Nasty Women of Evanston

The Nasty Women Exhibits are making their rounds, and Evanston is participating this week. On June 3, the women of Evanston will present their artistic take on the political climate.  Through art we can raise awareness, raise money, raise our voices and raise hell!

Nasty Women Evanston is inspired by the Nasty Women Exhibition in NYC and the growing number of sister shows all over the world supporting women’s causes. On Saturday, June 3 from 6 to 9 pm this one night only special event takes place at 1100 Florence in Evanston. 100% of the profits from the sale of artwork will benefit Planned Parenthood of Illinois. All artists have donated their art work for this purpose.

Per the Nasty Women site: “While Donald Trump used the phrase “nasty woman” to belittle and disrespect Hillary Clinton in a presidential debate, millions around the world have used it as a powerful rallying cry against the current administration. We join Nasty Women and their allies in the mission to challenge increasing threats to reproductive freedom, women and minorities, the LGBTQ community, and human rights of immigrants through mobilization and artistic expression.”

While pondering my submission in March, I came across an old photo that is perfect for the challenge. When I was a reporter at The Baytown Sun the Baytown police took us to a shooting range. While that event had been in my calendar, I forgot about it that day, and wore a girly flower dress. This made for quite the juxtaposition with the dark gun belt. I kept the target for a while, but cannot find it now.

As always, I infused the background with words, in this case all the words associated with women.

Then I printed the photo and waxed the paper to give it the translucence it needed.

I fused it onto the canvas with encaustic medium. My toner had a pink hue, which was appropriate for this work, so I kept that and mimicked the toner color with Enkaustikos Rose paint. Then I needed to let the canvas sit for a while.

I thought about adding wire symbols to the canvas, but couldn’t find one I really resonated with that is also easy to recreate in a single piece of wire. There are lots of ideas percolating though.

Then a few days before the final submission deadline I decided to fiddle with the wire and see what happened. I had dreamt up a vision of the canvas being framed by a wire flower, but that wasn’t nasty enough. Instead I went with swirls and the hint of an infinity symbol, to signify the curves, well-roundedness and lifecycle energy women are associated with.

Initially the wire came out of the center of the canvas, but it didn’t quite work. So I re-jiggered the wire to come out of the gun, and this pleases me far more. So come and see the final work in person while it is up on the wall (buyers leave with their pieces). The show is Saturday from 6 to 9 pm at 1100 Florence in Evanston. Street parking is easy to find, and a brand-new bike rack awaits the sporty ones enjoying Spring weather.

Planned Parenthood is one of the nation’s leading providers of high-quality, affordable health care for women, men, and young people, and the nation’s largest provider of sex education. Planned Parenthood also works with partner organizations worldwide to improve the sexual health and well-being of individuals and families everywhere.

• 75% of its patients are Medicaid recipients who depend on preventive healthcare services.
• Planned Parenthood provides more than 270,000 Pap tests & more than 360,000 breast exams in a single year.
• Planned Parenthood provides more than 4.2 million tests & treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including more than 650,000 HIV tests.
• ONLY three percent of all Planned Parenthood health services are abortion services, and these are not funded by the government.