women take yet, another hit! so the gloves come off . . .

"By suspending Rice for two games, a lighter sentence than players who smoke marijuana receive, the NFL’s leadership is sending a terrible message that violence against women doesn’t matter to the league." CREDO action

For many years I have been reluctant to be too political here, on my blog.  I appreciate that my work in has a political bent, especially in terms of the feminine experience.  However I have shied away from posting anything too controversial, too radical,  I have restrained myself from truly expressing my feelings but today I was pushed to far . . .
   

'in memory of . . . '

I was raised by a code of conduct that discourages being too political, too opinionated, especially if you were a women.  I was counseled against being outspoken or conspicuous, especially in matters of politics, I was taught not to offend or alienate.  So I treaded lightly, though I believe that my dressproject was my answer to these mandates and restraints.  With my dresses I 'cloaked' my opinions and thoughts.  My true beliefs were 'veiled' in a more acceptable, less threatening manner, they were presented in pretty packages. 

But today I am taking off the gloves, I can hold my proverbial tongue no longer!!

In the past weeks 'women', as a whole, as a collective, have taken hits (plural)! 
To name a few of the major setbacks :

April: Senate Republicans blocked legislation meant to close the pay gap between men and women.

By Sarah Baker, in response to the Supreme Court decision on Hobby Lobby.

July: the supreme court's ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, basically saying corporations are more rights than women.  And that rulings has brought birth control and Roe vs Wade back into play.  

And this week the NLF has handed down a weak punishment to Ray Rice for the documented (click here to view video) assault of his fiancee and mother of his daughter Janay Palmer.  

click here to go to petition

The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell gave Rice a TWO- game suspension and a $58,000 fine. What I find so infuriating about this decision is that  this punishment is lighter that what a player who smoked marijuana would receive.  

What message is that sending out into the world??? It is worst to smoke marijuana than to beat a woman unconscious?!?!?

All of the above issues are high voltage topics and with many layers, they are not black and white.   In Ray Rice's case it is reported that both Rice and Palmer attacked each other and both were charged, although the charges against Palmer were dropped.  So Palmer wasn't completely innocent in this incident nor is she to blame for what happened to her (as some have insinuated).

What I need to express here is, regardless to the circumstances,  there is NO acceptable amount of physical violence unless the situation is life threatening, and I am thinking Rice 's life was NOT threatened.  Rice is a football player, which I am assuming means that he is physically fit and strong which makes physically attacking a woman wrong, even if this woman herself is physically fit and strong.  Rice should have known better! 
And to add to the savagery of the situation Rice beat up a woman he supposedly loved, a woman he was engaged to and the mother of his daughter!!! And now the NFL has basically said that is OK, this stuff happens, he is really an ok fellow!! 

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was arrested over the weekend for allegedly getting into a physical fight with his fiancee at an Atlantic City casino. Pictured about in March 2013 with long-time girlfriend Janay Palmer and their daughter Rayven
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560994/Baltimore-Ravens-running-Ray-Rice-arrested-getting-physical-fight-fiancee-Atlantic-City-casino.html#ixzz38y8wA51k

The NFL had a chance to really make a statement about physical abuse.  They could have taken this opportunity to tell their millions of fans, both men AND women, that hitting a woman is not acceptable!! That physical abuse to any loved one is unacceptable! But they didn't.  The punishment for this incident is less than the punishment that Rice would have received if he had been caught smoking marijuana (which, by the way, is now legal to smoke in some states) 

This week the NFL basically told the world that it isn't that bad to beat your fiancee unconscious. Not only is it not so bad to beat your partner unconscious, you don't even need to treat her unconscious body with respect -  Rice dragged Palmer's body out of the elevator,   he couldn't even carry her which would have eliminated his need to 'nudge' her with his foot to move her out of the way of the elevator doors?!?!? Or better yet, why didn't he call 911?!?! mother of your child is unconscious?? 

So I signed this petition put together by CREDO action,  a social change organization that supports activism and funds progressive nonprofits.  The petition basically says  "Enough’s enough: Tell NFL Commissioner Goodell to take violence against women seriously."
Below is my comment from when I shared the petition on FB and it was my questions about what is the reasoning behind the NFL being so feeble in their response to this incident is what drove me write this post.  

 Abuse of women must STOP!!

 It can NOT be acceptable in any context.  

Why is it so hard for this fact to be recognized?!?! 

And in fact, why are the basic rights of women under such attack recently, 

the right to feel safe, especially with the men in their lives; 

the right to make their own medical decisions about their own bodies 

the right to get paid a fair and equal salary for doing their job, 

all of the above would allow women the freedom 

to live the life they choose 

(hmmm . . . interesting?!?)

 to be continued . . . 

 FB comment:
Signed the petition!! however I am still absolutely sickened by the NFL's response ~ really!! here is an organization that could make a real statement about the horrors of violence against women that would reach so many men who need to hear that message, but alas they wimped out . . .  it makes me wonder why??? are they afraid of losing revenue?!? are they afraid that taking a stand for the basic safety and welfare of women would tarnish their reputation?!?! besides the weakness in their response it is just another example of what really drives our culture . . . money and fear.

link to page to sign petition

it all started seven years ago . . . .

wedding dress (brenda's dress) 

the beginning of the dress project

it all began on wells beach, me. in 2006. i had an idea of an image of a dress and while walking on the beach one morning i picked up a stick to see what this 'dress' would look like.  i drew a sleeveless, life sized dress and  filled it in with the beautiful beach rocks & then proceeded to let the high tide take it away ~ giving me a new, clean canvas on which to make another dress.  the process felt so right and so gratifying that for the rest of the vacation i made a dress!  & each day i would walk the beach with no preconceived idea and would just listen to which material i was to use that day... 

(from www.virginiafitzgerald.com, 

click HERE for photogallery)

It all started, innocently on 

a family vacation, 

in Wells Beach, ME.

A broken glass, 

a sea of drowning ladybugs 

and a nagging thought 

lead me to create 

the DressProject.  

Follow this link to read 

Helen Prunty Krispien's article: 

Drowning ladybugs lead to fascinating art project, 

(for more about ladybugs and dresses)

Since then I have created hundreds of dresses, 

in a myriad of media and materials.

Some in unique locales:

dress #3 from wells beach, me.

new york diner dress (2006)

I have made LARGE dressese

this installation centered around an 8 foot tall dress of eggshells 

'this comes from within' medicine wheel productions (2009)

and I have made small dresses 

abc dress (2006) about 1 inch square

some dresses have a message:

'in memory of  . . . .' (2008) in private collection

made with plaster tape, dog tags and photos of soldiers 

honoring those who died in Iraq.

'ripple' (2010)

a drawing that I contributed to a charity 

raising money to help the gulf after the BP oil spill.

I have made ephemeral dresses and dress sculptures

 which reside in public and private collections.

'lush' (2009) in private collection

And 7 years later, the desire to make dresses is just as unrelenting as it was in Wells Beach.

The dress continues to inspire me to venture into new realms of expression;  performance, installations and collaborative art.

'metamorphosis' (2013) made with the Dana Hall student body

The dress has lead me to

my dresstagging practice

the world of greeting cards and

my daily dress inspiration blog (dressblog).

one of the first dresstags, portsmouth, NH

dresscard  - soon to be for sale on Etsy

I have made dresses out of plaster, plastic bottles, VCR tape, 

fresh pasta, shells, maps, clothes pins, 

fall leaves, dog hair, ribbons, 

even nail polish . . . Nothing is safe!!!

winding roads (2011) paper-mache, paint, marker 

'cicada' (2012) mixed media painting on panel

'time to take flight' (2012) mixed media collage, part of the 'home sweet home' series

With the dress I discovered my voice,
the dress became my soapbox from 
which I could initiate a dialogue,
engage in political debate, 
question social protocol and
excavate my authentic self.

thank you

And I thank you for your continued interest 

in my dress obsession, 

your company and support has made 

this journey all the more gratifying. 

peace

in memory of those lost, look around . . .

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” Rachel Carson

“War is not women’s history.”  –Virginia Woolf

Going out with a BANG!!!!

As the saying goes all good things must come to an end.  And so it is for "Upon Further Consideration: what tells a story", my exhibition with David Lang at the Carney Gallery, Regis College, Weston, MA.  But we are not going quietly :) 

Tomorrow afternoon David and I will be conducting a gallery talk which will then lead to a closing reception.  So we would love to have all come and help us toast out our latest creative endeavor!! 

artists' talk ~ 4:00pm

reception to follow

Also some pieces have been added since the opening AND some pieces will be going back to their private homes.  'dear jeff', which is the commissioned by a man who lost his fiance in 9/11, is now part of the exhibit at Regis, for all those who could not make it down to Attleboro Arts Museum.  Another new piece that was in Attleboro's 8 Vision is 'kid gloves'.  And 'in memory of . . .' will be heading back to her owners, who kindly let me show her for this exhibition, thank you Bill and Joe!! 

peace

grant application submitted - CHECK

Any other artist out there feeling like the business end of being an artist is exhausting?!? 

Once again I am racing to get a grant submission in before the deadline (today), and each time I do this remember my desire to get better pictures of my work?!??!

This was the first time that I needed to prepare a powerpoint presentation so hopefully I dotted my i's and crossed my t's. 

Below are the 'slides'.

Now off to the next task . . . or maybe a nap?!?!? 

peace to all.

"all things are possible!!"

Wow, what a weekend, where to start....For those who have been keeping up, last week was a wonderful and wacky week; culminating with two magnificent openings this weekend. So not to make one crazy long blog post (that would never get finished until June) I am going to split up the events a bit.

First, let's start with Upon Further Consideration, David Lang and Virginia Fitzgerald at the South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA. Here are some photos taken after one of the long day/nights of installing the pieces (note the tired artist with the eggshells).

This is the first time that David Lang and I have exhibited together and we could not have asked for a more perfect space!!! The Bancroft Gallery, designed by architect Vcevold Strekalovsky with a 'trapezoidal floor plan and soaring ceiling (which) create intriguing visual planes and sight-lines' showcased our pieces beautifully. During the day the gallery is bathed with natural light!! Between David and I we had around 38 pieces in the gallery! The opening was a wonderful event. I, of course, in a exhausted daze, forgot my camera, but there were camera's clicking and I will get some of those pic. But besides this show turning out to be more than I could have imagined, I also debuted two new pieces ~ 'puzzle:red' and 'happily ever after'.

'Puzzle:red" (shown right) is an unique woodcut print made with over 30some pieces which I inked separately and reassembled on the printing press. I am printing this dress in a multitude of different colorways, and as a result, each has a different feeling or emotion depending on where the colors sit and relate to each other. This print is close to 5ft tall so it is a good deal of work to get one good print.

The other new piece is 'happily ever after' (shown left next to 'treacherous').I am so pleased with this sculpture. The top is from the eggshell dress in my installation, 'this comes from within'. It was one of the few elements of the installation that survived.

I have always love the form and feeling of this bodice so i hung it in my studio. Seeing it suspended by itself I realized that it had a presence of its own, but I wanted to push it further. Preparing for this show I knew what to do ~ the top would have pieces of eggshell dangling from the bottom and be floating over a circle of broken egg shells. Since i was not sure how pieces of eggshell dangling from a thread would travel, I attached some at my studio and then finished the piece at the gallery. I am very please with many aspects of this piece and it was well received at the opening. Eggshells bring so many levels of interpretation to a piece,

I love working with them.

On so many levels this show has been successful. The South Shore Art Center has been so lovely to work with. And the show has gotten some nice press. Here is a picture of 'in memory of....' in South Shore Living and the blurb that went with the picture ~

"The South Shore Art Center’s Bancroft Gallery will be showing a non-traditional exhibit “Upon Further Consideration,” featuring the work of two Massachusetts sculptors, David Lang and Virginia

Fitzgerald. Known for their provocative and serious under the arch of humor or whimsy work, their art often poses questions,

considerations and alternatives to the status quo. This exhibit will show their unique vision and ability to work with a broad range of non-traditional materials. Using everything

and anything to create such a unique view, they present the idea that all things are possible."

Love that last line ~ all things are possible!!

thank you & peace

Carry-On

This week I delivered four pieces to the Attleboro Arts Museum to be part of their invitational exhibition entitled Carry On. I am SO honored and excited to have been asked to be in this show. This exhibition is running in conjunction with a city wide reading initiative, where participants are encourages to read the same book at the same time and extend their connection to the text through local arts and cultural activities, such as this show. This year the chosen book is Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, considered by many as on of the finest books about the Vietnam War, and I couldn't agree more. This is not a book I would have likely picked up to read on my own, but since I have invited to be in this show I read it and I was blown away!! I was mesmerized and taken on a journey that i will never forget!

As artists we were asked to contribute artwork 'that directly responds to O’Brien’s text, along with work that addresses what soldiers, families, nations and others carry – literally and figuratively – during (and after) a time of war.' This will be a very provocative and moving show. Out of the four pieces that I am showing one of them was directly inspired by O'Brien's text but the other three fit perfectly with the theme. For the exhibit they asked the artists to write a description about how their pieces relate to the theme ~ and I figured that i will share those descriptions here because I always find it interesting when I need to put my thoughts and feelings about a pieces into words.

The Virgin of Guadeloupe represents the things that the soldiers carried to get them through; the talismans, the good luck charms, their faith, their hopes and dreams of girls and home. These were the things that kept the men"safe", "sane" and "alive".

In Memory Of... is a piece that I made to represent my sadness and frustration with the conflict in Iraq. On January 1, 2007 the New York Times announced that the list of dead soldiers had 'reached the somber milestone of at least 3,000 deaths since the March 2003 invasion'. I was moved by the 3 or 4 page spread of thumbnail pictures of the faces of the soldiers who had lost their lives. At that point the situation seemed endless and hopeless.

The top of the piece is made out of plaster tape, suggesting injury and immobility. The bottom of the dress is meant to suggest a quagmire – a total mess, with the wires suggesting the mines and booby-traps that have taken many of the soldiers’ lives. Lastly, hanging in and on this mess are dog tags with the pictures of a fraction of the soldiers who have lost their lives, who have left behind mothers and father, and sons and daughters. The size of this dress was deliberate reflecting the innocence lost in war, as well as portraying a sense of emaciation and undernourishment, states often present in war zones.

I have made a few pieces with dog tags as a way of visualizing the numbers and statistics that we hear or read about, and of which we may have become numb. I believe it is important to remember that these statistics represent real people and real losses in homes and families.

As of this week the total of US casualities in Iraq is 4427 since 2003 and in Afghanistan the total is 1388 US casualities since 2001 according to icasualties.org

Tongue Necklace was inspired by the chapter, "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". This part of the book enchanted and beguiled me. I felt a sisterhood with Mary Anne Bell; how Vietnam made her feel alive and how she "wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself". As disgusting as the idea of a necklace of tongues is, I saw it also as a statement of empowerment and freedom. I envisioned the necklace with the tongues facing out, as in the act of screaming either out of pain, terror or as in the act of sticking out your tongue. In Mary Anne’s case, sticking out her tongue to the confines and limitations that she faced back in Cleveland Heights as Mark Fossie’s wife.

Do They Know its Christmas? comes from the ostentatious display of holiday consumerism and cheer while soldiers and loved ones are deployed to war zones.

As I mentioned before I am so honored that i was invited to be in this show - this is a theme of which I have many opinions & that I love to share. I am excited about talking to many people about the brilliant book. In fact if I had more time I could have produced at least a dozen pieces inspired by O'Brien's text. In fact even though I knew of the delivery date for months, thanks to girlies home sick and no school days, I was still madly sewing right up to the time we pulled the van into the museum's parking lot. :)

Show details : November 18th to December 4th, 2010
Opening Reception:Thursday, November 18th, 2010, 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Free and open to the public.
Reception space is limited. RSVP by Nov 10, 2010 to kstpierre@attleboroartsmuseum.org or 508.222.2644 x13

CLICK here to see all the other exhibiting artists along with their web sites and also all the different activities that will be going on during the opening. I am so happy to announce that David Lang is also exhibiting some of his amazing pieces, check out his blog. In fact he was driving us to Attleboro while I was madly sewing!!! thank you St. David!! Now off to deliver some dresses to a party in Boston - more to come about that!! :) peace