a variety of customs, religious practices, rituals, and folklore associated with the celebration of Christmas. Many of these traditions vary by country or region, while others are practiced in a virtually identical manner across the world.

References

  1. "Willow Tree" . Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  2. Johnson, Christine (8 April 2014). "Demdaco extends contract with Willow Tree's Susan Lordi". Christian Retailing.
  3. 1 2 3 Slind-Flor, Victoria (15 February 2011). "Fiat, Kellogg, CVS, Google: Intellectual Property". Bloomberg.com.
  4. Pacheco, Tyra (24 November 2009). "Enchanting characters, homes, villages revive holiday spirit year after year". South Coast Today.
  5. Vockrodt, Steve (15 February 2011). "Willow Tree artist sues CVS Pharmacy for copyright infringement". Kansas City Business Journal.