Tara Verheide (113)

-Simulacra//Simucation-
(Mother Tongue Project Panels)
Many of the early panels projected what I assumed to be the polemic between traditional female roles regarding creation, motherhood, nurturance and gender-based sexuality/responsibility as opposed to postmodern, media enhanced goals and ideals. I attempted to visually express that the solutions contemporary culture offers to this feminine dilemma are mass produced methods of appeasement and simulated nurturing.

-Finger of Fate-
(Mother Tongue Project Panels)

This panel is in dialogue with Mary Bernstein’s panel upon which a quote from David Bohm written “There is confusion between self-image and the body”. It also repeats the hand images seen in so many panels. The two elements combined appeared to me as the bloody truth.

-Preservation-
(Mother Tongue Project Panels)
This panel responds in combination to the numerous panels depicting fetus’s and Mary Bernstein's panel “To Preserve or not to Preserve”.

-Desire is Manifold-

(Mother Tongue Project Panels)
This was my original response to Dana Salisbury’s “Milk and Eggs”. Her use of what appear to be actual x-rays, breast-shaped, plaster forms, flute and straw communicated what I assumed to be a sense of anxiety, yet acceptance with a female role ... especially as it relates to medical necessity. I repeated some of the compositional arrangements of this panel and made a personal attempt to respond to its’ content.

Tara Verheide has made 15 panels for the The Mother Tongue Project. This artists' project has been informed by many sources, particularly the ideas of physicist and philosopher David Bohm. Bohm investigated the nature of individual thought and its tendency to defend its own assumptions. He experimented with verbal dialogue groups in an attempt to create a stream of meaning out of which would emerge a new understanding. Inspired by his philosophy, Mother Tongue applies techniques of visual interchange to stimulate and make visible the flow of the dialogue process. New panels are created in response to other artists' panels. For more info on Tara Verheide's panels shown here and for her other pieces visit the artist's gallery on Mother Tongue.

Tara Verheide

Jodi Bieber (112)

-from The Real Beauty Project-

In the project statement, Jodi writes:

My new body of work entitled Real Beauty has been inspired by a number of events, the primary being my own life. My forties have brought a feeling of more comfort within my own skin than when I was younger even though my body shape has shifted dramatically. This project is an extension of a Dove billboard advertising campaign in London showing ordinary women in their underwear advocating and speaking up for Real Beauty.

Real Beauty Gallery and Statement

Jodi talks about the project in a video,

shot on occasion of the show 'Figures and Fictions'

at The Victoria and Albert Museum, 12 April – 17 July 2011.

www.jodibieber.com

Chelsea Coon (111)

-Stardust-
acrylic on paper, 20 by 26 inches.

-Stardust 3-
acrylic on paper, 20 by 26 inches.

Chelsea writes:

When I was six years old the pink eye virus developed in my right eye. The doctor said there was nothing to be alarmed about and it was a very common virus. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months where I made multiple visits weekly to the office to check out the progress. The virus had been cured, but now there was a new virus present and my vision was decreasing at a rapid rate. Despite all the office visits and numerous variations of medications I became legally blind in my right eye by the time I was 12 years old. My cornea had completely clouded over with scared tissue. My parents did all they could, taking me from doctor to doctor to hear all the options we had. At that point surgery was not an possible until I was at least 18 years old. We talked to doctors all across Connecticut, and even went to Duke Medical Center in North Carolina to see a specialist. All their conclusions were the same; the only option was for a cornea transplant. When I was 20 years old I got the transplant. It was from a 48 year old donor who's circumstances of death were not disclosed to me. My cornea was cut out and replaced with the donors and stitched into my eye with 17 microscopic threads. The cornea transplant worked, and my vision has already increased dramatically.

I have always been extremely sensitive to light but completely intoxicated by it. The purity of intense white light has always left me in awe. My doctor always struggled to read the surface of my eye using his lights. He explained to me, my eyes are very sensitive to light, which is not just a result of the deformity of the scaring in my eye but also common in people who have blue eyes. The lightness of the iris of the eye allows for more light to pass through, whereas someone with darker eyes, say brown, does not have the amount of light passing through their irises. With this knowledge, my entire perception and amazement with light was given a sense validity. In my work I am constantly dealing with and addressing light. I paint the formations of stars which is the result of gas, dust, and time. I imagine the particles accumulating, forming this blinding light, and that this light exists as the evidence of the moment when the life of a star has been created.

www.chelseacoonart.com