Ladies, Ladies, Ladies

Millie Hanson, Visual Arts Editor

Maybe you were in one of the Starbucks around town in the beginning of April, or the Red Raven having coffee at the end of last month and happened to look up to see portraits of women or something else. Maybe you asked yourself: Is that “girl” just bones? Wait, are those tentacles coming out of that other girl’s mouth? Hey, it IS her mouth! If so, did it compel you to stop what you were doing, get up, and take a closer look? If not, or if you have no idea what is going on, keep reading.

But first, some old-school definitions of ladylike behavior: Ladies followed etiquette: They had impeccable table manners and knew what all those different, fussy little forks are used for. Ladies never expressed their own opinions in public, and needed an escort to attend social functions. They didn’t wear crazy colors, or sit with their legs apart, or use profanity. These definitions seem a bit out of date in this day and age – not that basic manners are dead but when was the last time you heard someone reference Emily Post?

Allow me to introduce you to Tanna Lee Hill, Amber Noel Parsons, and Carrie Lee Wendt – three women with different artistic styles but one common spirit. Their touring show, My Ladies, Your Ladies, Her Ladies, has just made its next stop at Fargo’s Dead Rockstar tattoo shop until May 31, and has an opening reception on Monday, May 16th, from 7-10pm, giving you the chance to meet them and see what the fuss is about.

Maybe you’ve seen Frida Kahlo’s work. Maybe you’re familiar with Berthe Morisot. Drops in the bucket compared to the flood of other (male) artists of their time, these women were lone voices of their gender in the world of fine art. Luckily for us, times have changed somewhat (think Georgia O’Keefe, Barbara Kruger, Judy Chicago, and Cindy Sherman) and we are privileged enough to see inside the minds of Amber, Carrie, and Tanna and possibly decode their work to see what motivates them to make their art the way they do.

This show came about initially as Amber’s idea – three like-minded female artists exhibiting together. She and Tanna work together at Dead Rockstar, a local tattoo parlor, and have similar styles and when Amber met Carrie, she had the idea that all three’s aesthetic would meld together very well. Presto - a show was born. (All 3 want to keep showing together, and are thinking of starting up an online store.)

The commonalities become evident. All are prolific and don’t tie themselves to just one medium; their work ranges from ceramics and cut paper to watercolor, acrylic, pastel, and digital art. Their ladies have a nostalgic, moody feel. As Amber told Donald Renner in an earlier HPR article, “Abstract concepts, such as femininity and beauty, depend on their opposites (in order) to have meaning.” After seeing this show, one can see that the work of all three share this idea.

Carrie Lee Wendt’s cameos (as she calls them) start with old frames with bubble, or convex, glass.
Once she saw that there could be a three-dimensional element as the glass “bubbles” out from the two-dimensional picture plane, she started cutting paper, which she’d never done before. This gives her work more interest as it brings the viewer into the artwork with her. She, like the other two, is not afraid to make use of technology and combines digital artwork and editing with her more traditional methods. Her other work is two-dimensional and uses of lots of layers, textures, and silhouettes.

Wendt’s work, In My Bones, utilizes cut paper and bubble glass to great effect. It has a haunting quality to it. She shows a single young woman with only a fleshed out human face and a skeleton’s ribcage, rendered in paper. In fact, besides the gray-on-gray patterned background and red heart that are visible under the paper ribcage, the rest of the piece is constructed of finely crafted cut paper. A paper skull mask is being held partly over the girl’s human face so that one of the human eyes is visible through the skull’s ocular cavity, underlining the loneliness and isolated nature in Wendt’s recurring human subject.

Letting My Tears Fly Away typifies her other style. The same girl’s face (left-hand side only is shown), is rendered solely in two dimensions. Her eye looking to the side depicts her tears as birds that are flying away. The moment of her grief’s manifestation and its metamorphosis (from tears to birds) is superbly captured - one can only wonder if this release will free her for good.

Amber Noel Parsons owns Midwest Mud here in town. As Donald Renner wrote so succinctly in 2008 for HPR: “Amber is an accomplished professional tattooist, an academically trained ceramicist, a dedicated painter, and a provocative performance artist.” A theme has been established in this show that Amber, as well as the other ladies, are artists comfortable using many mediums. For this show (as with her previous work), Parsons is influenced by fashion and things that are creepy and beautiful at the same time. Not creepy scary but things that cause the viewer to question what is really happening in the work and what the message might be.

The common theme of all her pieces in this show is a skeleton girl that “looks” happy. But because she’s a skeleton, it’s hard to tell. In every painting, the skeleton girl is shown with a rooster that Parsons uses as the male element, choosing to allude to it’s meaning rather than spell it out. Sunshine and the Pussy Willows has her lady dressed in black, holding a black handbag and the requisite rooster. Behind her is a forest of bare willows, the two closest to us with vulva-like openings that are surrounded by what looks like rounded teeth – zipper teeth, human teeth? Like her other work, it’s open to interpretation.

Tanna Lee Hill’s influences come from other artists as well as her own life experiences – as an artist and mother. Her inspiration comes from reading art magazines at local book stores and seeing what other artists are doing, plus the “day to day weirdness in my head.” Equipped with a degree in graphic design and her own creative style, Hill’s work has a clear, lyrical quality that shows her own style, refined perhaps by her design training. She connects to viewers through using tools common in today’s cultural language of communication that has so super-saturated our minds. However, what she has to say has nothing to do with popular culture and everything to do with women and how comfortable or isolated they feel within its confines.

Her message is communicated through painting with ink and watercolor.  Hill says, “I can’t sell my work as it’s my brain and soul on the canvas, and it would break my heart to see it for sale for fifty cents in the Savers bins.” One of her pieces has her lady heavily pregnant, walking outside. Her hair is wildblown and unkept, and a literal bird’s nest with eggs is shown in her hair. Two bluebirds are flying around her in solidarity, as if in support of the woman carrying their burden as well as her own.

That was the feeling left with this reviewer after talking with these three women. Wendt and Hill are mothers, and Parsons feels as though her role running Midwest Mud is the same. You can listen to the podcast to get more thoughts in this vein, but what I took away from the conversation was an interplay between these three that is founded on mutual respect, playfulness, and the bond of being women. And it’s touching and funny, in turn:

Carrie Lee Wendt: “Amber is so motivated to bring art and the young artists, any artist, really,...any artist that is passionate and has the ambition to do what they love – she is there for them. She’s like a mom to all those people.”

Tanna Lee Hill: “If it wasn’t for Amber, I would still be hiding out in my studio at home with no exposure at all.” Tanna then goes on to say that she’s a homebody, she digs in and stays there for a long time, not seeing anyone.

One of the other ladies chimes in,“You just described yourself as a tick.” Giggling is heard (Hill agrees).

It isn’t hard to see that they motivate each other as artists to get out and be seen by the community. And we all benefit from their combined efforts.

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IF YOU GO:
What: My Ladies, Your Ladies, Her Ladies
Where: Dead Rockstar, 4501 15th Ave SW Suite 112, Fargo, ND 58103
When: Showing through May 31, 2011, with a reception on Monday, May 16th, from 7-10pm.
Info: http://www.ladiesoflowbrow.com