Women - Our Work (WOW)

Curating an online sisterhood of women artists: their work and experiences, as part of an ongoing project.

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There are many ways to unlock parts of ourselves. For me, the key was a box of crayons. In 1998 I treated myself to a deluxe 96-pack of Crayolas. I opened the lid, and the scent transported me to the cool green linoleum floor of my childhood playroom, where I spent hours drawing. Those crayons, along with watercolors and pencils, led me to paint my first chameleon, entitled “Self-Portrait,” the idea being that women are continually changing their roles, shedding and growing new emotional and intellectual skin in order to adapt to their environments.

http://www.nancymooreart.com/

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"They began to climb. Soon the bamboo stalk was covered with human bodies. - Hopi Emergence Myth", Paula Billups. Oil pigment and charcoal on brown paper.

Paula Billups holds an MFA from the Transart Institute and a BFA from the Lyme Academy. She shares her time between Boston and Berlin. Her perennial inspiration is the human figure and the portrait as an expression of human relationships. As her practice has deepened to take on more conceptual approaches, her recent work engages the difference between what is hidden and unknowable about human nature and what we avidly seek in ourselves and in others in order to feel our humanity, and where the bounds of these opposite drives might reside. These questions naturally lend themselves to rich opportunities for collaboration as well as solo projects. She has most recently exhibited in Berlin and Quedlinburg, and she has exhibitions upcoming in 2014 and 2015 in Luxembourg and Las Vegas.

Website - www.paulabillups.com 

Blog - www.paulabillupsart.blogspot.com 

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You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it's all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

Maya Angelou

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Guardians, Ashby Carlisle. Clay. 

"Environment is the lifeblood of my work and literally living between a marshland, woodland, and the ocean is a wondrous gift to me as an artist.  Here I can watch and investigate the variety of life in these habitats change from season to season as well as collect the seeds, seedpods, shells and vines which provide the basic elements for my sculpture. My work insists that we look closely at frequently overlooked aspects of life for without our acknowledgement, respect, and care for all aspects, the earth life systems that support everyone can vanish."

You can see more of Ashby's work at www.ashbycarlisle.com

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Emerald Erosions, Rachel Hellerich. Acrylic and flashe on panel. 

Rachel Hellerich received her Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 and her Bachelor of Science from Southern Connecticut State University in 2003.  Though both degrees had an emphasis on sculpture, she has been focused on painting and drawing for the last 10 years. From its conception, her work has been influenced by the themes and aesthetics of Asian art, science fiction, fashion and military history.  Her drawings have been a source of reflection, serving as blueprints for larger scale, atmospheric paintings. The process of working in multiples on a modular level, with repetitive, textile-like references, has been a recurring exercise; as an obsessive means to connect with each piece, providing a gateway to meditate and reflect on a particular memory or place.

She draws and paints simultaneously, yet each piece is created with unique outlooks and purposes.  When she is working on paper, she returns to a more subconscious way of thinking, picturing and dreaming about imaginary places. Her paintings are typically created with more deliberate architectural aspects.  They encompass a range of media, continually approached with her previous three-dimensional mindset.  Sometimes the brush isn’t used at all, but rather a palette knife is her preferred tool to carve landscapes and dramatize skies.  She is discovering additional methods as she progresses to enhance and ‘sculpt’ her work.  It seems there is no limit with paint.

You can see more of Rachel's work at www.rachelhellerich.com

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Ramshackle Rain, Gray Jacobik. Encaustic on birch panel. 

"I am an experimental studio artist, influenced by Diebenkorn, Frankenthaler, Mitchell, Mason, Rutenberg, and Bowling. Because I work in encaustic, which uses thermal energy and air currents, and is constantly changing from a liquid to a solid state, I use the same forces that shape the planet and the cosmos. Consequently, my paintings are acts of co-creation, rather than of representation or non-objective work.

Educated at Goddard and Brandeis (BA, MA, PhD), I taught in the MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. My art has been exhibited in the Museum of American Art in New Britain, the Slate in Norwich, CT, and the National Arts Club, as well as in numerous juried exhibitions." 

Video Interview with Gray Jacobik

Click here for Part 1 | Click here for Part 2

You can see more of Gray's work at http://www.grayjacobikartist.com/

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Tyler's Head, Susan Hammond. B/W Photography. 

"Photography has been my passion for over 25 years.  While using my camera to capture each image, I am totally absorbed in my creative process.  I strive to capture a wide assortment of images because of the variety emotions and spirituality that are a part of my personality.  Using the ability of visualization enables me to interpret my ideas into reality.  Rather than emphasizing color, I strive to capture moods, emotions, depth and metaphors, with black and white photography." 

You can see more of Susan's work at www.susanghammond.com

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Dans Mes Bras, Penelope Bodry-Sanders. Oil and glass on canvas.  Madland cremated, waifs lost in watery sky seek Sea Squirt comfort. Mother octopus, arms all dancing, will wrap them - make them safe – for now. Penelope Bodry-Sanders has explored art in many media throughout her adult life: she was a Broadway actress, a recording artist, a nightclub singer, a published author, a silk painter, and a collagist. She now intensifies her pursuit of artistic expression in service of animals undervalued or loathed, mostly hyenas, lemurs and invertebrates, following the belief noted by Aristotle that in all animals there is something marvelous and beautiful and they deserve to be studied and cherished. Art cannot change the world but it can most certainly change the way we look at it. She uses art to raise consciousness to the hazards of losing biodiversity and how that makes us feel. She calls it “art with teeth” drawing the viewer in before they realize what they are looking at.

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If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.

- Audre Lorde 

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I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of human kind and I believe that, at this moment of history, feminism is humanism.

- Judy Chicago

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El Alcazar, Mary Fussell.

1.) What inspires you? 

My art is about my experiences as a woman. It records the connection between my body and imagination with the world around me.  Everything is animate. I carve out rocks, I round hips, I move with my figures. My connection with what I see and feel and my determination to express it allows me into a special world of creativity.

2.) What motivated you to become an artist? 

My mother's early death set me on a journey of exploration. It was a journey to find the feminine and myself. I found that connection in the arts, first in theater and sculpture, and then in painting. It is a paradox: losing oneself in art is also to find oneself and one's connection to the feminine.

Click here to watch our interview with Mary Fussell

You can see more of Mary's work at http://maryfussell.com/