This has been quite a full Autumn, with several shows, the ACES Conference and Expo, the beginning of a new series in the studio, AND things at the college speeding way up. With more responsibilities and commitments than ever, and with a renewed sense of vision, I am having to call on all my creative energies on multiple fronts.
I definitely feel like a Virago!
Not only is this show curated by the strongest 3rd Wave Feminist voice in the region (Tracy, please keep the fire burning!), but every single art piece in the show makes you think and feel. I am super excited to be a part of this project!
This Thorny Bush (Three Faces of Eve) is mixed media on polyester film and my exploration of all those #MeToo moments all us womxn seem to have experienced. Let’s not even talk about how we need this thorny bush to defend our reproductive rights.
And I couldn’t stop there. I had to share with my fellow Viragos this personal ritual for fighting against the sexual harassers and other creeps.
In Oya Yansa’s Dance or My Hands Drip With Blood, also mixed media on polyester film, you can see me dancing in the studio with my beard.
In Yoruba mythology, Oya is a warrior goddess. She grows a beard in battle, shuttles the dead to the underworld, and represents a transformational female fierceness. She is the embodiment of liminality–a border creature, part witch, part divinity.  I bought a long patriarchal beard the day I declared war on the oppressors I work with at SCC. I wear it to summon the archetype of this fearsome warrior whenever I strike back at a man who stalked me, took photos of me from behind, sometimes as I leaned over to help students, and posted them on his office door. He broke into my office, made crude demeaning sexual remarks in front of others but still HR did not find this man guilty of sexual harassment. They did finally injunct him from hassing me and he’s “retiring†in a few weeks.
Next I will wage war against a vicious administrator. I wear my beard, take off my shoes, and dance with Yansa again.