The sixth annual Altered Barbie art show

"Barbie on a Three-Headed Pit Bull" by artist LaVonne Sallee is displayed in the Altered Barbie art show at Gallery 94124 in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 23, 2008. The show runs through August 17.Photo by Paul Chinn / The Chronicle less "Barbie on a Three-Headed Pit Bull" by artist LaVonne Sallee is displayed in the Altered Barbie art show at Gallery 94124 in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 23, 2008. The show runs through August ... more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close The sixth annual Altered Barbie art show 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Barbie is the ultimate cougar. She's single, frolics with younger men and, at 49 years old, doesn't look a day over 17.

That is, until she's altered.

"She's sexy. But the concept of altering Barbie, of turning her into a piece of art, brings it into the realm of personal identity," says Julie Andersen, curator of "Altered Barbie," the annual exhibition of three-dimensional art, photography, dance and music that runs through Aug. 17 at Art 94124 Gallery. "For many of the artists, it stops being about Barbie and becomes a celebration of the self."

For the sixth annual show, the theme is recycled and reusable materials, which many of the 60 artists have used to represent distorted body image, as well as to create everything from fashionable Barbie outfits to anatomically correct versions of the doll. The exhibition also includes quilts, print making, poetry, film, workshops on altering Barbie and "self-marriages," ceremonies intended to help people appreciate their capacity to control their own lives.

At the center of this burgeoning summer institution is Barbie, a kind of three-dimensional blank canvas that allows artists to display their reverence, humor or biting satire. Barbie is used to create stories about contemporary culture, and also used as a yardstick to measure American progress.

To some, who grew up combing her hair and having her play Mom to younger sister Skipper, Barbie recalls simpler times, when Mom cooked and Dad worked. To others, as noted by Susan Stern in her 1998 documentary "Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour," Barbie was a sexual liberator.

Based on the early 1950s German doll Lilli, a barroom floozy, Barbie used television to bypass uninterested parents and more directly market herself to girls with her huge wardrobe of potential styles and personalities. In her early days, Barbie wore white gloves. Today, Mattel's versions alone have held more than 75 jobs. Then there are the altered Barbies.

Debbie Fimrite, 50, a Berkeley artist and doll collector, creates deaf, multicultural, and gay and lesbian Barbies. As a girl, Fimrite played with Barbie, but never quite realized how negatively the doll affected her self-image.

"Now I spend my time trying to alter the Barbie image by making Barbie into a warrior, a social deviant, fattening her, giving her more muscle," she says. "Sometimes I try to make her more like the actual people in my life because I am so sick of the blond princess image and the glamour queen doll I grew up with."

Last year, her mother accompanied Fimrite to the show dressed as Grandmother Barbie. There she was joined by Drag Queen Barbies, War Veteran Ken and Celebrity Substance-Abuse Barbie.

Photographer Danny Sanchez of San Jose plans to show a series of black-and-white prints. The images are part of "Life as Plastastic," which focuses on Barbie wanting to be part of the real world. Sanchez incorporates story lines, such as people who seek out plastic surgery to shape their bodies to look more like Barbie dolls.

"The reason I enjoy working with Barbie is that she is iconic and always seems to be ready for her up-close," says Sanchez, 29.

A 2007 series of Barbie photographs called "Put That Down, That S- Expensive!" by Melissa Chow focused on the all-consuming nature that Barbie embodies. Instead of monitoring her own oil consumption, the doll is pictured inhaling the costly commodity.

"She's just a part of Americana," says Chow, 26. "She represents the good and the bad stereotypes of culture, race, materialism, womanhood. In that sense, I find something amusing and gratifying about altering something so solidly representative of old-fashioned values."

While the San Francisco version of "Altered Barbie" has enjoyed success, drawing large crowds of browsers and even a handful of buyers (prices range from $50 to several thousand), it's hardly the first art show centered on the theme of altering Mattel's leggy blonde. The Soft Touch Artists' Collective held a show in 1998 in commemoration of Barbie's 40th birthday.

For LaVonne Sallee of San Francisco, it's the thrill of creating something modern from something so well established that she likes best.

Born in Roswell, N.M., Sallee grew up a tomboy with little interest in Barbie. By the time she turned 25, she had lived in 35 apartments, houses and trailers in four states and gone to nine schools. Instead of pursuing art, her passion, she worked for 25 years as a criminal investigator for a bank.

"I have always considered myself an artist," says Sallee, 62.

Two years ago, she stumbled onto the exhibition on Market Street. Since then she has been hooked on creating art.

"The thing about Barbie that makes me feel sorry for her is that she has no nipples," she says. "Nipples are my specialty, and many of my Barbies are bare-chested, so I can give her a beautiful set of nipples. She likes that."

What looks easily put together can be painstakingly difficult work, says Charlotte Davis, co-founder of the show, who teaches workshops on altering Barbie. Davis, a hot-glue expert, says that because Barbie is fashioned from so many types of plastic, altering the doll often involves trial and error and requires keeping up with the methods of Barbie's makers.

Artist Jody Banks' early creations were rather primitive, but still good enough to swap for a round a drinks at Burning Man. This year, Banks used photomontage to avoid the complexities of physically altering Barbie, which often involves fastening various plastics and metals together.

His themes include marriage, divorce, aging and death. Banks says he decided to incorporate marriage into his pieces because "Barbie has always been very focused on getting married - almost every Barbie book ends with her engagement or wedding - and I'm attempting to subvert the idea of marriage as a goal or end in itself for both women and men with these pieces."