Toplessness and Equality

I was driving the other day and listening to Here & Now on NPR. Since making the conscious decision to give up cable, I watch very little broadcast TV and radio is where I get my news of the day. Back to the program...I happened on an current story about Sonoko Tagami, a supporter and participant in the "GoTopless Day" in Chicago who was issued a ticket for baring her breasts in public. She is now suing the city on the basis of a violation of free speech and equal protection for women under the law. 

If you're not familiar with the story, read the details here. 

The Here & Now story documented the facts of the case, straightforward and informatively, but here is what concerned me and why toplessness, equality and the rights of women are still important in the year 2014.

In the broadcast, the Here & Now hosts giggled at the mention of breasts, toplessness, nipples...Finally, the clip ends with Robin Young, the female host, stating "Just make men where shirts in public too...be done with it."

Relatively benign, right? I disagree. You've missed the point of Tagami's argument and the crux of the toplessness cause. The issue at hand is a law that unfairly (and unconstitutionally) requires one gender to cover up, while the other is excluded. To expand beyond the legality and constitutionality of the topic, we as a society have over-sexualized women's breasts, to the point where everyday actions like breastfeeding in public and the open and unadulterated discussion of breast cancer have become taboo and subject to controversy. 

Giggles aside, it's not about whether you're an A cup or a double D. And it's not about whether you want to go topless to the park or wear a tank top. It's about the right to choose to do so and equal protection under the law. Freedoms and equality are not inherent, they are fought for, tirelessly and over time. And they can be chipped away, piece by piece, in the name of morality, safety and security. 

I love you NPR, but I would like to live in a world where one day soon the words "breasts" "nipples" and "areola" are not a laughing matter.

Street Art Matters

I recently spotted the street art you see above in the quaint city-town I call home. This struck me as "awesome!" and I will tell you why...

• I live in a small town community where street art is typically confined to “Fuck You Asshole” painted on a sign or band stickers slapped on transformer box.
• The “thriving arts community” of my town consists mostly of people, over the age of 60, painting landscapes and cute pets.
• This will surely spark outrage and condemnation about angst-ridden youth and how we need more rules and police to clean things up.

The piece took time to create, was bold in it's visibility and was the first of a kind in this town. It excited me. It made me reflect on how far street art has come (think Banksy, Invader, Plastic Jesus) and how far traditional art has yet to go.

As a new artist, I am beginning to build relationships and make connections with art communities and “established” artists. I find that the art world can be both very welcoming and also incredibly alienating. I have come across many artists who look down their noses at those of us who did not go to the top art schools, who engage in non-traditional forms of art and who are looking to make a statement with the goal of making a change to some aspect of our society. These revelations are both troubling and invigorating. Troubling, because the years of working hard in 9-5 jobs to pay bills and survive so that I could realize my dream of being artist are marginalized. Invigorating, because the narrow-minded attitude that these “artists” have is the very reason I have chosen to define myself as a conceptual artist.

So back to my point. Street art matters because, in my opinion, it is the purest form of art expression. Despite the threat of criminal charges and no financial gain, this person has created art that others will see. That is the artist I want to be. And that is why street art matters to me.

Staining with Tea

To begin work on the #Selfie project, I needed a medium to recreate the imagery from the digital photos. I've always enjoyed working with charcoal and pastel...the dirtiness of the drawing process and the individual mark of the artist's hand seemed appropriate to translate the stark, pixelated photos into works of "fine" art.

A couple of old canvases lying around the studio caught my eye. They were the perfect size and shape - extremely vertical and conducive to building a series of drawings. Additionally, the sheer cropped shape would make for an interesting perspective of the subject. I wanted the canvas background to feel old, used and aged, complimenting the smudges and strokes of the #Selfie drawings. Watercolor could work, but I revel much more in the use of unconventional techniques that produce unexpected (or expected) results. The thought of how tea stains teeth, mugs and saucers over time was interesting. Layered stains, red-brown, warm and fluid were just the perfect backdrop and technique for aging my blank canvases.

Plain old Lipton black tea is cheap and easy, and on hand. After a few experiments with brew intensity, I learned you couldn't go wrong with deep, dark, over-brewed tea. 

A few passes at pouring, tilting and guiding the liquid as it flowed over the canvas produced unique effects for each. After each pour, allowing the tea to dry on the fabric between staining also allowed for layering the stain shapes and intensifying the color. The most surprising result was the originality of each tea design...the flow and the contours of the stains mimicked the curves of the spine or the roundness of the stomach.

Tea has been a tradition in my family since I was very young. My aunt introduced me to tea and home-grown honey in steaming mugs. I came to look forward to the chill of Autumn in order to snuggle up, sip and take a moment to myself enjoying my tea. It seems the use of tea has come full circle, travelling from my childhood to adult life in very unexpected and artful way. Tea is comfort. Tea is warm. Tea is savory and sometimes sweet. Tea stains and leaves behind a mark of those moments, layered over time.