Drawings

A Woman Was a Woman: Nancy Meehan, 2020, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Nancy Meehan (1931 - 2016) was a choreographer and dancer who created evocative, plotless works on nature themes. Meehan defined her aesthetic in an interview with the dance historian Constance Kreemer in 2003: “Dare I say I am trying to make beautiful dance movement, beautiful moments, beautiful dance?”

A Woman Was a Woman: Trisha Brown, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Trisha Brown (1936 - 2017) was an American dancer, choreographer and one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater and the postmodern dance movement. Some works created by Brown attempted to defy gravity, using ropes and harnesses to allow dancers to walk on or down walls.

A Woman Was a Woman: Cora Ramey, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Cora Ramey (1896 - 1988) was the artist’s maternal grandmother, a prairie lady of Indiana. The death of Cora’s often angry husband left her a widow at a relatively young age. This allowed her to sell her farm, move into town where she lived in a converted gas station and enjoyed a career taking care of other women’s babies. She was fun.

A Woman Was a Woman: Bertha Hornbeck Julien, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Bertha Hornbeck Julien (1893 - 1969), the artist’s paternal grandmother, was a “townie” prairie woman -- by the end of her life a pretty sad one. Seldom leaving her home she attempted to teach herself Russian via correspondence course. Bertha loved craft projects -- she tatted lace, made paintings from crushed and dyed eggshells and proudly completed many paint-by-number kits.

A Woman Was a Woman: Anna Sokolow, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Anna Sokolow (1910 - 2000) was an American modern dancer and choreographer and co-founder of the Actor’s Studio. Aligning herself with the “radical dance” movement of the 30s her solo and ensemble works tackled subjects such as the exploitation of workers and growing anti-Semitism in Germany. Anna’s 1955 piece, Rooms, which explored loneliness, was divided into 6 sections: Dream, Escape, Desire, Panic, Daydream, and The End?

A Woman Was a Woman: Emily Roebling, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Emily Roebling (1843 - 1903) is remembered for her assistance in the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, a fourteen year endeavor. When Emily’s husband, Washington Roebling, became bedridden Emily took over much of his chief engineer’s duties, including day-to-day supervision and project management.

A Woman Was a Woman: Eva Perón, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Eva Perón (1919 - 1952) was the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 - 1952. As a young actress Eva met and married Juan Perón through whom she rose to political power in Argentina. In 1952, shortly before her death from cancer, Eva Perón was given the title of “Spiritual Leader of the Nation” by the Argentine Congress.

A Woman Was a Woman: Jiang Qing, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Jiang Qing (1914 - 1991) served as the inaugural “First Lady” of the People’s Republic of China. As a young actress Jiang Qing met and married Mao Zedong through whom she rose to political power in China. A leader of the Gang of Four, she once told an interviewer, “Sex is engaging in the first rounds. What sustains interest in the long run is political power.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Do Yen Hazel Kim Yoon, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Do Yen Hazel Kim Yoon (1893 - 1987) was a Korean woman who lived in Sacramento, CA. Married to Yung Ho Yoon, she gave birth to her first son in 1917 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen on November 8, 1953.

A Woman Was a Woman: Mrs. Saloma Cunningham, Emma S. Cunningham, Mary E. Cunningham, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Prairie women Saloma Cunningham, mother, and daughters Emma S. Cunningham and Mary E. Cunningham lived on a farm in Section 16, Tippecanoe Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, in the mid 1800s. Their likenesses were found in a book from the artist’s grandfather’s library, Kingman Brothers’ Combination Atlas Map of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Complied, Drawn and Published from Personal Examinations by 1878.

A Woman Was a Woman: Bronislava Njinska, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Bronislava Njinska (1891 - 1972) was a Polish ballet dancer and choreographer. In 1923, with a score by Stravinsky, she choreographed her iconic work Les Noces [The Wedding]. According to dance academic and critic Lynn Garafola the ballet movement of the wedding ceremony reflected “not a joyous occasion but a foreboding social ritual.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Emily Roebling, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

An Indiana prairie woman, Mrs. John Ewry (her first name is not recorded) lived in Lafayette, Indiana, west of Second Street and south of Alabama Street from 1835 - 1876. Her likeness was found in a book from the artist’s grandfather’s library, Kingman Brothers’ Combination Atlas Map of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Complied, Drawn and Published from Personal Examinations by 1878.

A Woman Was a Woman: Maria Schneider, 2019, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 22" x 25.5"

Maria Schneider (1952 - 2011) was a French actress. In the 1972 movie Last Tango in Paris, actor Marlon Brando used butter as a lubricant before the simulated rape of Maria Schneider. Director Bertolucci described how he and Brando had come up with the idea to use the butter in the scripted rape scene, but did not tell Schneider “what was going on, because I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress. I wanted her to react humiliated.” According to Maria “Marlon said to me: ‘Maria, don’t worry, it’s just a movie,’ but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn’t real, I was crying real tears,” she said. “I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn’t console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Moms Mabley, 2019, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Moms Mabley (1894 – 1975) was an American stand-up comedian. She came out as a lesbian at the age of twenty-seven, becoming one of the first openly gay comedians. Mabley credited her name, “Moms,” to her grandmother. Mabley envisioned herself as a woman in her sixties, kind but strict when necessary, similar to her grandmother.

A Woman Was a Woman: Gilda Radnor, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Gilda Radner (1946 - 1989) was an American comedian, one of seven original cast members of the NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live. While in character as SNL’s Roseanne Roseannadanna, Gilda delivered the commencement address to the graduating class at the Columbia School of Journalism in 1979.

A Woman Was a Woman: Calamity Jane, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 22" x 25.5"

Martha Jane Canary, better known as Calamity Jane (1852 - 1903) is remembered for her public drunkenness. She appeared in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as a storyteller and was known for her habit of wearing men’s clothing. There are conflicting stories as to the source of her nickname -- one version is that Jane acquired it as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to “court calamity.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Francesca Woodman, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Francesca Woodman (1958 - 1981) was an American photographer known for her black-and-white photographic self-portraits which explored both presence and absence.

A Woman Was a Woman: Mary Magdalene (St. John’s Church, Torun, Poland), 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 22" x 25.5"

Mary Magdalene (lived 2000 years ago) was a Jewish woman most likely from the town of Magdala who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was identified with the unnamed “sinful woman” who anoints Jesus’s feet in the New Testament, resulting in widespread but inaccurate belief that Mary Magdalene was a repentant prostitute. There is a legend that having witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection, Mary Magdalene went to live an ascetic solitary life in a desert, praying and fasting. She did not care about any mundane objects, including her clothes, so she wore the same veils until they fell apart. To protect her modesty, her body hair miraculously grew all over her.

A Woman Was a Woman: Rrose Sélavy, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Rrose Sélavy was the female alter ego of artist Marcel Duchamp. Her name is a pun on the French adage “Eros, c’est la vie.” She first emerged in portraits made by the photographer Man Ray in New York in the early 1920s, when Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray were collaborating on a number of conceptual photographic works.

A Woman Was a Woman: Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti (1889 - 1963), born into an artistic family which included brother Marcel, was a French Dadaist painter. Suzanne’s work, which sometimes incorporated actual gears, often used machine imagery as an allegory of the relationship between the sexes.

A Woman Was a Woman: Meredith Baylis, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Meredith Baylis (1929 - 2002) was an American ballet dancer and former member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Renowned for the rigor of her ballet class at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, former students recalled being afraid of her. Students also noted that Meredith taught a class for deaf dancers. In 1984 Meredith moved back to California to open her ballet school and to care for her aging father. Perhaps California life mellowed Meredith -- there she is remembered for her deep voice, her sense of humor and her warm heart.

A Woman Was a Woman: Nellie M. Coats, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Nellie M. Coats (1889 - 1977), a relative of the artist, was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Nellie produced a weekly half-hour radio show in Indianapolis, interviewing local personalities. She was the chief librarian of the Catalogue Division of the Indiana State Library for 35 years and also gave sightseeing tours of Indianapolis as a hobby. Nellie was named Woman of the Year in 1962 by the Hoosier Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television.

A Woman Was a Woman: Anni Albers, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Anni Albers (1899 – 1994), German textile artist and printmaker, studied at the Bauhaus where women were barred from certain disciplines taught at the school. Unable to get into a glass workshop with future husband Josef Albers, Anni deferred reluctantly to weaving, the only workshop available to her. Nevertheless, Anni found in the textile arts, and later in printmaking, ample opportunity for innovation, combining form and function with formal experimentation and abstraction. “I will take thread everywhere I can,’” Anni Albers once said.

A Woman Was a Woman: Jovita Idár, 2019, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Jovita Idár (1885 – 1946) was an American journalist, political activist and civil rights worker who fought for the rights of Mexican Americans and women.

A Woman Was a Woman: Aretha Franklin, 2019, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Aretha Franklin (1942 – 2018) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Franklin came to be known as “The Queen of Soul” with the songs Respect, Chain of Fools, A Natural Woman, I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), and I Say a Little Prayer.

A Woman Was a Woman: Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigan and Helen Frankenthaler, 2020, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Joan Mitchell (1925 – 1992), Grace Hartigan (1922 – 2008) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928 – 2011) were members of the American abstract expressionist movement.

A Woman Was a Woman: Betty Shabazz, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Betty Shabazz (1934 - 1997), American educator and civil rights advocate, raised six daughters alone after the assassination of her husband Malcolm X in 1965. Betty Shabazz made numerous joint public appearances with Myrlie Evers-Williams and Coretta Scott King; they had the common experience of losing their activist husbands at a young age and raising their children as single mothers.

A Woman Was a Woman: Nina Simone, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Nina Simone (1933 - 2003) was an American singer/songwriter and civil rights activist. Her 1964 song Mississippi Goddam was her response to the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four young black girls. Nina said that the song was “like throwing ten bullets back at them.” Nina supported the black nationalism of Malcolm X and advocated violent revolution rather than Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach.

A Woman Was a Woman: Laura Nyro, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Laura Nyro (1947 - 1997) was an American singer/songwriter. As a child, Nyro taught herself piano, read poetry, and listened to her mother’s records by Nina Simone, Judy Garland and Billie Holiday. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968) and New York Tendaberry (1969). In the early 1980s, Nyro began living with painter Maria Desiderio, a relationship that lasted 17 years, the rest of Nyro’s life.

A Woman Was a Woman: Tina Modotti, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Tina Modotti (1896 - 1942) was an Italian photographer, model (often photographed by Edward Weston) and revolutionary political activist for the Comintern, an international communist organization active in the years 1919 - 1935. In the 1920s Tina Modotti lived in Mexico City where she was part of the city’s bohemian scene which included Leopoldo Méndez, Edward Weston, Frida Kahlo, Guadalupe Marín, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco.

A Woman Was a Woman: Ray Eames, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Ray Eames (1912 - 1988) and husband Charles worked together in a creative partnership that resulted in innovative designs for furniture, houses, monuments, exhibitions, films - even toys. Many of their furniture designs have become contemporary classics. Former Eames Office staff member Jeannine Oppewall recalled that “Ray made me very aware that if you are a woman, and you have serious contributions to give, that you must stand up for yourself and say, ‘You’re on my toe; please get off it.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Eva Hesse 1, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

A Woman Was a Woman: Eva Hesse 2, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Eva Hesse (1936 - 1970) was a German American sculptor. Eva revealed, in a letter to Ethelyn Honig (1965), that a woman is “at disadvantage from the beginning… She lacks the belief that her achievements are worthy.” Despite insecurity Eva was one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 1960s. Her experiments with every-day or found materials, such as rope, string, wire, rubber, and fiberglass suggest a wide range of organic associations, psychological moods and sexual themes.

A Woman Was a Woman: Lolita Lebrón, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Lolita Lebrón (1919 – 2010) was a Puerto Rican nationalist who was convicted of attempted murder after leading an assault on the United States House of Representatives in 1954, resulting in the wounding of five members of the United States Congress. She was freed from prison in 1979 after being granted clemency by President Jimmy Carter. A 2004 Washington Post Magazine Cover story about Lebrón ran with the headline “When Terror Wore Lipstick.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Diana Oughton, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Diana Oughton (1942 - 1970), graduate of Bryn Mawr College and member of 60s radical group Weather Underground, died in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion. Diana was constructing a nail bomb to be used that evening at a dance for noncommissioned officers and their dates at the Fort Dix, NJ, Army Base to “bring the [Vietnam] war home.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Pina Bausch, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Pina Bausch (1940 - 2009) was a German choreographer remembered for creating an emotionally driven form of dance theater which often tied humor closely to sadness and darkness. In many of her dances Pina costumed the women in evening gowns, only to have them perform on stage floors which were completely covered with dirt or water. In her company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, dancers’ careers often continued well into their 50s.

A Woman Was a Woman: Alice Coltrane, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 22" x 25.5"

Alice Coltrane (1937 - 2007) was an American jazz musician and composer. She recorded and played with husband John Coltrane’s band until his death in 1967. Alice and John’s love for each other and growing spirituality resulted in one of John’s most critically acclaimed records, A Love Supreme. After John’s death, Alice’s musical direction moved further from standard jazz into the more cosmic, spiritual world with the albums Universal Consciousness (1971) and World Galaxy (1972).

A Woman Was a Woman: Lucy (Hominid), 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Lucy (3.2 million years old) is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone fossils representing 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis. In Ethiopia, where she was discovered, the assembly is also known as Dinkinesh, which means “you are marvelous.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Louise Bourgeois, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Louise Bourgeois (1911 - 2010) was a French-American artist. She often spoke of pain as the subject of her art: “The existence of pain cannot be denied. I propose no remedies or excuses.”

A Woman Was a Woman: Audrey Hepburn, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993) was a British actress, ballet dancer and fashion icon who devoted her later life to UNICEF. In a 1954 edition of Vogue Magazine, fashion photographer Cecil Beaton declared Hepburn the “public embodiment of our new feminine ideal.” Along with Twiggy, Audrey is considered one of the fashion icons who made being very slim fashionable.

A Woman Was a Woman: Anne Boleyn, 2016, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Anne Boleyn (1501 - 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 - 1536. As Anne’s uterus did not produce a male heir to the throne, King Henry VIII accused his wife of high treason. In spite of unconvincing evidence she was found guilty and was beheaded 4 days later.

A Woman Was a Woman: Norma Leah McCorvey Nelson, 2018, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Norma Leah McCorvey Nelson (1947 - 2017) as “Jane Roe” was the plaintiff in the landmark American lawsuit Roe v. Wade in 1973. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individual state laws banning abortion are unconstitutional. Later, Norma, who had in fact given birth to the baby in question and put the child up for adoption, voiced remorse for her part in the Supreme Court decision, working as part of the anti-abortion movement. For many years, Norma lived quietly in Dallas with her long-time partner, Connie Gonzales.

A Woman Was a Woman:Whitney Houston, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Whitney Houston (1963 - 2012) was an American singer who sold 200 million records worldwide. I Will Always Love You received the 1992 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history. Sadly, Whitney had personal struggles which included drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer/rapper Bobby Brown. She accidentally drowned in a bathtub in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors.

A Woman Was a Woman: Betsy Ross, 2017, digital print of Prismacolor drawing, 16" x 19.5"

Betsy Ross (1752 - 1836) is remembered for her sewing skills. She is credited with making the first American flag in 1776.