How will women bring governmental change?

Once I started looking for inspirational thoughts from women about women and their place in the world, my problem quickly became deciding which ones I thought were most important to highlight in my remaining time and space.

Today's post features three quote-images from strong women (two from the past, one contemporary) whose names we should recognize. It might be well to consider their words as our dialogue unfolds in the changing political atmosphere of post-2018-midterms USA.

Unfortunately, a focus on diversity, whether in gender/identity, race, or ethnicity, seems to be increasingly concentrated within one particular partisan "corral."

That is, in itself, a problem. If we start assuming that only Democrats elect women (a severe overgeneralization, but it's a growing perception), what good does that do for the overall diversity of debate and philosophy of governance?

It remains to be seen how much an influx of women will change the tenor and focus of politics, whether in the aspirational directions Abzug envisioned or in other ways.

As far as I'm aware, only Nevada's legislature actually mirrors the demographics of the general population, and their new legislative session just opened a month ago. This is early days to see how they'll prioritize. Another state legislature to watch is that of Colorado.

Change may be afoot, but it's incremental. And change, by its very nature, is full of surprises.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Goalcast, for the image featuring Susan B. Anthony and her words; to Black Women's Journal for the Michelle Obama quote-image; and to the ever-invaluable AZ Quotes, for the Bella Abzug quote-image. I deeply appreciate all three!

Influences: the quilts and quilters of Gee's Bend

I remember when my sister, the quilter in the family, first showed me pictures of several quilts from Gee's Bend at some point in the mid-2000s. They were strikingly beautiful, and unlike anything I'd seen before. Lots of other people thought so, too, when they were first exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2002.

Many people were astounded and delighted when they got their first looks at the now-famous Gee's Bend quilts. In 2006 they were featured on United States postage stamps.

Like many people, I was fascinated by the dynamic asymmetry of these designs, such a different approach to the formal balance found in most traditional quilt patterns.

If you've grown up with quilts as I have, the first thing that leaps to mind when someone says "patchwork quilt" is the formal balance of traditional patterns such as the Six-Pointed Star Medallion Quilt (2017) from Catbird Quilts at left, or the Hoedown grid quilt by Codysnana, from The Spruce Crafts at right.

We artists and art lovers seek and create bridges to meaning by linking what we know to things we have not previously seen. Thus, I understand the comparisons to the work of Color Field artists such as Barnett Newman, or artists associated with Geometric Abstraction, such as Frank Stella or Josef Albers, by art critics commenting on the earliest shows. They had few other points of reference in their universe (not being conversant with West African textiles, apparently).

They could've Googled it: this screen grab shows the results of a Google Image Search for "West African Textiles."

Of course, an argument can be and has been made that, particularly in the white-male-dominated world of the New York art scene in the early "uh-ohs" (well pre-#MeToo) there were more than a few people flabbergasted that impoverished, isolated black women could actually come up with such stunning and masterful designs, all by themselves.

Well, suck it up, guys. White men didn't invent ALL the good things after all. (Truth be told, there are those who will point out that they actually didn't even invent as many of those good things as they claim . . . but that's a whole 'nother blog post).

Bottom line: the women of Gee's Bend are the real deal, even if they didn't go to art school or study "the masters." But it's also true that they didn't get into the Whitney, and thereby onto the world stage, all by themselves.

They got there through the efforts of a white man from Atlanta, named William "Bill" Arnett, and as with all help from white men, the longer one looks at his work and treatment of the outsider artists he discovered, the more questions arise. There are those who intimate or outright claim exploitation. Certainly, the licensing of those images for postage stamps didn't filter back to Gee's Bend, for one example among many.

Bill Arnett, of course, has his own version of events. And you certainly can't say he didn't have a nose for talent. Not only did he discover and share the Gee's Bend quilts with the world, but lightning struck at least twice. He's also the man who discovered Thornton Dial and mentored him into world-class artist scene. Arnett continues to champion the cause of African art, with his Souls Grown Deep Foundation.

No matter who paid for what, licensed what, or what settlements were reached in the aftermath, one thing we must say is that, whatever their influences, the quilters of Gee's Bend have become influential in their own right. They only came to the attention of the world in 2002, so we still don't even yet know how or what or where their influence will go, but already they've become established deep in the aesthetic consciousness of contemporary African American art. Younger African American artists know Gee's Bend is a place where their roots run deep.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018, the official portrait of the former First Lady, by Amy Sherald.

At left, the "Runway version" of the Milly dress by Michelle Smith; at right, a variety of Gee's Bend quilt designs.

For one example, a younger Amy Sherald, whose work I profiled last spring, and who was recently chosen to create the official portrait of Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery, attended that 2002 Whitney show. Sherald says part of the reason she chose to use the Michelle Smith-designed Milly dress for the portrait was the way it reminded her of the Gee's Bend quilts.

I predict that the echoes of influence aren't finished reverberating through generations (and artworks) to come.

IMAGES: Many thanks to The Textile Research Centre of Leiden, for the montage of Gee's Bend quilt postage stamp designs; to Catbird Quilts, via Pinterest, for the gorgeous Six-Pointed Star Medallion Quilt, and to The Spruce Crafts by Codysnana, via Pinterest, for the photo of the very striking Hoedown pattern grid quilt. The screen grab of West African Textile Patterns is from a Google Image Search. I want to thank the New York Times for the almost-15-minute video "While I Yet Live," which includes comments from the quilters about their history, and lots of images of their wonderful quilts. Finally, I am indebted to Decor Arts Now, for the photo of the Michelle Obama portrait, the Milly dress, and several suggestive quilt patterns. I also want to thank Decor Arts for the photos of the Michelle Obama portrait, as well as the photos regarding the "influence elements" of the Milly dress and a collection of representative Gee's Bend quilt designs.

Everything

The Artdog Image of Interest 

Amy Sherald's Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance) speaks to me on so many levels it's hard to know where I should begin. From her vibrant red hat slipping down over her eyes, to the awkward mismatch of her two-sided dress, to Those Gloves and That Enormous Cup--this young woman is loaded down by expectations that others have piled onto her.

There have been times when I've been that young woman. I suspect there are times when most of us have been that young woman. Certainly this painting speaks to me of all the myriad expectations that confront women. We are supposed to be poised (even when we're not), stylish (even when our style is not "in"), to steadily support that massive cupful of expectations, and make it look easy (even when we're struggling).

I first met Miss Everything face-to-face when The Outwin came to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City recently. Once one has met her, she's hard to forget.

PLEASE NOTE: Amy Sherald and Michelle Obama recently unveiled Sherald's painting, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, the official presidential portrait of the former First Lady, at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, USA. I particularly enjoyed a New Yorker article about the work, written by Doreen St. Félix. Perhaps you'll enjoy it, too.
ALSO: For those who live in the region I do, you may want to note that a solo show of her work will open at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis on May 11, 2018. It is set to run through August 19.

IMAGE: Many thanks to the "Gallery Gurls" interview with Amy Sherald, by Imani Higginson, for the photo of Miss Everything. 

Improvisation on a classic

The Artdog Image(s) of Interest

Kehinde Wiley, Officer of the Hussars, 2007-Collection of the Detroit Institute of the Arts Museum

Today I get to feature one of my absolute favorite pieces by Kehinde Wiley, an artist I've been aware of, and admired increasingly, ever since I ran across one of his amazing portraits several years ago at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. That painting was part of a traveling exhibition, I didn't retain the name in my memory, and I haven't been able to scare up information about it online.

But periodically I'd run across another Wiley--and, as you can imagine (if this is your first Wiley, God bless you, now you know!), once you've seen Wiley's work you don't forget it. Recently, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art acquired another Wiley, his painting St. Adrian. 

Wiley's Officer of the Hussars is based on another painting I've known and loved for years, The Charging Chasseur, or An Officer of the Imperial Horse Guards Charging, 1812, by Théodore Géricault. You may remember seeing a reproduction of the artwork (the Wiley, not the Géricault), if you've watched the Fox TV Show Empire.

I'm a Géricault  fan, too, not only for his dramatic compositions and masterful renderings, but because he liked exotic places and people who didn't all look just like him. At his best, he portrayed many of those "exotic" people as individuals.

I do tend to think Wiley improved on the original--but you can compare, and decide for yourself.

The Charging Chasseur, 1812, by Théodore Géricault - Collection of the Louvre, Paris.

You'll see more Kehinde Wiley art from me in the months to come, if all goes well. He's got so many wonderful paintings to share!

NOTE: While researching this post, I also discovered that former President Barack Obama shares my enthusiasm for Wiley's artwork: he recently chose Wiley to paint his official presidential portrait. It will hang in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, alongside an Amy Sherald portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Deadline Detroit and Alan Stamm, for the photo of Wiley's Officer of the Hussars, and to Wikipedia for the photo of Géricault's painting.

Respect for Military Families and their Students:

Recent publications paint an ugly picture

We've seen a lot of flag-waving recently.
How sincere is it, really?

Memorial Day. Flag Day. Independence Day. Elections coming soon.

Seems as if we've seen a whole lot of flag-waving and "support our troops" slogans, recently.  But how is that working out for our military families?

Anyone who's been paying attention to the news has a pretty good idea of the answer to that.  The families of active-military personnel have been faced with repeated, extremely long deployments in recent years. Returning National Guard veterans often find their old jobs have been given to others, and all veterans are discovering than in this economy it's extremely hard to find new ones.  Veterans' mental health care, particularly in the case of PTSD sufferers, is frequently inadequate.

This is a dilapidated roof at Clarkmoor
Elementary at Ft. Lewis, WA. Photo by
Emma Schwartz for iWatch News.

Now add to all that the fact that apparently their kids aren't being at all well served in school, either.

Just this week, "Daddy, Why Is My School Falling Down?" was published in Newsweek. The article, based on a longer one by author Kristen Lombardi originally published in iWatch News, focuses on the dilapidated, often unhealthy and unsafe condition of many schools on US military bases.

This closet is part of a 73-year-old Nazi
barracks, now Boeblingen Elementary
on a US base in Germany.  Photo by
Jenny Hoff for iWatch News.

Reading these articles, I was repeatedly reminded of the horrifying schools for poor children, described in Jonathan Kozol's landmark 1991 book, Savage Inequalities.  Leaks like "Niagara Falls," cracked bricks, termite-infested walls, and backed-up toilets all sounded hauntingly familiar.

The principal of Geronimo Road Ele-
mentary in Ft. Sill, OK can slide his
finger into some of the wall cracks.
Photo: Emma Schwartz for iWatch News.

The situation is not entirely hopeless. The Department of Defense has set up a task force to inspect the schools on military bases, though of course that doesn't necessarily mean better schools are coming anytime soon.  

But why has there ever been a question about replacing or repairing schools on military bases in a timely way, when there always seemed to be enough money to fund billion-dollar weapons systems the generals have said they don't even need? 

Just a month earlier than the Lombardi report, Education Week published "The Need to Support Students from Military Families," by Ron Avi Astor. This commentary outlines the difficulties students from military families of ten face in public schools, where there apparently is little consciousness of their situation and even less understanding.

According to Astor, the state of California has "created a military-connected school-survey module" to aid in "understanding the experiences of military students and parents in public schools." The fact that other states have not yet "follow[ed] California's lead" gives us a glimpse of the remaining gap.

Why on earth isn't gaining such background information about all incoming students already standard operating procedure for schools everywhere? Such information is fundamental for any kind of responsive education practice, and essential for helping gauge a child's "starting point."

Jill Biden and Michelle Obama have
joined forces with Education Secretary
Arne Duncan to help military families.

Last January, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, along with Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, launched an initiative focused on military-connected schools, which may eventually bear some fruit.

As an example of the needs they plan to address, according to the US Department of Education it is an issue for some public schools to allow students to be absent so they can greet parents who are returning from deployments.

I read this and wonder how anyone with an ounce of empathy can possibly question the logic of excusing such an absence. After all, one of the greatest stressors on military children is their parents' absence--so much so, it can seriously affect grades and attendance.

We've been at war for a solid decade. Why in Heaven's name are any of these issues still a problem?  In the name of decency and our country's honor, how is it possible that they only now are in the the earliest stages of being addressed?

If ever a situation reeked of misplaced priorities, surely the plight of military families with school children is a prime example.

PHOTO CREDITS: The combined image of the US flag, the Statue of Liberty, and an eagle is from All Posters, where you can buy this image in several formats.  The 3 photos of dilapidated Pentagon-run schools by Emma Schwartz and Jenny Hoff are from iWatch News. The photo of Jill Biden and Michelle Obama is from Zimbio.