[Location]
Lyceum Theatre Gallery
[Exhibition Description]
Irene Abraham
Home alone
marker, acrylic on board (diptych)
This painting/drawing is a reflection of place, home, memory, journeys, side tracks, blind alleys. The images are derived from maps and systems that describe information through line and color. I am inviting the viewer to take a trip with me in this non-literal landscape. Slide down the straight lines. Go back in time. Take a dip in the dots.
Jennifer A. Bennett
Tripler Hospital
gouache and pencil on papers
Looking Out: North (top)
mixed media on mylar
Looking In: South (bottom)
oil on canvas
ACCESS: Looking In - Looking Out is part of the google map/ virtual memory series, which is a work-in-progress. This series consists of drawings and paintings that map and investigate a personal history as a starting point for a broader dialogue. Imagery includes the hospital where I was born, homes, schools, and campuses where I have taught. Most of the images of these places have been accessed using the Internet. Some of the source material is from my own direct observation, in contrast to the found, (and, at times, less than idyllic) imagery.
This work has encouraged me to consider my familiarity with the places I have lived, studied, or worked, and search for them online, some as far as three thousand miles away. Using street, map, or satellite “views,” I am able to see these familiar places from a completely different vantage point and period of time. I then gain an understanding of place, context, and condition or sequence. I consider my involvement with these places and the moment the image was captured. I wonder: is there evidence of my connection with this place in the image? Was the photo taken before or after my interaction with this location? I look for small changes or details that lend clues to the passage of time and season.
The Internet gives us the opportunity to be instantly transported to the home of our childhood, public institutions, or the first home of our very own. Using technology and computers in this way subverts a romanticized memory of the places we have inhabited, visited or imagined to exist in a specific mode other than that which we see on the monitor. Viewing homes and buildings in this manner may encourage a warm nostalgia or destroy it instantly when presented with something other than that which was remembered. Trying to recall addresses and communicating with family about former homes has stimulated a dialogue and, at times, even a debate as to which house we actually lived in.
The juxtaposition of place, memory, and technology allows me to investigate imagery in a different way and create new narratives. I am able to consider time as an action, a process, and one, which leaves a mark. Combining the culture of the Web with something as simple as pencil and pigment on a surface allows me to map my past, where I have been, and the new spaces I inhabit.
Jocelyn Duke
FREEDOM
acrylic on canvas
This piece came about during a meditation session in my studio.
It's a very simple word with a universe of complex ideas and concepts behind it. People have fought and died for it while some have gone mad trying to stomp it out. Freedom is power and without it, we are prisoners to someone else. Freedom is intimidating. Freedom is hard. Freedom is decisions. Freedom is about letting go of control. Freedom is cool.
Jeanne Dunn
Tangle Trees: Finding the Place
acrylic on canvas
In my recent paintings, I have been exploring notions of self-knowledge, place, path, and direction. For me, the pairing of the play "In the Next Room" with the exhibition "What Women Want" results in two separate explorations of female/male self-awareness. Portrayed here by both visual art and theater, the means for seeking the rewards of personal fulfillment are every bit as physical as they are psychological, intellectual, and spiritual. The varying forms of art on these walls all reach for a way to speak of desire and its fulfillment. The San Diego Repertory Theater production is both a humorous and a jarring series of situations where people have vague notions of their own unfulfilled desires and little clue as to how to satisfy them. In his book, "Consider the Lobster and Other Stories", the philosopher David Foster Wallace admonishes each of us to continually strive to understand where we are, “what we are swimming in,” in every sense, and on every level. In the Lyceum's play, most of the characters are initially carrying on lives that never question what is being expected of them, never aspire to having lives directed by their innermost intuitions and desires.
My painting, "Tangle Trees: Finding the Place" depicts a nymph-like woman (EveryWoman) at the crossroads of a journey known only to her. She shows no clear direction, only an inward gaze. For the Victorian artist who first created this stylized woman's image, she must have been a 19th century ideal of the feminine, a passive pleasure destination, displaying her charms so that others (men) could fantasize. For the contemporary viewer this figure is a quaint relic of extreme naïveté, a woman-girl, a decorative display-ette. She is the antithesis of a motivated, self-directed, creative woman. She is Woman poised at a crossroads.
But this painting proposes that contemporary women and men view this characterization as a useful reminder. She is an emblem of what every woman must confront at some stage of her growth as a person and professional: to a large part of the world she is an object until she identifies “what she is swimming in” and acts from that standpoint.
Since every means of communication constantly remind her that her body is being seen as a commodity, as a department store mannequin, she must continually sort out her direction. Her fleshiness here is a symbol of vulnerability rather than being kitten-ish, or restricted to a single role as fertile provider of generations and nothing else
Michele Guieu
Sheet digital print on fabric, beads
Stories heard from female friends from women I’ve met during my travels. Stories I’ve read, novels and news, from everywhere.
Sally Hagy-Boyer
House It’s Supposed To Be
encaustic on paper with oil and collage
In my work I have used the house to portray the wants, the needs, and the I have-tos that occur in my daily life. I am always trying to balance priorities which are always changing.
House Work
encaustic on paper with oil and collage
I try to fix things and make it all better because I can’t always be there when it falls apart.
Misty Hawkins
The Pink Shoe
oil on linen
For me the image in this painting represents the private inner life and longings of an individual woman, something I believe can not be easily defined by social conventions or a multitude of roles she may explore. I've allowed myself to be open minded about the meanings that are suggested in paintings I make of her.
Misty Hawkins
Reverie
oil and oil pastel on canvas
This painting is a study in the sense that I was thinking about how to use the oval format or other than rectangle formats, and it began in watermedia on a ground textured with an acrylic medium with oil pastel before I added oil paint. I was also thinking about paintings of her that would come after this one, imagining the emotion behind her expression and how that might evolve into a setting, a place, or the suggestion of a narrative.
Regina Herod
One Part: Complicit Oppression Of Femininity Entombed
encaustic and plant fibers on wood panel
I have always been drawn toward observations of global unrest, circumstances and the human condition. My encaustic paintings are inspired and informed by the current state of the world we live in. I regard my works as narratives that meld thematic global commonalities. I focus on familial, political, and environmental issues--specifically, within the context of how people survive and exist, in certain areas of the world. The juxtaposition of impoverished and affluent regions, as well as their resulting imbalances, irony and contradictions are key elements in each piece. I regard my work as a part of a growing global consciousness, in the midst of a world in turmoil. The characters and vignettes are presented as messages, which will hopefully encourage a visual dialogue within the viewer.
This piece addresses the widespread practice of Female Genital Mutilation within regions of Africa and the Middle East. This alternate form of sexual oppression is generally carried out in the name of religion and culture, with little regard for the future lives of the women who live with the aftermath. Ultimately, I am exploring questions regarding the subconscious mind, as well as the historical and male dominated origins of exploitation and oppression under the guise of necessity for "their own good.”
Daphne Hill
1970, Syphilis
10 pieces
mixed media on panel
These twelve lovely, wigged ladies from 1970 epitomize an ideal I think we are still striving for 40 years later: control. They seem happy, healthy, educated and affluent. Foxy ladies, no doubt. Could the wigs be influencing my perception? Maybe there’s more to the story, but Champagne Fluff, Pandora and the rest know how to keep things undercover and in check. Two or more birth control pills appear in each piece. These women plan ahead – they may want a family, but it will be when they are perfectly ready. Those black, squiggly lines snaking through the ten panels? Oh, that’s syphilis. These gals had their bases covered, though, and fixed that minor setback of the sexual revolution faster than a wig fixes a bad hair day. A simple course of antibiotics did the trick. No one had to compromise their dreams because of a stubborn cowlick, ill-timed pregnancy or a deadly STD. Why should they? I mean, it was 1970, and these fair ladies worked as models in L.A. – that’s Los Angeles, not Lower Alabama.
But that’s another story about control altogether.
Daphne Hill
Pin-up Caveat mixed media on wood panels
Here, twelve playful, postwar calendar girls from 1951 frolic with microscopic-gone-macroscopic venereal diseases – syphilis and gonorrhea. These were the two most prevalent and dreaded STDs of the era, and the ones with which American public health doctors deliberately infected hundreds of Guatemalan prisoners, mental patients and soldiers to test the efficacy of penicillin on the diseases between 1946 and 1948. Infected prostitutes were sent to sleep with the prisoners and soldiers to expose them to the diseases. If they didn’t test positive after that, the bacteria were applied directly to small cuts on their faces, arms and penises. If that STILL didn’t do the job, the bacteria were injected directly into their spines. In light of this recent discovery of reprehensible and hypocritical behavior sanctioned by the US in the name of science, the lovely calendar girl, the epitome sexy Americana, takes on the far more ominous and unexpected job of illustrating this ugly truth of our US history.
Prudence Horne
A Path
markers on paper, mixed media
What Women Want is a question I answered for myself, I didn't try to answer for the masses. As a woman I want a path in life, a path which brings passion, adventure, knowledge, a path to the unknown, a path to freedom, to having a voice, a path of beauty, security, a path that presents challenges and changes, a path of family and friendships and love, a path of stability, a path of complications, laughter, and fulfillment, a path of possibilities. The path is represented by a simple black line which runs through the length of the scroll. The colored drawings play along and with the line. The line never disconnects. The drawing is on a roll of calculator paper and rather than being used for the production of numbers I have used it for the production of illustrated thoughts and idea’s.
Terri Hughes
What's for Dinner?
fabric, trim, starch
“What's for Dinner?"
A question interesting enough, but why and how intrigue me more. Serving aphrodisiacs to a lover reminds me of stories in Victorian times of women poisoning their husbands slowly with food. I imagine plenty of women also testing foods with so-called aphrodisiac qualities.
This project is inspired by the unseen power of women in the Victorian Era in regards to food, and by one of my favorite films about food, Tampopo (Japanese, 1985).
Lisa Hutton
You Have Everything You Need To Be Complete
mirror, vinyl lettering
Distinguishing between wants and needs propagates psychological confusion in our culture. Advertising and mass media constantly remind us of our alleged incompleteness and inadequacy. This piece proposes that our reflection of ourselves should be a reflection of our innate completeness.
Lori Lipsman
try to
stamped wallpaper, wallpaper, paper & thread
I am a woman who very early on in life decided not to have children. This decision was based on my perception that the world was not a good place to bring a child into. What makes it bad is our behavior. What I want as a woman is for people to try.............. and if they try, things will change, then a woman would never have to question if this world was a good place to bring a child into.
Kathy Miller
Open Your Heart
mixed media
Communication lines need to be maintained for a successful relationship.
Can You Hear Me Now?
mixed media
This sculpture is based upon the idea that listening is the art of conversation.
Amy Paul
Lifeline
acrylic on wood
I think the title speaks for itself, somebody throw me a lifeline. That's what I want—reprieve, rescue, relief. Someone swoop me up before the chaos of life swallows me in.
The Wreck
acrylic on wood
Ginger Rosser
Bouncing Bustles
paper collage
Bouncing Bustles was inspired by my work at the Women’s Museum and created from a discarded library book and a frame found in an art store dumpster.
Ginger Rosser
Don’t Be A Pin-up Girl
paper collage
This is the first of over 100 collages inspired by my feminist opinions and the state of my personal relationships with the men in my life. One can aspire to the ideal of domestic bliss that permeates western society, but in the end, some people just aren’t meant to live together.
My art work reflects how pop culture and the media deal with feminist issues related to gender roles, sexuality and maintenance of personal relationships. I learned collage in elementary school. As an adult, cutting paper became a form of art therapy allowing me to express by observations and opinions in a way that my poetry and my dancing could not. I feel honored to be among such talented, supportive women. Much of my art education can be attributed to my work experiences as a model for the art professors in this group.
The Package #1
acrylic on canvas
NFS
Fatal Weakness
paper collage
The perfect mate may turn out to be neither.
Therese Rossi
Daydream
oil and charcoal on canvas
This exhibit and its subject, "What do women want?" is timely for me.
It joins the flow of my on-going reflection in recent years regarding choices I've made in my life thus far—roads taken and others left untraveled.
My painting meets the question on the subject of motherhood and the aradox of how I chose one life happily (one without parenthood) and yet have full-hearted, sometimes deeply sad moments of wondering.
What if? Raising children was definitely not for me, yet I adore them, am so at home with them and actually need to be around them.
What I find so interesting is how we can have what we want and still mourn the thing not chosen.
Anna Stump
Chula Vista Bedroom
acrylic on canvas
What a woman wants is contradictory.
She wants to be alone. She surrounds herself with children and friends and animals.
She wants to be accepted as she is. She constantly adjusts herself to accommodate others.
She wants to be independent. She needs to be taken care of.
She wants to be beautiful. Beauty is ever elusive.
She wants to be strong. She knows that powerful women are lonely.
She wants to make a mark, somehow. History is not on her side.
The “Messy Bedroom” series of paintings is based on photographs of friends in their bedrooms in intimate, casual scenes of multiple exposures. I am interested in the psychology of the moment, in the narcissism of the subject and the voyeurism of the viewer. The narrative stems from adult readings of sensuality, in opposition to juvenile sexual antics that proliferate in the media. The images are also related to photos people post of themselves on social network sites such as Facebook.
This series continues my ongoing exploration of how people relate with their bodies to environments, to partners and friends, and to their emotional states.
Anna Stump
Lincoln Heights Bedroom
acrylic on canvas
What a woman wants is contradictory.
She wants to be alone. She surrounds herself with children and friends and animals.
She wants to be accepted as she is. She constantly adjusts herself to accommodate others.
She wants to be independent. She needs to be taken care of.
She wants to be beautiful. Beauty is ever elusive.
She wants to be strong. She knows that powerful women are lonely.
She wants to make a mark, somehow. History is not on her side.
The “Messy Bedroom” series of paintings is based on photographs of friends in their bedrooms in intimate, casual scenes of multiple exposures. I am interested in the psychology of the moment, in the narcissism of the subject and the voyeurism of the viewer. The narrative stems from adult readings of sensuality, in opposition to juvenile sexual antics that proliferate in the media. The images are also related to photos people post of themselves on social network sites such as Facebook.
This series continues my ongoing exploration of how people relate with their bodies to environments, to partners and friends, and to their emotional states.
Marcela Villaseñor
Offering
mixed media
I was born in Mexico and lived there for almost 30 years.
Since the beginning of the 90s, I have concentrated on Pre-Hispanic themes, creating installations with mixed materials and digital photography, which allows me to generate different ideas, fusing the past and present.
When I faced this surreal landscape I felt it deeply as the center of my universe, and was instantly inspired and motivated to use it as the backdrop to represent instances that have always been in my mind.
Mayan and Aztec conceptions of the cosmos, cardinal directions, universe and regeneration by bloodletting are the concepts in my thoughts that remind of the circle of life. In this piece I'm wearing the necklace of the goddess of life, death and rebirth Cuatlicue, and I mixed the scene with western iconography of the same period from the artist H. Bosch.
Anna Zappoli
DeComPart
oil on canvas
As an artist and a woman it is a necessity for me to express inner feelings in my work and to see the part of me that only as I paint appears.
[Artists]
Irene Abraham, Jennifer A. Bennett, Jocelyn Duke, Jeanne Dunn, Michele Guieu, Sally Hagy-Boyer, Misty Hawkins, Regina Herod, Daphne Hill, Prudence Horne, Terri Hughes, Lisa Hutton, Lori Lipsman, Kathy Miller, Amy Paul, Ginger Rosser, Therese Rossi, Anna Stump, Marcela Villasenor, Anna Zappoli
