Posts Tagged Arts

Guest post: Girls Write Now pair sings the blues

by Andrea Simon

GWN mentor Vani Kannan (left) and her mentee Cherish Smith.
Photo credit: Meghan Hickey
It began with a text message. While in school, 15-year-old Girls Write Now mentee, Cherish Smith, wrote to her mentor, Vani Kannan, “I hate Mondays.” The response: “Me 2.” This was, as the famous movie line goes, “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
In its first major get-together of the season, the New York City nonprofit organization, Girls Write Now (GWN), which matches professional writers with underserved high-school girls, holds an orientation for all its mentors and mentees, this year numbering 55 pairs. At last year’s orientation, Cherish, then a sophomore from Far Rockaway, Queens, and Vani Kannan, an associate managing ...

by Andrea Simon

GWN mentor Vani Kannan (left) and her mentee Cherish Smith.
Photo credit: Meghan Hickey
It began with a text message. While in school, 15-year-old Girls Write Now mentee, Cherish Smith, wrote to her ...

Classic paintings in drag

via Mother Jones, this is a cute concept for a music video: the mostly-male Swedish French band Hold Your Horses re-enact major works of art.

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L’Ogre on Vimeo.

Seeing these men adopting the roles of both men and women in classical paintings really serves to highlight the Guerrilla Girls’ points about how women frequently appear in art: naked. Another lesson in why drag can be so powerful. It really makes you see gender norms in a new way.

Oh, and fun music for a Friday afternoon!

via Mother Jones, this is a cute concept for a music video: the mostly-male Swedish French band Hold Your Horses re-enact major works of art.

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L’Ogre ...

Guest Post: Feminism, Disability, and John Currin

Jennifer Bartlett contributes her second guest post, an interview with artist Sunuara Taylor. Note: All the art works included are by Sunny. Without further adieu:
JB: I’ve been exploring the idea of disability as a strength rather than the societal perception of the disabled body as ‘weak.’ My idea derives from the concept that people with disabilities accomplish many of the same things that nondisabled people do with a so-called “compromised” body. I wonder what you think of this?
ST: Well firstly I’d like to touch on the word disabled. I like the definitions of the words disability and impairment that exist within the Social Model of Disability. Under this model, the word disabled is used to describe the disabling ...
Jennifer Bartlett contributes her second guest post, an interview with artist Sunuara Taylor. Note: All the art works included are by Sunny. Without further adieu:
JB: I’ve been exploring the idea of disability as a strength rather ...

On Progressive Art

Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.
–Angela Davis

Letterpress interpretation of Jen Bekman’s slogan “Live with art, It’s good for you!” Art print produced exclusively for 20×200. Created entirely from antique wood type and ornaments. Printed by the Cranky Pressman.

Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel ...

The Feministing Five: Emily Abt

Emily Abt is an award-winning feminist filmmaker and the founder of Pureland Pictures. Her first film, a documentary called Take it From Me, was about the impact of American welfare policies on individual Americans. Since Take it From Me came out in 2001, Abt has made several more films, including All of Us, which is about African American women and HIV/AIDS and most recently, Toe to Toe, a story about young women, race, sex and friendship, that screened at Sundance this year.
Abt, who spoke on a panel with our own Courtney Martin at the 92nd St. Y earlier this month, says that she hopes that the film will encourage audiences to think about the issues it ...

Emily Abt is an award-winning feminist filmmaker and the founder of Pureland Pictures. Her first film, a documentary called Take it From Me, was about the impact of American welfare policies on individual Americans. ...

Interview with Painter Diane DiMassa

Guest Post by Sabrina Chapadjiev
Most people know Diane DiMassa as the brilliant cartoonist of “Hothead Paisan- Lesbian Homicidal Terrorist”. What they don’t know is that DiMassa is also a high falutin’ oil painter whose explosive abstracts are beginning to take off in the art world. I asked DiMassa about the difference between cartooning and paintings, her inspirations and working towards the the perfect art-gasm.
SC: What’s the difference between creating cartoons and creating paintings?
DD: Drawing cartoons can feel like riding a tricycle through quicksand compared to painting. Though I am not disparaging cartooning in any way! I love it! I just mean that it’s more focused and linear and labor intensive. You are drawing ...

Guest Post by Sabrina Chapadjiev
Most people know Diane DiMassa as the brilliant cartoonist of “Hothead Paisan- Lesbian Homicidal Terrorist”. What they don’t know is that DiMassa is also a high falutin’ oil painter whose explosive ...

Not Oprah’s Book Club: Holiday Round Up

As they say, it’s always “too many books, too little time.” But the holiday season is a time when a) you often get to slow down and actually devour a great novel in one sitting fireside, and b) you get to give books to all the special people in your life. Or maybe I’m just a huge nerd. In any case, here are a range of books that have been sitting on my shelves looking awesome that I thought I’d tell you about in preparation for holiday reading and gifting:
First off: Are We Feeling Better Yet?: Women Speak About Health Care in America by Colleen McKee and Amanda Stiebel. Could there be more relevant reading right about now? ...

As they say, it’s always “too many books, too little time.” But the holiday season is a time when a) you often get to slow down and actually devour a great novel in one sitting fireside, and ...

Gaga for Lady Gaga, “a little bit of a feminist”

While Lady Gaga has shied away from identifying herself as a feminist in the past, this new LA Times interview with the artist reveals not only some feminist admittances, but also her general insight of feminist issues and how it’s expressed in her work:

During nearly two hours of conversation, she not only reiterates her assertion of total originality but also finesses it until it’s both a philosophical stance about how constructing a persona from pop-cultural sources can be an expression of a person’s truth — à la those drag queens Gaga sincerely admires — and a bit of a feminist act.

‘I’m getting the sense that you’re a little bit of a feminist, like I am, which is good,’ ...

While Lady Gaga has shied away from identifying herself as a feminist in the past, this new LA Times interview with the artist reveals not only some feminist admittances, but also her general insight of ...

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