Inspiration from Iowa

For Laurel of Peace and Wisdom, this is Just Another Day

Around the time Chicks with Balls was secretly flailing itself from side to side inside my cluttered brain, I had the opportunity to attend the Portrait Society of America International Conference in Washington DC. This was in May of 2010. I was invited by my fun, talented and ballsy artist friend Susie Porges (susanporgesstudio.com), to whom I shall be eternally grateful for this pivotal point of inspiration. She had heard about the conference from our mutual artist friend, internationally renowned pastel portrait painter, Judith Carducci (judithcarducci.com).

When I look back on certain turning points in my art life, certain pieces of art stand out as jolts of electricity that show me what is possible to me. They show me a light, they change my way, they focus my vision, they push me into the water, they throw me a rope. These art encounters shine because they show me what is possible and that it is possible for me.

The River…by Puvis De Chavannes

According to family legend, when I was three and we lived in NYC (before we moved to Ohio when I was four), I visited the Met with my dad many times and was fixated on the Puvis de Chavannes Nude bathers painting called “The River”. I didn't remember the painting specifically, but those early classical nudes must have gone into my subconscious.

Painting of a Woman by Amadeo Modigliani

As a child, I remember hiding behind the couch reading these mini art books my parents had sprinkled around the house. The one featuring Modigliani was a favorite because he painted ladies like I did, some portraits and some nudes and in my 8 year old mind, I thought, “I can draw better than him and he’s a real artist with a book an everything!” (I’ve never had a problem with personal confidence…it’s selling it to others that trips me up.)

As a middle schooler, I remember my art teacher Mr. Kovacs showing me a drawing by a Hungarian student a few years older than I was. It was a delicately shaded, sensitively drawn, meticulously rendered little pencil drawing of an ordinary hand drill. I thought, “Wow… a kid did this…and a Hungarian kid like me no less. ” That kid was George Kozmon, (georgekozmon.net) who many years later became my very inspiring figure drawing teacher and friend. That drawing also showed me that art wasn’t just made by dead painters and “professionals” from New York. It could be made right here in Ohio…by people like me…by me. I could be that good…and now I am actually way better than he is. (Hey George, if you actually read this and tell me so, I’ll take it out and tell the truth, but until you see it, it stays…ha!)

Anyway, I won’t belabor the points of inspiration point. I’ll fast forward to the Portrait Society of America 2010 Conference.

Mrs. Zimmerman by Rose Frantzen.

At this conference, I had the privilege of meeting artist Rose Frantzen (oldcityhallgallery.com), seeing her dynamic demonstrations, listening to her talk candidly about her path as an artist and viewing her show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. Her show of 180 portraits (!!) was called “Portrait of Maquoketa” and it really touched home.

Rose Frantzen is a crazy good painter of people, she has limitless energy and she comes from a very small town in Iowa. She set up her studio at the Old City Hall on Mainstreet, Maquoketa and invited the citizens to come and pose for her for 5 hour portrait sittings…two a day (!!). She painted a 12 by 12 a la prima portrait of each and every one who signed up. Townspeople would sign up for shifts to come and pose while others would gather and watch the painting process.

This is brilliant on so many levels. First and foremost it is a dream come true for the portrait artist. When you are a painter of people there is no greater luxury than to have willing models of all ages, races and personalities lined up to pose for hours on end and signed up for months to come.

The other idea I loved about it was that she brought great art out from behind the hallowed walls of museums and by-appointment only galleries. She made it fun, friendly and welcoming. And she made the people of the town part of the creation process.

And she was from Iowa…another invisible square vowel state like Ohio. She was from the Midwest, and she was going to stay there. She wasn’t taking her talents to New York to make it, she was bringing the spotlight to Maquoketa by making great art right in her own back yard. And her paintings are good enough where the spotlight does indeed shine on Maquoketa. She hosts sellout workshops with extensive waiting lists. She sells her art nationally right from her gallery on Mainstreet. She creates masterpieces of everyday life, from life, in the tradition of Zorn and Sargent. And she is a star among portrait luminaries internationally.

I saw inspiration and I saw a painter of people making it in the Midwest.

This life changing encounter threw another log on the fire in me that was Chicks with Balls. I could make it happen right here on my mainstreet in my home town.

I was nobody from nowhere…and THAT was the point.

Chicks with Balls…Growing a Pair

Katie blazed a trail at 8 3/4 months…by Judy Takács…36 by 48 oil on canvas

Katie was the first to pose for me. Very pregnant, she chose basketballs to balance her basketball shaped belly…eagerly and without hesitation. For me, however the process of mustering up courage to start this project began several years earlier.

Let's rewind to the summer of 2008. Decades of overlapping childrearing and a thriving graphic design business left me severely behind in my first love…painting people. Through the dry years I had consistently taken figure and portrait painting classes to keep my skills up. I also painted portrait commissions to give me new people to paint, but I hadn’t yet found my voice.

Around that time I spoke with a local art center about having a show there. I secretly suspected I didn’t have a body of work I could show proudly, but I am not one to shirk from opportunity, so I let a representative come to see my work. At that time most of my paintings were figures…nudes. This local art center, which received city funding would not display nude paintings. Even if Botticelli's Birth of Venus were touring the U.S., it would be shunned locally. The director was frustrated by this provincial policy and jokingly referred to the decision makers at city hall as “the sports guys”…implying that the small town cares more about their high school sports than the visual arts.

Anyway, I never did have a show there and nothing came of these meetings…except the seeds of an idea.

I kept mulling over what kind of art would possibly be approved by “the sports guys”. Landscapes and abstracts had been displayed there before, but I was only interested in painting people…and truthfully, I am not interested in painting “for” the public, “for” the client, “for” the show…painting has always been a “from” process…“from” my heart and soul, talent and experience.

Still I played with the idea of what the “sports guys” would like. The first things that came to mind were paintings of balls…basketballs, footballs, baseballs.  What if these balls were covering offending body parts? Who could argue with that…not a nipple in sight. And thus was hatched the idea for Chicks with Balls.

I ruminated and kicked around the Chicks with Balls idea for several years without telling anyone. I also suffered from a lack of confidence. Who should I ask to pose? hired models? indulgent friends? reluctant relatives? Am I a good enough painter? And really, what was the point? Certainly it’s a lot of work to do on the off chance that a community art center with nudity policies will say, “Well sure we’ll show it…I don’t see any nipples!” So the idea lay dormant.

Every time I revisited it though, it grew and took on a life of its own. I started looking around  at my female friends wondering who might actually pose. I, like many of my suburban women friends don’t have strong ties to any literal balls…besides those attached to the sports our kids play.

Detail: For Laurel of Peace and Wisdom, this is just another day

But, as I continued my friend inventory, I discovered a whole lot of “figurative balls.” My friends have shown strength, courage, determination, resiliency, persistence and unwavering faith in their personal goals and those of their families, often against incredibly difficult odds. Tucked away here in Ohio, we are not running countries or negotiating world peace but we are the unsung heroines of our smaller, more ordinary lives.

The Laundry List

There is great depth and complexity in the challenges my ladies have faced.

Some are following disciplined paths to success and others reinventing well- planned lives turned upside down. Some are just starting, some are starting again.

Some are dealing with parental dementia at the same time as teenage depression and anxiety.

Some came from foreign lands and started fresh in the U.S. and some travel near and far to help those less fortunate to live better lives.

One jumps from airplanes, another runs triathlons, another plays rugby, a few play tennis and many cheer for their children whatever sport they are playing.

They speak their minds when they should and sometimes when they shouldn’t but will always keep a secret to protect someone they love…

as I am keeping many of their secrets even while celebrating how well they deal with them.

Some have survived cancer. Some have found inner strength when illness has taken it. Some have survived dangerous pregnancies and given birth to babies that have, and babies that have not survived.

Some are guided by great faith.

Some are guided by great faith in self.

A few have survived heartbreak and betrayal and held their heads high.

They fight for their children, on behalf of their children and with their children.

Some fight for the rights of the children of others.

They dance, they sing, they paint, they create, they document, they heal, they learn, they fall down, they get back up, they help, they love.

And quietly and efficiently from the shadows they make sure the people in their small corner of the world are loved and cared for.

And so I found a voice, and a purpose, and a vision for this project…and I found so many potential models right in my own back yard. Now I just needed to grow a pair myself and make the Chicks with Balls project happen in life as well as in paint.

This blog will chronicle that process…I hope you will stay tuned for updates as we count down to the opening of this fabulous show of paintings at BAYarts in Bay Village, Ohio in the summer of 2013.