Artist and Mother
https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/episodes/artist-and-mother
Just finished watching “Artist and Mother” an amazing documentary that surveyed four artists that are mothers. It talked about how they navigated the art world while being a mother—a world is not extremely friendly to mothers.
It talked about how motherhood may be the last taboo in contemporary art—even work made about sex and politics is exhibited but work about motherhood has never been show in a major exhibition (Tate, MOMA) and is rarely seen in galleries.
It mentioned the ironic nature of this—because motherhood is a central theme that we see in some of the earliest recorded art in the world’s history—ancient Incan and Egyptian sculptures depicting motherhood—I was thinking of the Woman of Willendorf which was one of the first pieces I learned about in an art history class in collage- a stone sculpture depicting a fertile figure, referencing motherhood….
Images of the Madonna and Child are central images we associate with art history, yet it is so ironic that those central images no longer play out in our contemporary society
or how until the 20th century these images were solely created by male artists…motherhood was finally being depicted by people that are actually mothers like Alice Neel….
How can I talk about these ideas? Motherhood as complex journey that impacts every aspect of our lives as women that decide to become mothers…How society treats us…
Some images
Typewriter DJ booth
Excerpt from my new book of collected poems
This project can easily find its way into my IP. The prompt in the video to my anonymous poem writers was “Write me poem. Then leave it with me. Then be on with your day. Start it with either: My mother always or my mother never”.
To shape this concept to the research I have been conducting about Ann Arbor history I can begin to drop the typewriter in different locations around Ann Arbor, asking the public to tell me about a memory of that place. It would begin to reach into the past while bringing a physical object like a typewriter (also outdated object) by asking people to reflect on their memory.
I’m thinking about collective memory here..how to excavate the memories of others to learn about a place. What can historical information teach us about the way we interact with place/each other in the present? What can it do to reflect more publicly about the past?
Some Images from the Bentley Yesterday
Pilar's Tamales
This week was full of interviews—I met with:
Julie Herrada, curator of the Ladadie Collection
Ilene Tyler, historical architect
Jackie Doneghy, Ann Arbor Community Member and Psychotherapist
Robin Wilson- Professor of Dance, Ann Arbor Community Member
Next week I will meet with a woman named Sylvia, who immigrated to America from El Salvador nearly 30 years ago. She now owns a flourishing business in Ann Arbor called Pilar’s Tamales. I think she is going to be a wonderful addition to my research and hopefully spur some visual material for the piece.
retro 3d viewer
What if I found one of these old toys and created my own template for viewing by using archival imagery that I am finding..I wonder what kind of material I’d have to print the mini photos on.
I could see these view finders adding a dimension to the gallery piece. Imagining them on a ledge next to the book and people are invited to look through them for a more intimate experience with the archival imagery
Nigel Poor of Ear Hustle, Penny Stamps Speaker
Today for the Penny Stamps Speaker Series we had Nigel Poor, a photographer and co-host of the podcast Ear Hustle, a podcast that is recorded inside the San Quentin Prison and tells the stories of what its like to be inside of prison. I especially liked the first half of her talk when she discussed her archival project—she found film photos from the 1950s from inside the prison and led a project where she gave the current inmates the photos to “map” them. Below are some of the works by the inmates.
I think I can borrow this idea for my IP. I can illustrate the archival images of Ann Arbor with information that talks about the history behind them, shaping the narrative. I think Poor and I shared a love of archival imagery. She said "Visual mysteries to be solved, the inmates interpret the images”.
She also spoke about how the images were often disturbing—murders and suicides within the prisons and how when she looked at them she saw them as images rather than experiences. She also said “They encompass the true experience of human condition”.
Someone in the q & a asked about the ethics of using people’s photographs without their permission. I haven’t thought about that before..She defended it by saying that the photos are property of California tax payers because they are the ones that funded the prison. Kind of similarly I pay tuition at U of M and I’m accessing these images from UM institutions, so therefore I’m free to use them.
Meeting with Rich Lindsay, Technical Director of Theater School
Today I met with my teacher from last semester, Rich. I took a class with him called Technical Theater Practices. I learned how to make scenery. We really hit it off. He’s going to help me with the design and construction of my book. We talked about it over lunch today. In these images he’s drawing some sketches of what we spoke about.
I really like this idea he had to utilize a corner space in the gallery to install the book. He really likes the idea of the book fitting into a corner rather than being free-standing. The frames that hold the pages could hinge onto the spine with metal rings, enabling the pages to move.
He also told me to visit some carpet stores to see the frames that they have hinged to the wall.. I will do that soon. Imagine if they gave me some old frames…
Have We Met Dialogues on Memory and Desire
Last week I went to the Stamps Gallery and was really struck by the exhibition. It took inspiration from Ann Arbor's legacy of social movements (Anti-War Movement, Civil Rights Movements) and experimental art practices. I was really happy to see the utilization of archives. I love seeing the archival material in the display cases. It gave me the idea to contact Julie Herrada- curator of the Labadie Collection. I’m meeting with her next week!
Love the large scale photos….
Cut Out - Palmer Field - Bentley Library 1950’s
Bell Pool, 1960's from the Bentley Library
Bentley Library
NOTES Trip to the Bentley
Page 25 Letitia J Byrd- first African American woman in public school system or something like that? Interesting story
Elly Peterson
Highest ranking woman in Republican party
1964 1st woman to serve as chair of Michigan Republican Party
Women of Color Task force- a box to be taken out a different day
International Neighbors Photograph Series
Contact: Multicultural Studies Librarian
Women’s Suffrage- Fiber Pieces like what they would use during protests
Mosaics
Print over the top of Images on the Epson Printer.
What does it mean to be an invisible community? What does that graphically look like? Silk over something? Translucent?
Skulda V. Baner
Free Women’s Words Newspaper
Bimonthly women’s newspaper which grew out of Women’s crisis center newsletter
Work w/o hierarchy, who no president or editor, trying to share power and responsibility
The racism of white culture abuses & ignores women of color
POC- especially women- ignored
Women’s Crisis Center
Originally in the basement of St. Andrwss
Church was the 1st rape crisis center in the country
Opened in response to the John Norman Collin’s rapes of north side of A2
Until 1973, abortion was still illegal, so WCC helped women find safe abortions, The Center soon became the core meeting place for women’s issues and to put feminist values into practice
Pillars of Free Women’s Words
Liberation
The Personal is Political
Sexuality
Women’s Issues (Defining Our Feminism)
Education and Empowerment
Could I base my book around these principles? Find stories that match the pillars and extend on them?
Moved to Ypsilanti in 1989
“A Woman was Raped Here”- spraypainted on sidewalks at 280 different sites--can be found in The Observer (this was written in Jan 1989)
History? Contemporary? Does it matter?
How do you balance the past with the future?
How do you balance analog with technology?
How does analog inform technology?
THOUGHTS
I could go to the Labadie Collection and search for stories about POC and women on campus…
Do I have to talk about campus? Make it a conscious effort not to talk about campus?
When does this story have to be from? What if it’s contemporary?
What if I can’t find stories about POC because they weren’t recorded? Invisible Communities? What does that look like?
I want to make this big because I want it to serve as a monument to these memories/histories/movements
Black and White in Ann Arbor Ministry Series
On Wednesday Night, I attended the new ministry series at St. Andrew’s Church. My professor Beth Hay told me about it after I told her about my project; her friend Leslie Stainton was putting together this four part series that aimed to start a discussion about race in Ann Arbor. This was extremely fitting to my research so I had to attend. I’m really happy I did. I gained a considerable amount of knowledge about race relations/history in Ann Arbor during the discussion. I shared with a group of around 50 people (mostly seniors living in Ann Arbor) and told them about my project—which they seemed enthusiastic about. I met a woman named Jackie who has lived in Ann Arbor since the 1970s—she has strong opinions about the gentrification of Kerrytown and I got her contact information. I will email her soon to plan a time to interview her!
This night cemented this idea for me that community engagement is going to be a large component of my project. I emailed the programmer with a blurb about my project to get my contact info out—I want people to reach out to me if they would like to speak with me about Ann Arbor history/narratives I should know.
Meeting with Historian Grace Shackman
Yesterday, Ann-Arbor based historian Grace Shackman visited me at my home in Kerrytown. A week prior to this meeting, I was pulling my car into the driveway when I noticed seven individuals across the street, seeming to gawk and point at my house in unison. It felt like a fate type moment as I brought my bags inside my house to safety and dashed across the street, approaching the senior citizens who were obviously on some type of tour. I didn’t have a choice. The opportunity seemed too perfect. I begged Grace’s pardon of interrupting whatever she was saying and just started rambling to the group asking what they were doing and then began to tell them my story. I’m a student in the art school at U of M. I can’t believe I’m finding you guys right across the street from my house right now. I just got back from the Bentley Library- I’m creating a thesis project based off of Ann Arbor history. It will be a large book installation full of archival material and will be shown downtown at the Stamps Gallery.
The seniors looked at me wide-eyed but seemed to intently listen. I got some smiles. Two of the women began to tell me how lucky I was to have happened upon Grace in that moment—You found the right lady to help you. Grace knows everything about Ann Arbor. She’s a gifted historian. Do you know those moments in life when you feel like you’re in the exact right place at the perfect time? This was one of them.
I told Grace how lost I felt with my research. I had spent the entire day in the Bentley combing through a box of old letters and photographs about Ann Allen—wife of John Allen, or one of two first pioneers of Ann Arbor. I figured that was a logical place to start, but I still left a bit more confused then when I came. What was I supposed to do with this information now? Ann left her two young sons in Virginia with her husband’s brother after he died. She took off to Michigan with her new husband, John Allen, a man hungry for settling new land. I read letters about people who were attempting to conduct research about Ann in the 20’s, and letters sent back discouraging such research about a woman who leaves her own sons.
I asked Grace to please get coffee with me sometime soon, I need some direction. I don’t even know where to begin. So we did.
Grace is probably about 80. She’s been writing for the Ann Arbor Observer and The Old West Side News since the 1980s on virtually anything Ann Arbor. A collection of her stories are available at the AADL (need to go see that). She’s written three books about Ann Arbor- I had 2/3 of them on my kitchen table for her to reference during our meeting.
Grace stayed for an hour and a half. I gave her a tour of my house (its a landmark in Ann Arbor-built in the 1870s in the historic district Kerrytown). My house is the carriage house (old servants quarters) that sits next to a a massive house on North Division St. She told me about Love Root, the second wife of a Professor Palmer that owned the large house next door. Root came from money and married Palmer after his first wife died, and used her fortune to add the massive extension to the house that still sits today.
Grace told me that she lived at Vail, the co-op up the street during her time at Michigan. She also pointed past my front door, saying that her daughter used to live in the house to the right of mine with her boyfriend she had since high school. 4 boys and 4 girls lived in the house. The boys were in a band. As connected as she obviously was the happenings of the past, Grace began to talk about her daughter as if she were in college again, inviting a conversation about the modern day frenzy about Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. I like thinking about bridging the past and present in the same conversation.
Grace and I spoke about a lot of things, but something two things definitely stuck out. Immigrants and Architecture. Grace told me how for a long time, Ann Arbor was divided by working class and the college educated. Germans, Greeks, Jews, Italians—they all had their neighborhoods on the side of town I live in. They worked manual labor jobs and built the city. They were seen as second-class citizens. I think this is something I can investigate as I try to find marginalized stories from Ann Arbor. The second point is Architecture. Grace says that architecture and history are inseparable. I think there is something interesting here.
What buildings still stand in Ann Arbor?
How did these types of architecture (from different cultures, parts of the world) arrive in Ann Arbor? What does it mean for them to be here? Who built them?
Power of place? Place-finding? A walking tour of architecture around Ann Arbor?
I plan to transcribe the audio from Grace’s visit with me for my research. Grace has emailed be since yesterday with three contacts (friends of hers) that said they would love to speak with me. They are Ilene Tyler (she actually lives across the street from me in the Greek Revival Home), Susan Weinberg (local historian), and Chris Crockett (also an historian).
Today I got a Library Card
Before my meeting with Grace Shackman I visited the AADL and got a library card. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner but there was an entire section dedicated to books solely about Ann Arbor—I took out like 6 including 2 of Grace’s books. I especially excited about the book Ann Arbor (W)rites. Its a book comprised like a collage of Ann Arbor voices- essays, stories, prose, images, poetry—all about narratives that exist here. This community memoir is the brainchild of Nicholas Delbanco, who edited the book. It came from listening to Karl Pohrt’s talk on the Ann Arbor Book Festival.
Also I went to literati last night and to my surprise there was brand new book by Ann Arbor local Richard Retyi titled The Book of Ann Arbor, An Extremely Serious History Book, which I’m also very excited to read. I’m thinking I’ll contact both of these individuals for my research after I read their books.
