She carries herself like John Wayne. No one can imagine engaging her in a fight. It would be physical, violent and very short. She is strong, broad-shouldered. She wears a uniform to work...it is unimportant what kind...she is proud about every job she does and works with dignity.
She is occasionally mistaken for a man but she doesn't really mind. Passing can be handy.
My work is about this in-between woman, her gender undetermined......Her genitalia is female, but her actions are decidedly masculine. She has had many names from Rosie the Riveter to Butch Dyke.
Gender is usually decided by our genitalia at birth. I am interested in drawing and painting a series of works that explore the fluidity of gender: from very masculine women to feminine men and MTF and FTM trans genders. I will paint 20-30 paintings/portraits of gender bending Southerners. In addition to the paintings, I will create 10-20 drawings/studies for each painting in order to best explore the best design and structure for these paintings.
I will be including uniformed police officers, soldiers (all branches of the military), mechanics, business executives, steel mill workers, firefighters, animal control, repair-persons, waitresses, flight attendants, pilots, security guards.
I currently have a list of 20 participants who are willing to sit for these paintings. It would be nice to compensate them for their time. The participants are aware that these are not standard portrait paintings and will be used in a series describing gender fluidity.
The works will be displayed at Rivoli Art Mill upon completion in a one-woman show in early 2009. The show will remain unnamed until more work has been done. One working title is "Stance".
At this time, I have completed two paintings and hundreds of drawings working toward this goal.
I am aware of very few works that explore this type of subject matter and I am excited to get some images out to the community. I was influenced by Harmony Hammond who taught at the University of Arizona, my Alma mater, and who wrote "Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History."
Chattanooga is ready for this modern type of subject matter. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has recently unveiled a new Women's Studies major and I feel that this work and the research that accompanies it will be useful at the university level.
I graduated from the University of Arizona in 2006. I was a single parent who became pregnant at 17, the first to graduate from high school in my entire family. I should be a statistic, dead or on drugs, instead, I am a working artist. I have survived an abusive father, abject poverty and a partner deployed to Afghanistan.
I am currently an avid Blogger and will be documenting the entire process online with daily and weekly updates including but not limited to photographs, journals, essays and an entire website dedicated to this one series.
ESTIMATED COSTS:
28 Canvases 24"x36"x3" each, gallery wrapped @ 18.00 each. Total 504.00
28 frames 24x36" each @ 27.57 each. Total 772.00
brush set 1 small 17.00
brush set 1 large 51.00
9 paint tubes @ 10.79-18.79. Total 106.00
Digital images- free
printing images @ .14 per color copy x 100. Total 14.00
Travel to several cities:
Airfare, food, hotel, transportation will differ for each city.
Goals, Major Activities and Anticipated results of painting and online project.
Goal 1- Fully develop a body of work that increases awareness and knowledge of multiple perspectives of gender fluidity. In order to create a fully developed body of work that richly portrays diverse experiences, I will build on core writings and drawings by: 1)Creating new 'views' of what gender is and is not; 2) developing historic character narratives which more fully portray multiple perspectives; 3) producing an interactive website with an historic time line; 4) adding artifacts, audio and video.
Anticipated results a) people who view the work or visit the website will gain awareness and knowledge of the diverse cultural perspectives of gender; b) I will have developed tools that can be used by libraries and in university classrooms.
Goal 2 -Widely disseminate "Stance" to the general public. I will: 1) collaborate with regional public radio station to create a complimentary radio feature; 2) promote the website and painting series through programs surrounding GLBT events; 3) make presentations to educators and GLBT leaders in the area; and 4) aggressively market the works to diverse audiences.
Anticipated Results -Large and diverse audiences will explore the exhibit online and in galleries and studios.
Goal 3 - Evaluate the web site's effectiveness with public audiences. I will: 1) conduct formative evaluation; and 2) conduct a summative evaluation through: a) post release user testing; b) online surveys; and c) data collection on user activity.
Anticipated results - I will provide strong documentation of how this body of work and website actually impacts audiences.
I will travel to key cities to visit museums and galleries to explore ways to disseminate STANCE to the public, view how current shows are displayed and to meet with galleries (owners/exhibits directors) to talk about how GLBT shows are being handled and the reception in the surrounding community. The cities I am planning on visiting are New York, Washington, Atlanta, Savannah and San Francisco. Funding will be key in this area of research. I may expand my visits to include cities that are the same size as Chattanooga or are in more conservative pockets in order to understand how the work will be received in those areas as well.