In the Womb’s Warm Glow
Meant as an homage to women’s ability and power to give birth, this artist’s book portrays a birth canal as a rocky road from conception to birth. Constructed as a tunnel book, it takes the viewer on a journey into the womb through layers of the body to a distant glowing image of a pregnant body. The glow is achieved through a cut out window on the back cover. The transformation of the book from a flat shape to a three dimensional, sculptural state, emulates the change a woman’s body goes through by becoming pregnant.
6-1-1999
A book gives birth to a book and reflects on my experience of giving birth to my daughter on 6-1-1999. The smaller book encased in the larger book includes journal entries from the first days after giving birth to a child with numerous complications and an extended hospital stay. It is attached through linen thread meant to emulate the umbilical cord, which also serves to anchor the smaller book to the larger book and which bores through the belly button of the mother figure to expand into the components in an umbilical cord on the outer covers: veins and arteries.
Boob Book
The covers, cast from my own breasts, confront the reader with their comfort level in handling these covers. Encased in them is an accordion fold book with a series of diptychs, each one depicting a woman and two photographs of her along with text where she discusses her own relationship to her breasts in response to a series of prompts. The book is intended to represent women’s lived experiences in relation to their breasts to counter mainstream media’s depictions of women’s breasts. The stories range from the serious to the humorous.
Make Up
The sequence of images was taken one morning while at a conference on feminist art, where I was the keynote speaker. One morning, in my accommodation, I documented the process of putting on makeup. Each image builds upon the next and shows me applying one piece of make in succession. From the first image to the last, the viewer witnesses a transformation in image and identity. As each piece of make up is applied, it is then set on the counter in front of the mirror, creating a still life of the make up pieces. The images are bound into an accordion book, which also portrays both artist and muse as one.
