JANET DAVIDSON-HUES: BUSINESS OR PLEASURE?
Janet Davidson-Hues has dedicated herself to integrating language into her visual field providing infinite possibilities of interpretation and accessibility. Mickey Mouse made his way into her None of Your Businesspainting series and Minnie was born to represent women who have found voice and are speaking out in her #MeToo series, which is a presumptive look at the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment and the insidious nature of the problem associated with silence on the part of survivors.
The women represented in this exhibition are poised to deflect barbs and accusations, and to absorb misogynistic and hate-filled rhetoric, lies and more lies, innuendos and insinuations. We come together and listen to each other, believe each other, and realize our commonality, whether we are a cartoon character, a woman of art, or a flesh and blood woman like you and me or a member of an enlightened community that surrounds us.
NANCY
Nancy originated in 1933. To say that Nancyis a simple gag strip about an airheaded, simple-minded slot-nosed kid is to miss the point completely. Nancy Ritz, a typical and somewhat mischievous eternally eight-year-old girl, is always a little sassy, a little rude, 100-percent kid, spiky helmet hair and all. Nancy is seen as a proto-feminist, a real role model for little girls. She’s resilient and tough. She’s a great problem solver, is intelligent and clever, and yet she’s still a kid. What’s relatable about Nancy is that she has anxieties, but she’s really confident.
LISA SIMPSON
is a charismatic 8 year old who plays jazz on her saxophone, is innovative, insightful, and extremely intelligent. As a baby, Lisa changed her own diapers and solved mathematical problems, thus her label “child prodigy”. Lisa is extremely passionate about ideologies and social movements, encouraging the idea of feminism, women's rights and the crusade against objectification and stereotypes of women. Lisa's political convictions are generally leftist and quite liberal.
picasso woman
There is irony here as Picasso is the typical serial abuser, and alpha male personality. Can I separate his behavior and his genius? Yes. I have to.Woman in Hatis Dora Maar, an artist herself, a French photographer, painter, and poet. She photographed Picasso working in his studio and also documented him creating his famous anti-war painting, Guernica(1937). Picasso was abusive to Maar and often pit her against Walter for his love.
lucy
Film director Steve Martino said, "If Lucy found out she wasn’t being paid as much as Charlie Brown to be in my movie, I’d have definitely heard about it."Charles Schultz’s Peanuts comic strip is filled with resilient, articulate, self-actualized women like Lucy, whose feminist credentials continue, after 70 years. Lucy is sometimes wrong, but never uncertain.
MARILYN MONROE
Marilyn had a vulnerability that Liz did not have. Warhol canonizes Monroe, revealing her public persona as a carefully structured illusion. Warhol acknowledged his own fascination with a society in which personas could be manufactured, commoditized, and consumed like products. He couldn’t be Marilyn Monroe but he wanted to be.
STATUE OF LIBERTY: a universal symbol of freedom, enlightenment, hope, friendship, and opportunity, the Statue of Liberty also represents the power of woman, and I am including her as a representative of a powerful woman who probably has been subjected to some sort of abuse just like the rest of us.