Thursday, January 29, 2009

inspiration abound.

Breast Exam/ Mastectomy
Since I was invited to the Forget me not show I have been doing a little research on some of the artists I will be showing with and wow...I will not be short amazing artists to share with you for awhile.

As a women who was a Girl scout until she was 15, volunteered at Girl Scout camp, sold lots of cookies, and loved, I mean loved, earning badges I am so excited about the fabulous work of artist Mary Yeager. She creates her own version of Female Merit Badges- both a genius and a poignant project.

Female appliances
Control Panels

Fertility, Childbirth, and Breastfeeding

Mary states:
My female merit badges illustrate female "rites of passage" as well as the myriad physical manipulations women undergo to achieve cultural ideals of beauty, such as weight watching, whether or not to shave or wear makeup, etc. I've created tiny replicas of female products, such as a birth control pill pack and a pregnancy test. The miniature scale and meticulous, hand-embroidered surfaces convey my impressions of growing up female in our culture.

Truly inspiring.

Thanks to the lovely Rachel for being inspired by me- and by reading the comments I found out that I was posted about here- who knew they had a blog?

8 comments:

Josephine said...

wow! these are brilliant! what a great way to express the complexity of what it means to be female in our time.

Joetta M. said...

yes...the story/complexity has changed since I was a girl...I wonder if the real girl scout badges have evolved too?

RedPanties said...

These are totally wonderful....I love them, I need to earn these and wear them on a sash where-ever I go! Fabulous, and very inspiring!

Joetta M. said...

Oh, I love that idea, earning them and wearing them around. I would guess that as women we have already earned a few them already:)

molly said...

abstatootly brilliant these badges.
i love a good badge and these are the best i've ever seen! how clever and lovely.

Brittany | the Home Ground said...

This is such a poignant, brilliant series. They really speak about what it is to be a woman now.

Joetta M. said...

B- yeah, it is an impressive group for sure:)

Unknown said...

Those are lovely