OUR BODIES OUR RIGHTS OUR VOICES
Earlier this year leading up to Jan. 22 which would have been the anniversary of Roe v Wade
We used our creative voices expressing our ideas, thoughts, stories, and feelings on the theme; ‘Our Bodies, Our Rights, Our Voices’, and our right for a just, equal, healthy and safe world.
Christina-Helfrich-Polasky [painting to the left]
Maria Carrion [two paintings below right]
Mickey Ciongoli Dryburgh [painting below left]
Annie Buckley [two paintings bottom left;I’m Speaking 2021 and Varina Jacaranda 2008/2014]
The JIGGY Puzzle/ARTSHOUSE Collection
Operation ARTS/ Women Who Serve: an initiative of theARTSHOUSE and its’ program Creative Voices: Women Empowered will celebrate and highlight the essential role that creativity and the arts in all its forms plays in the process of healing, self-expression, telling of their stories, and the resilience of these female veterans. The JIGGY Puzzle Project is the first of many projects to raise awareness of the creative voices of women veterans.
Box # 1 Sisters United by Maria Carrion; Box #2 Bursting Out of Silence by Bethany Ryan; Box # 3 Endowed By Her Creator by Christina Polosky
All three artists are members of UnitingUs.org [our new collaborative partner]
Artistic Responses to the Covid 19 Pandemic
In times of crisis we use art to express our feelings,our fears, to heal and to communicate our ideas and thoughts with everyone. When this Corona epidemic is over we will use the arts to heal our communities and bring us all together again [live and in person!]
All of the arts and creative communities have responded utilizing the challenges we all are facing together and turning those challenges into possibilities and positive action bringing individuals together virtually through music, dance, creative classes,videos, podcasts, or theater. We are all creative warriors.
Corona Virus Why? music video by Dr. Diane Kaufman: https://youtu.be/RLL-4BmZHzs.
Title: (dis)connect
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 6” x 6.5”
Description:
This is a response piece to the Covid-19 pandemic.
I began creating a composition of the microscopic illustrations seen all over social media and the news.
The intention changed during the process as wayward watercolor channels reminded me of a face in the virus.
The virus became human, which disturbed me. I wanted to disconnect but followed without further expectation.
The result captures a sense of humility, social disconnect, innocence, and fate.
Michele Rattigan
meditate on gratitude,one in a series by Mike Romano
I've been apprehensive at first to share art that I've made in the times of corona. A lot of it is raw, unsure, and so very revealing. Yet those things are exactly why I've gone ahead and shared it. Just as it was before this, art is one of humanity's great tools for expression, and crucially, connection. It came out of me after the pandemic hit for the same reasons it did before - it's life's experiences that ask to be extricated, shared, compared, and made into a semblance of meaning - or at least clarity. As we try to stem the tide of the virus with physical distancing, loneliness can be felt acutely and for long periods of time. We need social connection and solidarity wherever we can find it. There are many ways to give these things - sewing masks, checking in on neighbors, supporting relief efforts, worker's rights, and such - and one way, as artists, is to be brave enough to share our work, however vulnerable. Sharing my own work and seeing/hearing that of others has created a sense of shared experience and community that we need to get through this as one. It affirms that we're seen, that we have eachother's backs, and that we will continue shining a light on the paths ahead, however dark.
My personal art (attached) has been about looking at the virus on a microscopic level. I am fascinated that this tiny thing has wreaked such havoc. It has caused so much ugliness and fear, yet is beautiful and resilient and adaptive in ways we are not. By Nancy Macgregor
Title: They Matter – Front line heroes by Michele Rattigan
Medium: Ink and marker
Size: 8.5” x 5.5”
Description:
This is a response piece for the essential healthcare workers.
In this time of shelter in place I am privileged to still have a job, working as a professor in higher education (now all online). I struggle with having put my clinical practice on hold, which I did way before this pandemic emerged. I am no longer working in a hospital. I am not on the front lines. I am not “out there”. As I grapple with my guilt and avoid the fear lurking in the back of my mind, I cannot rid myself of this new normal – seeing covered faces of those who will save our lives while sacrificing their own. This is not ok. My heart bleeds for them. They are heroes.
