First professor of Barbiology? On Friday, May 3, I gave a lecture on “The History and Art of Barbie” to Professor Marjorie Pechet’s English Composition class at Framingham State College It was fun, and well received, and I look forward to doing it again.
Today my sister Katie and I received the silver medal for our Alice in Wonderland themed miniature garden from the Massachusetts Horticulture Society. Look, it has our pictures on it:
That’s Katie standing and me seated, holding some of the plants for next year’s garden. Is that cool or what?
Here’s the garden, called The Queen’s Croquet-Grounds:
Thank you to Pam Coates for lending us her dwarf schefflera.
Got a nice mention for Landmine Barbie Contemplates the Shoe She Will Never Wear Again from art critic John Greenwald in the Lowell Sun. He says she’s ingenious and shocking. Thank you, John!
The Universal Application came out of my interest in how people define their identity through group membership, as well as my experiences applying to graduate school, applying for financial aid, filling out school health forms, doing taxes, and all the other bazillion forms we have to fill out every day. It was featured in the Works on Paper show at the Cambridge Art Association in February 2002, juried by Marjorie Cohn, Curator of Prints, Fogg Museum, Harvard University. The first print was purchased at the opening reception. Further prints are now for sale from the CAA print bin, and at the gift shop of the Danforth Museum School.
Two pieces, Affordable Daycare and The Barbies of Calais, will be spending April 26-May 19 at the Gallery of Social/Political Art, 565 Boylston Street, Boston, in the show Individual Concerns. Both are certainly expressions of my individual concerns: The Barbies of Calais compares the sacrifices that women make to raise children and to be “feminine” with the more “masculine” sacrifice made by the burghers of Calais as represented in Rodin’s famous sculpture. Another doll piece, Affordable Daycare, critiques the American lack of respect for both children and those who care for them (women).
I am also excited about an exhibit coming up in November, when I will be part of a three-person show at the Cambridge Art Association’s University Place Gallery. This huge space offers the opportunity to show some larger work. Can’t wait!
May 9, 2002