 Dr Mary Edwards Walker has been on the Brart list for a long time. People ask me all the time ‘How do you decide to choose for your portraits?’ A lot of it has to do with materials that come to me. Working with found object materials you have to wait for the materials to come to you. I don’t go to the store and buy the color or material that I want just cause I have an idea. Sometimes the discipline of sustainable art forms is waiting for the right time for ideas and materials to come together.
For the longest time I didn’t know how to represent her image since a core part of who she is, was about wearing the clothes she wanted to wear. Born 1832, there are clearly defined gender roles and clothing in American society at that time. Dr. Mary Walker, was raised by free thinking parents that encouraged her to challenge societal norms. Being raised on a farm, she often wore what was considered to be men’s clothing, because corsets were too difficult to do farm work in, and her parents supported her in this. As she got older she got a medical degree from Syracuse Medical College in 1855. She was Initially rejected from the army when the Civil War broke out but she was eventually accepted and became the first female surgeon in the US Army. Dr. Mary Walker continue to wear male clothing as she maintained that women’s clothing was too restrictive and not healthy. When she did wear skirts, she often wore shorter skirts with pants or bloomer pants underneath. She wrote books of dress reform, but was also physically assaulted many times because of her clothing and was also arrested in some instances. It’s kind of mind blowing when you think of the challenges that Dr. Mary Walker faced, and how women today still receive unwanted commentary on clothing. Mary had many notable activities and accomplishments in the army. But what I want to focus on is the fact that she is the only woman in US history to receive the Medal of Honor. She is the only women out of 3,500 recipients to receive a Medal of Honor in US history, but it was a convoluted process at best. Awarded in 1865, following the Civil War, it was rescinded in 1917, two years before she died. She never returned the medal and continued to wear it. Her award was posthumously restored to her family in 1977. All of this to say, I am glad I trusted my instincts and waited to Dr Mary Edward Walkers portrait as part of my Women Who Dressed as Men and Made Herstory funded by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Wearing men’s clothing isn’t just something that she did, it was part of what she recommended as a medical physician. If you are like me, and say 'Where is the biographical movie about Dr. Mary Edwards Walker's life?" Parts of the internet say that Roslind Ross is writing a script about her life. Let me tell you. If that movie gets produced, I will be first in line to buy a ticket.
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 Hannah Snell, first in my series Women Who Dressed as Men and Made Herstory funded by Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. More writing to come soon.
This last summer I had the opportunity to be a part of the group of artists with Art to Change the World that created art for the residents at Emma Norton's Restoring Waters. It is the mission of Emma Norton to provide transformational housing and growth for women and families on their journey of recovery. Once I received notice that I had been one of the selected artists for the project, we received a list of topics that residents were interested in. Black Lives Matters was a topic on this list. I have always wanted to do the portraits of the three founders of Black Lives Matter, but knew I needed the right time and place for them to live. This felt like the perfect project. Residents of Emma Norton get the opportunity to select a piece of art from the 90+ pieces that were turned in by artists when they move into Restoring Waters. If the resident ever moves out of Emma Norton Housing, they get to take their art with them. The request for art required that all artists submit four pieces of work. Malala has also been on my list for a while, so I thought this was an appropriate time to complete Malala's protraits. Please consider donating to Emma Norton: The Campaign for Restoring Waters | Emma Norton This might be the coolest Sadie themed story. Ever. SO back in January of this year, someone submitted a comment to my Blog that there is a bar in New York with my name. Endlessly curious I started googling and low and behold, there was a whiskey bar in New York Called Sadie's Ward. Of course I was googling this at 11pm at night in bed, and then became too excited to sleep. Turns out Sadie's Ward is based on a historical Sadie, Sadie Farrel. I had been emailing a bit with the bar expressing my interest in some kind of collaboration. Sadie Farrel is an almost folk-lorish figure of New York's Fourth ward and was nicknamed Sadie the Goat because one of her tactics of tackling people was to head butt them in the gut. She almost maintained a reputation as a river pirate. Now some of her activities may have been nefarious in nature, such as stealing people for ransom, but for a woman to hold her own in the whiskey wards of New York in the 1860's, what a fucking badass. Over time she developed another nickname, Queen of the Waterfront. You can read more about Sadie on Sadie's Ward Website: Sadie's Ward — Sadie's Ward (sadiesward.com) Obviously, Sadie Farrel became a top contender for brart. I studied the Sadie's Ward website, and decided to theme the colors of the portrait around the colors of the website, since I knew I would be leaving this piece at the bar. I knew I'd be taking a trip to New York that summer so I started to plan a travel size brart that would fit in a carry-on bag. Fast forward to July of 2024, and I land in New York. I seem to always be in New York in the summer when it is hella hot. It was a Saturday afternoon, so I planned a few hours to get down to the south side of Manhattan so that I could get back up to Broadway in time to see Suffs later that evening. So, I walk into the bar (no joke, just me and my art walking into a bar like the nerd I am) and go up to the bartender and say 'So this is a story, but my name is Sadie Ward, and I make portraits of women out of bras, and I made a portrait of Sadie Farrel for the bar to have.' The bartender says "You are the one that sent the emails! Let me call Stephanie the owner!' She gives me a drink and 20 minutes later Stephanie shows up. Some people, you can just sit down and start chatting with and feel like you vibrate on the same frequency as them. Stephanie is one of these people. Stephanie shared how she started the bar when the previous owners were retiring. She shared how much she was inspired by the toughness of Sadie Farrel, how she had really made her name in the fourth ward, and that it only made sense to name the bar after Sadie. Honestly, how fucking inspiring listening to Stephanie talk about how much she admired Sadie and that it motivated her to name the bar after her. Stephanie also showed me her custom pool stick with Sadie Farrel's name on it. Stephanie then offered if I wanted any Sadie's Ward swag. She kept saying 'It has your name on it!' One of the items was a sports bra that has the Sadie's Ward Logo. I just about passed out. A sports bra with my name on it, it was so perfect I almost couldn't handle it! We shared a round of shots and it became time to head back up to Broadway. With my heart full, I think lyfted back up to Broadway and watched Suffs. What a complete evening! Drink whiskey in a bar of my name sake, and then an evening of songs and stories of women's suffrage. Brart has its roots in women's suffrage. Scroll back to my first piece about Anna Dickie Olesen. What a unique and awesome day that I will always hold onto of knowing that I am making the right art at the right time and place. Also, the sports bra is very comfortable. This summer I had the opportunity to be one of five artists in a collaboration between the Mill City Museum and Art to Change the World and the Stone Arch Festival. The installation was called 100 Feet of History and Art and was outside for ten weeks on a chain link fence behind the Mill City Museum. This was an outdoor installation, so I initially was not going to apply for it. I had always thought of brart as an indoor artform. Other Art to Change the World members told me I should apply and I got in! This is proof that it is important to surround yourself with other artists that push you to do better and outside of your comfort zone. I love a good project that challenges my own preconceived notions of my artform. The focus of the installation was about the Mississippi River. I initially wrote my proposal to do portraits of water activities that have done work with the Mississippi, because I have researched some on that subject already. I received feedback to do some research around the textile industry/factories that was historically along the Owamniyomin, or Saint Anthony Falls after Father Louis Hennepin renamed it in 1680 from its Dakota name. I went into the research of textile factories with an open mind, because I understood the link between bras and textiles, and what a joy to research! I went down this rabbit hole of history around Munsingwear. I did a series of 4 portraits to tell this story. Munsingwear made its niche in the textile industry by creating itchelss long underwear, and they had the business strategy to move from New York to Minnesota in 1886 to be in a cold climate where long underwear would sell well. The style of long underwear is called the union suit. Munsingwear also made history when they used actual female models in its advertisements, which was scandalous at the time to see the female figure wearing actual undergarments. Munsingwear became one of the largest employers of women in Minnesota at its peak employing 2,500 women. Not just Munsignwear, but many textile factories and laundries had notoriously awful working conditions; brutal physical labor in environments with extreme temperature conditions, hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The word union, became a very interesting word to unify the four portraits I ultimately made: 1. Munsingwear Advertisement 2. Unknown Factory Workers 3. Eva Gay 4. Nellie Stone Johnson Along the fence, the Munsingwear advertisements was placed near the Unknown Factory Workers while Eva Gay and Nellie Stone Johnson were place on a different section of fence, I wanted to pair the glamor of the advertisement with the image of unknown factories. The juxtaposition of the advertisement and the workers is poignant. I then wanted to pair Eva Gay and Nellie Stone Johnson together as leaders in the fight for workers rights. While Eva and Nellie never met, it is interesting to pair the work they each did in relation to each other with our modern context of modern working conditions. I had already thought about how the deterioration of the pieces represents the way we forget details of history, and either just let it go, or start to fill it in with other details that are close to grab and fill the gap. For me, the rain and temperature fluctuations of the outdoors, represented the factory conditions the Unknown Factory workers endured. I already had this framework in my head to accept that my pieces would not come back the same as when I had installed them. But I was kind of blown away, when the first piece to loose the most fastest was the Unknown Factory workers. It was kind of unsettling the way that one girl lost part of her skirt, while the quote I wrote on Eva Gays portrait talks about how site supervisor’s would lead women astray and take advantage of them. These women were already faceless and unknown, and they were loosing the most. Below is a side by side of each piece with a photo take on install and deinstall day. Below are the printed statements that were attached to the fence with each piece. Munsingwear AdvertisementMunsingwear was one of the largest employers of women in Minnesota. In 1920 85% of their workforce was women. Their claim to fame was their itchless long underwear, which sold well in the cold Minnesota Climate. Originally located near St. Anthony falls, Munsingwear eventually relocated to 718 Glenwood Ave. Minneapolis, MN, which is now known as International Market Square.   Unknown Factory WorkersWe will never know the thousands of women that worked tirelessly in textile factories. Factories were often powered by water, and were clustered along St. Anthony Falls.   Eva GayEva Gay was the pen name for Eva McDonald, a journalist that wrote about women’s working conditions, which included Munsingwear. Eva was a writer for the St. Paul Globe, often working under cover to observe working conditions for herself. One of her articles is credited with starting the first women’s strike in Minnesota. McDonald became a nationally recognized labor organizer and advocated for the 8 hour work day.   Nellie Stone JohnsonNellie Stone Johnson is a good example of a Minneapolis based activist and union organizer that made change for workers rights. She was the first African American elected official in Minneapolis. She also spearhead passage of the Minnesota Fair Employment and Fair Housing Laws in 1955 and 1957. Nellie has a statue at the Minnesota State Capitol.   Union in is a consistent word throughout this series of four pieces. This is such a fascinating play on word. What does union mean, as a literal function, but also as a kind of camaraderie that helps us all do better. Can union spread beyond generations and time? Bridge of MemoriesIn addition to my four portraits, I got to directly collaborate with Frances Bates https://francesbates22.wixsite.com/portfolio. Frances is a found object artist, which you know I love, and we collaborated on The Bridge of Memories. We were asked to have an interactive component to our art. Frances had a great idea to make a found object silhouette of the Stone Arch Bridge. I have recently also started gathering blue jeans, and had this idea of incorporating strips of blue jeans into the installation but wasn’t sure how it related initially. Frances had an idea to weave the blue jean strips as the water under the bridge. The collaboration kept rolling. We had a written prompt to write a memory of the Mississippi on the strip of blue jean before weaving it into the fence. After the installation comes down, I will be stitching the strips into a quilt that is the shape of the Mississippi River. This will be a commentary of how we need to hold onto our memories as climate change and human intervention change our waterways. I will stitch this quilt over the winter, and hope to have a series of photo shoots of it in the spring. I feel like this quilt will develop its own story, hopefully more to come on that! Overall this entire project is themed around the Mississippi River, brart and blue jeans. The historical research around Munsingwear, helped me see a new way that brart can be put in a series to tell a story.    Theatre in the Round - Trailblazing Women - March 2024
Hypatia (350/370-415) her exact age is unknown, and was born in Alexandra, Egypt. Hypatia is the first documented female philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. She was a teacher that taught students from all over the Mediterranean. She was gruesomely murdered by a mob of Christians 415 AD and became known as the Martyr of philosophy. In the twentieth century, she became an icon of women's rights and is considered the forerunner of feminism, as demonstrated in this quote from Wikipedia, "Damascius states that Hypatia remained a lifelong virgin and that, when one of the men who came to her lectures tried to court her, she tried to soothe his lust by playing the lyre. When he refused to abandon his pursuit, she rejected him outright, displaying her bloody menstrual rags and declaring "This is what you really love, my young man, but you do not love beauty for its own sake." Damascius further relates that the young man was so traumatized that he abandoned his desires for her immediately." Mad props to the historians that documented this quote throughout history.  Theatre in the Round - Trailblazing Women - March 2024
Valerie Thomas (1943-Present) was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Thomas invented the technology for data to be transmitted to create images from satellites.To quote Biograhy.com Over the course of her career, Thomas contributed widely to the study of space. She helped to develop computer program designs that supported research on Halley's Comet, the ozone layer, and satellite technology. For her achievements, Thomas received a number of NASA awards including the Goddard Space Flight Center Award of Merit and the NASA Equal Opportunity Medal. Her success as a scientist, despite the lack of early support for her interests, inspired Thomas to reach out to students. In addition to her work at NASA, she mentored youths through the National Technical Association and Science Mathematics Aerospace Research and Technology, Inc.  Theatre in the Round - Trailblazing Women - March 2024
Madame Marie Curie (1867-1934) was born in Warsaw, Poland. Curie is often called the mother of modern physics and is most famous for her work in radioactivity and winning two Nobel Prizes. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and is the only woman to win two in different scientific fields. Marie and her husband Pierre Curie were both passionate scientists and she succeeded her husband as the Head of Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne. She had two daughters, and never slowed down her scientific work. Curie died from harmful side effects of radioactive exposure. The book The Madame Curie Complex was a primary source of inspiration for this series of women in science.  Theatre in the Round - Trailblazing Women - March 2024
Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) was born in Ihithe, Tetu, Kenya. Maathai has extensive education: an undergraduate degree in biology from Mount St. Scholastica College, a masters degree in biology from University of Pittsburgh and studied for a doctoral degree at University of Giessen, University of Munich and taught at the University of Nairobi while she finished her dissertation. Maathai also founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM is a grassroots organization that empowers women through the planting of trees). The GBM is known for its work in combating deforestation, and generating income for women. To quote the Green Belt Movement: Her life was a series of firsts: the first woman to gain a Ph.D. in East and Central Africa; the first female chair of a department at the University of Nairobi; and the first African woman and the first environmentalist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (2004). Honored throughout the world for her work for the environment, democracy, and peace, Professor Maathai was the author of four books including her autobiography: Unbowed and the subject of a documentary film, Taking Root. Maathai has spoken at many UN conferences and won a Nobel Peace Prize. This spring you should plant a tree in her honor.  Theatre in the Round - Trailblazing Women - March 2024
Chien Shiung Wu (1912-1997) was born in Liuhi, Taicang in China to a family that supported and encouraged her education. While serving as a researcher at the Institute of Physics at Academia Sinica, her supervisor Gu Jing-Wei Encouraged Wu to obtain a Phd at University of Michigan. Wu was shocked by the sexism at Michigan, which did not allow female students to use the front entrance and decided to attend Berkely. Wu is best known for her contribution in the Manhattan Project where she conducted the Wu Experiment. Her male counterparts on the project were awarded Nobel prizes. She received the National Medal of Science and served as the president of the American Physical Society. Wu developed the nickname First Lady of Physics, and her contributions to physics were often compared to the contributions of Madam Curie. After retiring from Columbia University, she encouraged women to go into the sciences. I would LOVE to listen to one of her motivational speeches. |
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