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| "Voice Front" image for the show postcard designed by Wanda Ewing |
One of the most exciting things about running C.L.A.P. is when we get an email from a creative woman outside of our little world here in the Twin Cities. It is even more exciting when she is interested in contributing! Things get off the charts exciting when she is doing work in her own community to support other creative women!
Such is the case with Sally Deskins, who runs the Les Femmes Folles blog based out of Omaha, Nebraska. For our Spring 2012 issue of C.L.A.P., Sally contributed a piece on Les Femmes Folles presents: VOICE, a gallery show she co-curated featuring female artists. Due to space constraints, we were only able to print a shortened version of the piece in the zine. In the world of the never ending internet, however, we are able to publish the entire piece here! Read on for more...
I’d pour
over the magazines I kept stacked in my closet, reading the articles about
movie stars’ favorite ice cream, how to get a boyfriend, and the right eye
shadow for my skin type. Mostly though I’d stare at the models—skinny,
beautiful models I thought. I took pictures of myself, stared at myself in the
mirror. I wished I were skinnier and prettier, like them. Seventeen.
In
sixth grade, I put on a 50’s play and spun around freely with other girls on
stage in a poodle skirt. I remember a boy telling me after the play that I
wrote, staged, and directed, at age 12, “you looked fat up there!” Another boy
blew up his cheeks and said “Chubby Cheeks!”
Obviously,
everyone gets teased—it’s part of childhood. But, it hadn’t occurred to me
before this to think of my physicality and how that played a role in what I was
doing. I gave up theatre, but drama remained and grew in my head—my acne, my
legs, my hair, my clothes—was I pretty enough?
Life went on. I had friends. I found
newspaper as a quiet, comfortable, behind-the-scenes creative outlet.
One night,
flipping through Seventeen, I got in a fit of teenage angst---
“FUCK FUCK
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK”
I wrote it
all over a model’s face. I was wallowing in my sorrow. My mom later found the
“FUCKS” and was irate; I got grounded for my inappropriate language and notably
sunk-in again for trying to express myself—admittedly maybe too harshly and
indirectly, but what I wanted wasn’t really to be
pretty/skinny/perfect-looking. That’s what I thought, but really, I just wanted
to be seen and heard—my voice—as a person with a brain and heart—not just some
potential ass. Is that really the only way to be seen/being an attractive
female? Obviously my own low-confidence and awkward teen age was at play, but
as such, I was fragile, impressionable.
As I sort
through these women’s VOICES, I’m finding we’re there, we’re heard, we just
have to listen and see on our ends, too, what is behind the beautiful
faces—while also realizing that outward cannot be separated from inward.
These women of VOICE at The New BLK Gallery in Omaha will explore that very
dynamic—each of their VOICES differently beautiful, alive, and heard.
Trilety
Wade is an artist and writer known for her humorous, sexually explicit
narratives. Her watercolors, such as an image of a clothespin being placed on a
nipple and a tongue, in bright yellows, pinks and greens, give a light yet
direct approach to images that could be seen as harsh or pornographic. Her work
is from her female experience and much of it has to do with submission - to
both men and women—and her “obsession” with the human form.
As she has
developed, said Wade, “My style is changing from an external focus to using the
external to provide focus on the internal.” With her work in VOICE, she will continue
to use the body, focusing on “the obstacles we construct that keep us from
truly connecting or communicating with others.”
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“Lapse,” by Jewel Noll, relief, ink, chine colle and pigment on kozo, 51”x 48”, 2009
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Artist
Jewel Noll calls her female characteristics a “blessing and a curse”—an extra
amount of love, care, compassion, empathy, attention to detail, self-reflection
and sense of peace. She is known for her intricate prints reminiscent of Asian
influence with floral patterns and natural landscape imagery. “Being a
female is part of my identity, and through my visual interpretations, it is my
gift to the world.”
Her VOICE
installation will come from the voices in her head—lists, lists,
lists—groceries, tasks, errands, artists to research, order of operations,
wedding plans… “It is rare that the world know how much we as women do everyday
just to stay afloat. My lists are the evidence.”
Her wall of
lists will include over – lists compiled since January 1, 2012. “I can only
imagine that it will be overwhelming.”
Marcia Joffe-Bouska has been in the arts scene in Omaha
since 1978. She has quietly been making richly colorful and aesthetically
beautiful glasswork, paintings and sculptures with inner meaning that sometimes
takes a closer-look to capture.
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“Sometimes a Safe Haven,” by Marcia Joffe-Bouska
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Her latest series exploring nests, are a testament to her
seemingly subtle—yet instinctively powerful—intention. The intricately sculpted
nests with metal-leafed eggs appear on first view as comforting—we think of the
nests in our yard or above restaurant signs—how lovely, a bird family,
wondering if the babies are in there squeaking for food…Upon closer inspection
of Joffe-Bouska’s are nails, sticking straight up lining the bottom of this
beautifully rendered piece she titled, “Sometime’s a Safe Haven.” Her series
for VOICE will reflect the issue of self-worth.
“I like the rich metaphor they provide (shelter, security,
connection, family, individual vs. environment, nurturing, etc.) and can
manipulate the image/symbol to convey many meanings,” the artist said.
Performance
artist Kristin Lubbert sees each new project as a further revelation into her
vast exploration of art—“art as therapy, art as self-exploration, art to
reflect/reveal culture, art to create culture, art to challenge and change
society, art to make the world more beautiful.”
In her
previous pieces, Lubbert has emulated Marina Abramovic’s “The Artist is
Present,” sitting silently in a chair for the duration of the art opening,
welcoming visitors to sit across from her and divulge whatever information
without a response or prompt.
A more
outwardly intense performance, last summer she performed “The Shame of Isis”
with artist Rachel Thomlinson Dick; the duo stood inside a blue candle-lit
rectangle on the floor in red underwear, exchanging virgin and whore dresses
while shouting shames at each other. It ended with branding stars into each
other’s hands, and their friends binding them together in a yellow rope.
As each of
her pieces may differ in intention, they do share her theme of intimate
exploration. For her piece in VOICE, she will invite attendees to write a
note—“anything they want”—on a piece of paper for it to be recited and
re-interpreted by a group of performers in motion with another written and
spoken response.
“It is an
exploration of the mind-body connection and instinctual human movement. I am
excited to find out what the content of this piece will be. I have come up with
a form, a structure, but what is actually explored is up to the audience,” said
the artist.
Mixed
media artist Megan Loudon Sanders’s inspirations vary from her son’s drawings
to Art Nouveau, Japanese paper, tattoos and the natural world in general. She works intuitively; mixing elements
that might be stylistically dissimilar, like realistic drawings with flat
planes of color or collaged elements, bringing in strong contrast, rich color
and elegant line to create her beautifully crafted figurative and abstract
pieces.
For her work in VOICE, co-curator Megan will exhibit a
series of mixed media images of women with tattoos. In one, a young woman in a
blue polka-dot dress sits cross-legged, bringing her teacup up to sip, a
simpering smile to the viewer. Intricate and colorful tattoos line her hands
and arms, challenging the pristine environment.
“Originally, I wanted to explore context, and how tattoos change
the context of something, like being lady-like or feminine. As I’ve worked
more, I think of it also as art about art, and art about women and expression.
I see tattoos as a form of creative expression that can have social
consequences, which leads me to think about ways in which societal expectations
dictate the way that women express themselves.”
Artist
Wanda Ewing was the curator of the original LES FEMMES FOLLES exhibit in March
2011 (since then it inspired the blog, and two following exhibitions including
Les Femmes Folles Presents: VOICE). She is known for her work exploring
how race factors into society’s definition of feminine beauty such as “Black as
Pitch, Hot as Hell,” her large-scale paintings of black pin-up girls, but also
for her more subdued series “Black Catalogue” of black silhouettes in
thoughtful poses. Last summer she made a splash with her “Video Grrrlllz”
series of barely-clad black women with punching-bag heads, a metaphor for how
women have been treated in the hip-hop industry.
As of late,
Ewing has been busy hookin’—latch-hooking. Keeping with her exploration on the
subjects of race, beauty, sexuality and identity, Ewing’s yarn rugs bring an
unexpected contented feel to the perhaps originally risqué images of women’s
bodies. In one, three women stand in sultry poses showing major skin, intently
looking at the viewer, and the main image in gray-toned yarn, lined with a pink
border. Another in pink and green of a mirrored woman’s profile almost appears
abstract.
“The result
is a completely different feel from the derived images…after I play with them
in photo-shop, and I make them into rugs, they become kind-of demure, even
though the subjects are overt.”
Ella
Weber’s prints, designs and drawings are based upon her collection of childlike
objects and her “internal collection of personal memories.” Her work explores
how an individual’s identity continuously evolves from childhood to adulthood,
from past to present experiences. Her playful use of iconic toys reflects the
values, anxieties, contradictions and desires of contemporary society.
In her most recent series, “Boy’s n’ toys” Ella places a real person next to a
larger than life inanimate object, derived from popular culture- a grown man
looking up to a mouthless hello kitty pez dispenser or a bearded man smoking a
cigarette in front of a giant smokey the bear. At first glance, the drawings
are saturated with innocence, nostalgia and humor. But she also aims to express
a more subversive reality in which the values and roles within society are
questioned and challenged.
For VOICE, Ella will further explore what it means to be real, to be human, but
more specifically, to be female.
Amy Quinn,
often known as “PlaiderPillar,” is recognized for her eclectic, hand-sewn
lively creatures and intricately woven animal sculpture pieces, from tiny
3-inch birds to gigantic 8-foot rabbits. Often inspired by fairy tale, folk art
or “otherwise far-fetched and implausible quality,” for her VOICE series, Amy
will be delving into the human form, creating some “yoga creatures.”
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"Two Layers," by Melanie Pruitt, ink on paper
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Other
included artists Melanie Pruitt and Trudie Teijink are still working, and will
exhibit work built on their own perspective for VOICE.
The only
Nebraska-outsider, Colorado-based artist Melanie Pruitt is known for her
elaborate line ink drawings of figurative and abstract images inspired by the
“beauty of human history and the organic patterns of the Rocky Mountains that
surround me.”
Fresh from
being a part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Womanhouse’s exhibition: The
House That Feminism Built at Parallax Space in March, Trudie Teijink investigates the “fragility
of human life and feelings of loss, fortitude, and desire.” Using digital
imagery printed on paper and fabrics, drawing, and a variety of traditional
printmaking techniques, her exploration of three-dimensional derived from
2-dimensional imagery transforms spaces into innovative, colorful rooms of art.
As for
myself, co-curator of VOICE and creator of the Les Femmes Folles blog, my work
since childhood has revolved around self-portraiture and investigation of the
relationship of my insides to my outsides. Since my days trying to imitate the
models of the magazines via self-portrait photos, to writing intimate poetry
and drawing series of self-portraits in college, to more photographs later in
life and nude performance and modeling, I haven’t strayed much from the
dichotomy of how my body both reflects and disguises my inner self.
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"L.S." by Sally Deskins, tempera on paper, 18"x24," 2012
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With my
latest work, I have painted myself up—literally, with body-prints. Using
children’s tempera paint and paint brushes, I have attempted to put on paper
how my body is revealed and what it mirrors, how its perceived and its
relevance or irrelevance with who I am as a woman, mother, wife, professional,
as a breathing human.
VOICE
attempts to do just that—sometimes we still get wrapped up in superficial
obsessions, forget who we are, amongst the business of this modern life—but
we’re there, we’re alive, and this is who we are, inside and out.
Instead of Seventeen’s, now I’ve got stacks of ARTnews with ripped pages of exciting artists.
Exhibition postcards, posters, and small works by inspiring artists like the
ones in VOICE, line my home workspace—reminding me, and hopefully my daughter,
that we have a means of expression, a way to find ourselves, and its not
gleamed from what other kids, magazines or whoever, tells us we “should” be.
