November 2020
“If you're not angry, you're either a stone, or you're too sick to be angry. You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure.
So use that anger, yes. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.”
Maya Angelou
The Labyrinth at the Desert Dairy - Linda Litteral
The Walk: A Meditation
Early labyrinths in ancient Greece were used during the springtime celebrations where male priest dancers performed a magical dance to evoke new birth to the land, society and the psyche. This labyrinth has been invested with my intentions as a place to stimulate creativity, bring abundance, and a place of safety for women. The Walk is a journey into the center of your being. As you walk inwards, you are invited to release old patterns and debilitating emotional memories. You can just walk and allow the labyrinth to lead you or have an intention in mind for the walk. Personal transformation and enlightenment are some goals of the walk. The labyrinth can be a way to discover the sacred in everyday life. All you have to do is take the first step and move through the space. There is power in the process of The Walk.
FIG Critiques - First Harvest
Anna Stump
I just want to thank you so much for all your comments about my work yesterday. I really appreciate the hard looking and thinking about what you were seeing and understanding. I'm very happy that most of what I'm trying to achieve with the work is evident to you all! I really liked Doris' comment about the "poverty" and "shantytown" use of metal. I've gotten so used to corrugated tin as a material out here in the desert I forget what most of the West sees in it. That all of you saw the water imagery was great even though you couldn't see that the figures were actually swimming/drowning. I liked that Kathleen used "demonic" and Kit used "frozen collision" about the work. It's not happy work, I'm pretty upset in general and the work is reflecting that.
Linda Litteral
I would like to thank you all for the knowledge and feelings you all shared with me last night. I was a bit nervous about a crit about my paintings as it was not an educational avenue for me. More a personal discovery and exploration with paint. I now have a lot to think about and about 10 pages of notes to look at and absorb.
Jeanne Dunne
Thank you so much for your gut responses, thoughtful/helpful insights, and challenging questions concerning the work I showed for the crit on Thursday. I have pages and pages of great notes from all of you, with more coming from Doris when we do the makeup.
Doris Bittar
Thanks Jeanne! And thanks to all. That was the deepest reading I ever had, and I learned so much. [Jeanne’s research results after we discussed Doris’s work follows] “…I just now had the chance to look up Mashrabiya, the meaning of which Doris helped us (me) with yesterday. As Doris said, it does refer to an architectural bay-window-like wooden decorative “lattice” designed to cool the house by opening cross-ventilation and encouraging massive airflow in an area where water is stored to keep it cool, and simultaneously create a type of early “air conditioning.”
Kirsten Aaboe
Thank you so much for your wise eyes, loving hearts and good counsel. It was truly a gift - wellnamed, Doris! You gave me such fine feedback on a range of work. Thanks for looking at the group. I did glean some great suggestions to work with: using text to illuminate the personal behind the drawn or photo images is engaging, try ‘going big’ to explore the power of scale, stick with one medium to dive in to a variety subjects, continue drawing on my story and my history, and keep searching.
Kathleen Mitchell
Thank you all for the valuable feedback. I'm so happy that your responded to the kitsch factor and the historical references. It gives me encouragement to move forward with the work, a much needed boost. This whole guinea pig process has been priceless. I learned so much AND felt my opinions/observations counted. In this time of not being able to connect with my artists friends in person it provided support, sisterhood, and community.
Uplifting
Ginger Rosser made Helen Redman’s Halloween!
Dressing in wonderful costumes is a gift Ginger has brought into many of her endeavors, among them, being an extremely talented artist’s model. Transforming herself into a butterfly for Halloween 2020 was a perfect symbol of the lift-off we all experienced with the election of the Biden/Harris ticket.
A FIG newsletter, to help us stay connected!
FIG News in .pdf format, will be emailed once a month to the feministimagegroup@groups.io email group, soon after the monthly FIG meeting. The intention is to include some of the information we send out through email to the .io group email that’s not time-sensitive, events we share, and what’s discussed at our meeting. We’ll then be able to find some information we’ve received in our Newsletters instead of searching through emails. If you’d like anything FIG-related included in an upcoming Newsletter, feel free to email OurFigNews@gmail.com and the info will be included in the next edition. Send any questions about FIG News to that email too. One of us will respond as soon as we can.