THE CHALLENGE
A call and response - from the world to two female artists, asking us to give visual representation to current issues effecting humans through the lens of our own experiences and with an eye to the long view. Using Sylvia Plath's Mushrooms poem, written in 1960, as a jumping off point for the art and to thread the needle between the struggle for rights (women's rights and others) from decades ago with the current legal and social environment. Each artist also issued a call to the other, encouraging a push (NUDGE - SHOVE) to explore new ways to express visually.
In a nutshell, we felt challenged by the world, so we challenged each other to double down on that challenge. Like Plath's mushrooms, we pushed through obstacles to create this body of work. We hope it resonates with you.
In a nutshell, we felt challenged by the world, so we challenged each other to double down on that challenge. Like Plath's mushrooms, we pushed through obstacles to create this body of work. We hope it resonates with you.
THE ARTISTS
HELAINE ABRAMSON
Texas is in fact home to an entire world of art from folksy wonders with Mexican influence to striking modern museum art. I promise! In Houston we have an entire huge arts district that you’ll never see all of. But I didn’t find my love of art until I became a grown up and I never thought I’d become an artist! How cool is that? A medical incident left me legally blind & cognitively impaired. Now, do not feel sad for me…yucky! I had to rearrange, rethink and recreate my life. So I did! I met a wonderful mosaic artist who became an inspiration, a mentor and a dear friend. Then life really changed! Now, I’m working with an artist who also inspires me in so many ways, that here I am! I’m a guest on her website!! I have her fabulous art all over my home and she inspires me! She challenged me to plant some new seeds and nurture some new artistic growth and get outta my darn box! So here I am! I am inspired by found objects, old treasures and gorgeous glass and ceramics. You may wonder: “How does a blind woman do this?” I’m glad you asked! Did you know, of the country’s entire blind population, only 15% are totally blind? Amazing isn’t it? I was left with extreme tunnel vision but a good portion of my acuity. Learning to create with my own voice and in my own way became a hunger! A thirst I hope never to quench. I go to thrift stores, shop online and I’m constantly digging through my own jewelry and treasures. Most pieces leave here with quite a bit of the new me woven in. |
JEN "LOLA" JOVAN
I was always a creator. But I wasn’t always an artist. The urge to both witness and capture emotion in images is deeply imbedded in my bones, so there was no surprise when art found me. Just a sense of being home. Creators and artists have absolute power over their kingdoms (i.e. imaginations) and yet we can, over time, become corrupted by that power. Which looks like a rut of creating only one thing, or in one style, or one medium - if that is the thing that people want to buy. Because we also have to pay bills and eat. This show, at an unparalleled time in the history of modern women, is a challenge between two artist to drop out of our comfort zones and be wild in our willingness to explore - and to let those explorations be a response to the world at this time in history. When Helaine gave me a nudge toward this project, my insides felt a hard SHOVE. Helaine is an artist I adore but have never met. She inspires me with her combination of tenacity and vulnerability. And if she wants to double-dog-dare me to try something new and perhaps also creatively uncomfortable, the only answer is yes. |
INSPIRATION/MUSE
Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly Very quietly Our toes, our noses Take hold on the loam Acquire the air Nobody sees us Stops us, betrays us The small grains make room |
Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles The leafy bedding Even the paving Our hammers, our rams Earless and eyeless Perfectly voiceless Widen the crannies Shoulder through holes. We |
Diet on water
On crumbs of shadow Bland-mannered, asking Little or nothing So many of us! So many of us! We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek We are edible |
Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves Our kind multiplies We shall by morning Inherit the earth Our foot's in the door - SYLVIA PLATH, Mushrooms |
THE ART
SHADOW
"Personal Power” mixed media mosaic on MDF, 11" diameter.
Do you see it? There! In the shadows. Yes, it is your power. You are being pulled, coaxed, cajoled, coerced now. You are needed. In the circle of women, we hear the calling. It beckons each of us to be mighty, to be fierce and to be committed. Bring both your soft and jagged edges. “We shall, by morning, inherit the earth. Our foot is in the door..” - SYLVIA PLATH This piece was born of a NUDGE from Lola. There is a natural tendency to feel less powerful than we are. These times command us to dig deep and draw the power that lives within us. Some days, it’s as simple as using our power to rise and face another day. Other days, require more of us. Of me. I no longer give in to the urge to hide. Like a mushroom, I will thrive in these damp & dark, these frightening, intimidating conditions. Who am I to ignore the call? |
"No Easy Walk to Freedom" - acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 x 1.5. SOLD
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires. - NELSON MANDELA This piece was an easy nudge. I am fascinated by skulls. When I read "diet on water, on crumbs of shadow" in the Plath poem, I felt immediately the tenacity and resilience of the human body and spirit - the long path to social change, to freedom, to respect. But I also thought of bones. Of the relics left behind by the people who struggled and perished, of heavy loss and sacrifice, of waning hope. It is both acknowledgment and warning - in a struggle for freedom, there are losses. Let us not forget. |
OUR KIND
“Circle of the Like Minded” - mixed media mosaic on wood. 10.5 x 12 x .75.
“Nudgers and shovers In spite of ourselves Our kind multiplies…” - SYLVIA PLATH We recruit and multiply in our shared experiences during the collapse. We are finding one another through the slow sharing of our grief, our fear and our anger. Believing if we find commonality, we might just conquer. Hope nourishes us as we grow & multiply. Our kind manifests and calls us to a pain filled yet urgent mission. As our kind multiples and studies & reaches beyond where we have ever found ourselves, we find hope, in one another, in spite of ourselves. |
"Summoner" - acrylic on cradled wood panel, 8 x 16 x 2. SOLD
At first glance, there may seem to be few links between the frolicking fairies and the souls of the dead. However, if one delves deeper into traditional fairy lore, one finds that the fairy realm and the realm of the dead overlapped. A handful of fairy types functioned as harbingers of death or summoners of dying souls. - RICHARD A. FAY Another nudge for me. As one who often paints whimsy, creating its opposite - a dark fairy - was something I've wanted to do. In the Plath poem, "our kind multiplies" sounds ominous, like the threat of dark flocks of birds covering the sun, but also like a promise - no matter what you think of "our kind" (Plath was referring to women, of course) - we will grow in number. |
HAMMERS
"DIRT", mixed media mosaic on wood, 5 x 7 x 3.
“DIRT” was a shove. The more I digested the Path poem the more I thought of the strength of mushrooms and how they rise from the dirt which appears to be our destiny. But the anger! Oh the anger of all that brought us here! I found myself thinking of POUNDING that dirt to release it all. This piece birthed an epiphany of sorts. Art heals. Not always in the expected way! It can be frustrating & frightening & so vulnerable. Isn’t that where we are? Will we rise from the dirt like a mushroom? |
"I Need a Hammer" - acrylic and oil on canvas, 16 x 20 x 1.5. SOLD
They just keep holdin' me A-won't let go Holdin' me Won't let go I need a hammer - a hammer - a hammer - a hammer To hammer them down I need a rammer - a rammer - a rammer - a rammer To ram them down - BOB MARLEY This piece was a massive shove. I gave me fits. I painted images over images over images. None were emotive enough. None captured the frustration, anger and strength of the women I know in the world right now. So I kept at it. The layers of women underneath this one now seem perfect - symbolic, deeply grounded in many, expressing through the face of one. In the Plath poem, the hammers and rams of the voiceless breaking through the pavement inspired this silent scream. I hear her loud and clear. |
LEAFY
"Green Goddess" - mixed media mosaic on wood. Carved bone goddess and accents. Two layer wood base. 9" x 10". “Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding…” - SYLVIA PLATH We were built for the challenge. We stand on the shoulders of the freedom goddesses who came before us. In our moments of anger turned grief, we are aware of our inner goddess, soft fisted yet determined. Certain of a soft landing yet stymied by the road that will take us there. We will find a soft landing. We have no choice. “Hope” was more of a nudge. New growth is represented by the color green and I have truly spent these past years practicing hope. As I’ve always been hopeful, of late it’s been challenging. I was ready to create a goddess of hope. |
"That's How a Superhero Learns to Fly" - oil on gallery-wrapped canvas, 16 x 20 x 1.5. SOLD
When you've been fighting for it all your life You've been struggling to make things right That's a how a superhero learns to fly Every day, every hour, turn the pain into power - "Superheroes", by Daniel John O'Donoghue / James Barry / Mark Anthony Sheehan How did the prompt "leafy" inspire this super hero avatar, you might be wondering...my mind jumped to green leaves rather than the brown that would more likely be "leafy bedding" (Plath's words), and green is the official color of abortion rights protestors in the US and in Latin America. Which prompted me to think of super-heroes, and how we each have our own inner badass ready to fight for whatever it is we believe in. This piece was a shove for me, as it is a more illustrative, comic/graphic novel style and one that I've aspired to tackle but been chicken to do so. |
SOFT FISTS
"Bloodless No More" - mixed media mosaic on wood panel 12 x 12 x .75 .
In the great song “Bloodless for Now” Andrew Bird sings passionately about an “uncivil war”. And Plath… “Well, the best lack all conviction And the worst keep sharpening their claws They're peddling in their dark fictions While what's left of us Well, we just hem and we haw” It feels both uncivil and chaotic now. The unknown far outweighs the known as we go about daily lives feeling the earth rumbling beneath us. We are, in fact, bloodless no more. In her poem, Sylvia Plath urges us to expand: “Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes. We Diet on water, On crumbs of shadow, Bland-mannered, asking Little or nothing” We are being asked to persevere through the uncertainty & pain. This was a big shove for me! Nature, Angels, the Ocean and color influences so much of my work. In fact, I include butterflies in so many of my pieces as my life has been so full of transformations. But to express pain, fear, anger and how I FEEL the world right now was a true challenge to depict. I kept thinking about blood. Women bleeding out due to ignored ectopic pregnancies for instance. The anger in the streets and those who are aching to fight are not subjects of comfort. Subjects of art? Well yes. Of course. But not MY art so I thought. Thank you for the SHOVE, Lola. It was cathartic and revealing. |
"Soft Fists" - oil on paper, 13 x 20.
Unlike the other pieces, this one is titled after the prompt. And this piece was the biggest shove. To paint a realistic portrait and then destroy it on purpose. To carve into the wetness and drag, push, SHOVE the paint with the intention of marring, blurring and obliterating. Whoa. The prompt (and the poem overall), combined with the current state of things in the US, place the creation of this piece firmly in the groove of rights. The rights of all humans, men and women, in all the various iterations and flavors people come in, are at risk when any one of those varieties of human are deprived of rights. In this piece, I wanted to blur the line - literally. Purposely creating a portrait and then moving the paint to distort and somewhat destroy the features, just as our prejudices and judgements of others distort who those others are in the world and in relationship to us. Plath's soft fists insist of doing the work to move forward. Perhaps our own can insist on challenging each other, and the world, to do better. |
Thank you for visiting our show...it means the world to us.
You might have questions, opinions, stories to share! We want to hear them.
Contact Helaine.
Contact Lola.
You might have questions, opinions, stories to share! We want to hear them.
Contact Helaine.
Contact Lola.