Gothic artist with collection of 400 ‘creepy’ dolls says some are haunted and require ‘rules’ to stop disturbances

A Gothic artist who has collected and created more than 400 “creepy” dolls has said some are haunted and require a “sheet of rules” to stop disturbances in people’s homes.

Victoria Grossman, whose artist name is Vyckie Van Goth, became “fascinated with creepy dolls” after watching the 2014 horror film Annabelle and has since collected and crafted more than 400 pieces, worth approximately 30,000 US dollars (£22,200) in total.

The 55-year-old said her collection is inspired by horror characters and monsters, ranging from Frankenstein and The Wolf Man to The Witches and Eddie Munster, and her favourite frightening figurine is a hand-painted 4ft-tall Wednesday Addams.

Her dolls typically have “mysterious eyes”, Victorian-style clothes and “menacing expressions” – and despite their scary appearance, her loved ones are “big fans” of her collection.

However, having collected some “haunted dolls” over the years, she said she has had to write a list of rules to accompany them, such as “do not cover her once displayed”, after she and others experienced spooky incidents at home.

“Once in a while, I’ll get a doll that some would say is haunted,” Victoria, who lives in Long Island, New York, told PA Real Life.

“The rules came into play when I was doing my own Annabelle series and I recreated the Annabelle doll from the movie.

“I made her, I put her in a chair, and we were eating, and my husband came in and said, ‘Oh my gosh, what is that? I can’t eat with her staring at me’, so he put a jacket over her and didn’t think anything of it.

“Around 15 minutes later, the curio cabinet in the living room, which has been there for 15 years, the shelves all crashed down.

“It was so scary, so we instantly took the jacket off.

“Another example is, I’ve had people say: ‘Oh my gosh, she (the doll) actually does move’.”

Victoria began collecting Barbie dolls in her 20s, building a collection of more than 200 figurines, but this eventually turned into a fascination with spooky dolls.

She said: “It wasn’t until I saw Annabelle, the horror movie, in 2014 that I became fascinated with creepy dolls.

“I decided to recreate her, and I put her up on eBay, and it sold for around 120 US dollars to someone in Las Vegas, and then I started to collect creepy dolls.”

Over time, Victoria has accumulated more than 400 dolls, worth approximately 30,000 US dollars (£22,200), and keeps most of them on display in her studio.

Typically, when creating her own, she will buy a porcelain doll from a thrift store, use a base paint and then add “some crackling on their face to make it look old and weathered”.

Victoria will then paint on more details, such as “big eyes” and a sinister smile, and make the clothes by hand.

She finds the process “challenging yet satisfying when everything falls into place”.

“I’m not into anything gory – I like them to look artistically creepy,” she added.

“Most of them are porcelain with Gothic-painted features like mysterious eyes, Victorian-style clothes and menacing expressions.”

Victoria’s loved ones are supportive of her unusual collection, and she said people “love to come and see it” and take pictures.

She said she has even converted people who have an “innate fear of dolls” to start their own collection.

“When people come to the house, they instantly want to see the doll room, and my family always want to bring their friends over to show them off,” she explained.

“They all love to take pictures of them, they’re big fans – it’s the same at conventions.

“I’ve had some people that have never collected a doll in their life and had no interest until they see my creations, and they say, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to have this doll’.”

As well as frightening dolls, Victoria has a collection of celebrity memorabilia, which she said is worth more than 100,000 US dollars (£74,000).

This includes Barbra Streisand’s vanity, which she describes as “gigantic and beautiful”, and the jewellery Madonna wore for the Like A Virgin album cover.

“I used to go to Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses in New York for celebrity items in my twenties and thirties,” she said.

Victoria sells her handmade dolls for 150 to 300 dollars (£111-£222) apiece online and at conventions.

She said she has recently started a new series of “sculpted dolls”, where she uses mixed media, such as clay, paint and fake fur, and dresses them in Victorian outfits.

Speaking about why she loves collecting and creating dolls, she said: “The best part is seeing them come to life.

“I love getting a doll from the thrift store, just a regular porcelain doll, and creating it to look like the Bride of Frankenstein or a classic monster or a horror character.

“I will paint these big, creepy smiles on their face, but yet they have these big, beautiful eyes, so you get a mixture of cute and creepy at the same time.”

Victoria said she has sold more than 500 dolls to date and has customers all over the world.

Her dolls have even featured in a film called Dementia 13 in 2017 and she said “it was amazing to see them on screen”.

She has created a catalogue of everything she has collected, crafted and sold over the years, with a dated picture for each piece.

She added: “I had no idea it was such a popular thing.

“One of my clients has around 40 of my dolls – it’s addictive, you can’t just have one.

“Most of my customers buy the dolls for their Halloween display and end up adding to their collection and become full-on collectors.”

Along with dolls and paintings, Victoria said she makes her own candles, scented and unscented, and enjoys adding “unique” horror-related ingredients such as “dragon’s blood”.

Looking ahead, she is focusing on her new “anthropomorphic” series, where she adds her own recreation of animal heads to dolls’ bodies, dressed in Victorian clothes, and she said she will continue collecting and creating “unique pieces” for the foreseeable future.

“When you do art, you have to do it,” Victoria explained.

“Inside, the urge is just so strong that you have to create. Even on my Instagram, my wording is: ‘Always Create’.

“I do everything from painting to dolls, so as long as that urge is still there, I will not have any choice but to do it.”

To find out more, search @vyckie_van_goth on Instagram.