BY FRANCESCA LEWIS

We all have that fantasy of finding a trunk of priceless family heirlooms in the attic, but in Jane Anderson’s case, such a discovery led to something a lot more fulfilling than money. Anderson, an award-winning writer/director whose most recent work Olive Kitteridge won an Emmy in 2014, has been surrounded by her Great Aunt Edith’s artwork all her life. Discovered by her mother in a bunch of old steamer trunks in the attic, they decorated the walls of her house when she was growing up. Not much was known about the mysterious Aunt Edith, except that she was born in the 1860s and spent the latter 30 years of her life in an asylum. As Anderson herself grew into a bohemian artist, living in New York, in part inspired by what she knew of her artsy Aunt Edith’s life, she became fascinated with this familial kindred spirit. Her mother would send her sketches, done by Edith when she was in New York herself, that were almost identical to the ones Anderson herself was making. Upon researching Edith’s life she learned two things – that Edith, like her, was a lesbian, spending her life with a “companion” named Fanny, and that it appeared that Edith’s incarceration was less about mental illness and more about a greedy attorney who wanted to get his mitts on her inheritance. Thus began a lifelong obsession with her aunt. Over the years Anderson tried to learn more about Edith Lake Wilkinson – her art, her life, her tragedy – and to get her recognised by the art world. Finally, reaching the same age Edith was when she was put away, happily married to her spouse Tess, she embarked upon this documentary project and her aunt’s story finally opened up in fascinating and surprising ways. The resulting film, Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson, is a lively, colorful film full of heart, beauty and sadness – part detective story, part history lesson, part love letter to a kindred spirit.

Probably the most wonderful thing about this film, other than the intriguing story, is Anderson herself. A bubbly character with a vibrant red bob and a selection of funky glasses, she makes this so much more entertaining than a film about a woman who was wrongly thrown into an asylum would typically be. Her relationship with Tess, who seems like the yin to her yang, a serene and centred presence, lends a sweet dimension to the film, also providing an interesting mirror to the relationship of Edith and Fanny. As is pointed out in the film, Jane and Tess have what Edith and Fanny were tragically denied: the freedom to be in love.

Packed In The Trunk would be a worthwhile film even if it focused on an untalented relative with the same backstory, but what is surprising is that Edith Lake Wilkinson’s work actually has a significant place in American art history. Edith was part of a group of modernists in Provincetown in the 1910/20s whose names are well known for their work with white line printmaking. Anderson learns in the film that there is compelling evidence, in the dating of a piece she possesses, that her Aunt originated the style. This leads to her being prominently featured in a show at the Provincetown Art Association Museum, a place Anderson had longed to see Edith’s work displayed for some time. It is the smaller show before this, however, held in a building Edith painted many years ago, where Jane and Tess lovingly decorate the walls Edith’s favourite shade of forest green, that feels like the real victory. There are a number of genuinely moving moments in this film but Anderson’s exuberance and playful humour ensures that it never becomes sentimental or maudlin.

The details of Edith’s life are never fully uncovered, but we do learn a few things. Edith Lake Wilkinson studied art, moved to New York, and later spent a lot of time in Provincetown where she was friends with prominent members of the art scene there. Provincetown was a place where bohemians and queer people could live safely – a tolerant and progressive haven. Unfortunately, it seems that all it took to doom Edith to a life of tragedy was an unscrupulous attorney, and at the age of 57, just as she planned to move to Paris to join the thriving art scene there, he had her committed to an asylum in order to steal her money. Her diagnosis: paranoia. Likely she told the staff her lawyer was robbing her blind, but this was the 1920s and nobody listened. Edith remained incarcerated until her death in the 1950s. A tragic tale indeed – an independent and talented woman, cut off in her prime – which makes her grand-niece’s crusade to have her properly recognised all the more poignant.

Packed In The Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson is delightful on a number of levels. Firstly, it charts Edith’s return to her proper place in American art history. Secondly, it provides a window into the life of a queer woman who lived a century ago – and into the strides society has made in the time since then. Thirdly, and for me most importantly, it is a very human, very touching story about love, passion and the ways that those who have gone before us, even if they passed before we ever lived, can still have a profound effect on our lives.

You can watch Packed In The Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson on Wolfe video.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She has written for Curve Magazine, DIVA Magazine, xoJane and The Human Experience. You can find her opinion pieces on Medium. 

The post “Packed In The Trunk” – Part Detective Story, Part History Lesson, Part Love Letter To A Kindred Spirit first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Image: L.J Roberts, Censorship Protest Mask (David Wojnarowicz), embroidery on cotton, 17″ x 15″, 2011

BY Washington Blade

“Queer Objectivity,”  curated by genderqueer artist Kris Grey at the Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland at College Park, is an exhibition that brings together 16 emerging and established artists diverse in their identities, experiences, materials and approaches. Some of the artwork exhibited addresses the body in relation to objects. Others may present the body as an object itself. Still further, some work presents objects as conduit for the body to another realm. There will be a range of artwork displayed including photography, sculpture, performance and new media.

“Recent scholarship in material studies and phenomenology has challenged the traditional notion that human bodies are stable entities divorced from other objects in the material world,” Grey writes in an introductory statement. “The elevation of queer theory to academic prominence and the emergence of new types of feminism have further complicated the separation between personal and political — bodies and objects. Materially, the human body is comprised of separate, interacting, individual elements and forces that are often reduced to being seen as one. So too, the intricacies of bodies and their relationship to other objects, animated or not, get flattened into a binaristic body/other dichotomy.”

The exhibit runs through Dec. 6. The Stamp Gallery is on the first floor of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union-Center for Campus Life at the University of Maryland at College park.

For more information, visit The Stamp Gallery‘s website.

Read more at Washington Blade

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BY KAREN HOUSTON

“Vixen Obscura – El Libro Malo” is a collection of Ivana Ford’s “desires, vanities, obsessions, and demons” in the form of erotic photography. Ford challenges viewers to “understand and appreciate the intrinsic depth and directness of unadulterated images captured on film as opposed to digital.” A majority of the photographs are in color, but a few appear in black and white, emphasizing the light and shadows around the women’s curves. On Ford’s Tumblr, she has a quote by Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama, regarding how he thinks color affects the level of a photograph’s erotic quality: “The reason why I think black and white photography is erotic is completely due to my body’s instinctive response. Monochrome has stronger elements of abstraction or symbolism. Colour is something more vulgar because the colour is making the decisions, it feels vulgar, and that seems to me to be the difference.”

Ford features a range of women in her work—tatted women, redheads with ruby red lipstick, muscular women, pierced women, a pale woman captured in daylight with wild hair, women in bondage, feminine women, women of color, and one woman wearing briefs and a tie which I, um, particularly appreciated. Ultimately, Ford aspired to create a body of work with strong images that would intrigue and entice.

Read more at TaggMagazine.com

Tagg Magazine is a print and online resource for LBT women in the DC Metropolitan and Rehoboth, DE areas.

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This painting by Konstantin Altunin was seized from a St. Petersburg gallery.

BY STEVE WILLIAMS
Care2

Disturbing news from Russia tells that flyers are now being posted encouraging people to denounce those they suspect of spreading “gay propaganda” and that Russian officials have started raiding the homes of human rights activists. Other reports have suggested that Russian landlords have begun posting signs encouraging neighbors of people they suspect to be gay to inform on them.

In somewhat related news, police in Russia also recently seized from a St Petersburg art gallery a painting depicting President Vladimir Putin in women’s underwear combing the hair of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s Prime Minister. The police seized in total four paintings, another of which depicted St Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, a key architect of Russia’s propaganda laws, against a rainbow background. The artist of the works, Konstantin Altunin, has reportedly fled to France in order to seek asylum.

Read more at Care2.com

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“Butch”: one of the stereotypes illustrated by the series.

BY MORGAN WELCH
dot429

Brooklyn-based illustrator Paul Tuller and creative director James Kuczynski have created a series of posters aimed to reclaim queer stereotypes and educate others. Originally, the terms were seen as something negative, ones that gay men (and lesbians) did not want to be labeled as; now, times have changed, and many embrace them. Tuller even notes, “Labels of any kind can be polarizing and exclusive, but at some point the community reclaimed these words as something more. I wanted to celebrate that.”

The six different posters, including a butch lesbian, are now on sale at Society6 for $18 each. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Think B4 You Speak campaign by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The organization raises awareness of the harm related to use of homophobic words and phrases, such as the commonly used “That’s so gay.”

Read more at dot429.com 

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Reno is known for many things, but having a vibrant art scene isn’t typically one of the Biggest Little City in the World’s claim to fame, yet it is catching art aficionados on the hunt for emerging talent or simply art admirers casually touring the town off guard and leaving them pleasantly surprised.

Priced out of traditional art centers in major metropolitans such as Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, artists are finding homes and much needed support in mid-size cities, like Reno, and transforming them.

Reno is growing into a vibrant artists’ community offering artists and art enthusiasts a variety of artist work-live spaces, co-op galleries and studios, galleries, a museum, art organizations, and events mostly centered in the Arts District along the Truckee River.

Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Reno, an old gold and silver mining town that turned into the original “Sin City” — but has long been overshadowed and out done by its more glitzy sister to the south, Las Vegas — has been undergoing a revival for the past five or more years. Much of the revival can be attributed to the artist revolution and Burning Man, which sets up camp just outside of Reno during Labor Day weekend, but the city is also making a concentrated effort to change the past image of the rugged West mining town and bus loads of seniors inhabiting the worn out seats in front of the slot machines.

Artopia
The city is home to an estimated 35 art galleries, not including the five galleries at the University of Nevada at Reno, and two museums.

Reno has become a welcoming place for artists to live and create that has been attracting dancers, painters, photographers, sculptures, and more from all over the United States to the area.

In addition to the variety of places to show their latest works, artists have found a home, literally. For more than a decade, artists have lived in 35 one, two, and three bedroom affordable live-work lofts at Artspace developed by Artspace Projects, Inc. and the Sierra Arts Foundation that was approved by Reno’s Arts and Culture Commission.
Artspace Projects, Inc. is a real-estate developer that has repurposed 22 buildings around the United States for artists to live and work in. The Sierra Arts Foundation is a local organization that promotes art education and supports artists.

Bonuses for the artists are that they get to live in the historical landmarked hotel designed by prominent architect Frederic J. DeLongchamps built in 1926 that overlooks the Truckee River in the Arts District.

To live like a Reno artist, check into The Wildflower Villiage (4395-4275 West 4th St., 775) 747-8848, wildflowervillage@wildflowervillage.com, WildFlowerVillage.com). The Bed and Breakfast and hostel is an artist lover’s haven offering galleries, art studios, a vintage boutique, bike rentals and more on-site. It’s a popular spot for artists’ open studios and retreats and more providing the ultimate Reno art experience.

To further promote Reno’s art scene, Reno added a large scale artist workspace, The Salvagery, started by 12 artists that formed the Salvagery Reno Arts Collective that opened in 2011. The new space allows artists to create their large scale works not only by providing the space, but also by providing the tools.

Reno Art Works (1995 Dickerson Rd., 775-391-0278, RenoArtWorks.org) is another artist collective that houses more than 20 resident artists, theater groups and the 1995 Gallery. Reno visitors can catch monthly art shows, open art nights, classes and drop-in discussions at Reno Art Works or simply by walking around town. The collective’s active youth arts program produces murals and public art instillations around town.

Reno isn’t leaving art up to the adults, clearly, the Holland Project (122 Ridge Street, Suite B, 775-742-1858, hollandreno@gmail.com, HollandReno.org) is a youth led art and music project located in mid-town Reno. Young artists produce art and music shows along with learning about art and music through workshops, community service and activism.

Creative explosion
Reno’s art scene is on fire in June through August starting with NadaDada Motel art event, a weekend long event where Reno artists take over local motels to exhibit their works. NadaDada was this past weekend, but its only the start of Reno’s art season.
In July, Reno is Artown, produces up to 400 plus events throughout the month.
At the end of August and in early September, Burning Man sets up camp just outside of Reno. The following weekend in September, artists throw open their studio doors one last time for Open Studios.

Art path
Art explorers can learn about Reno’s art scene anytime of the year by venturing out to many of the galleries and museums that are located in the heart of old town Reno. The renovated Truckee River Arts District along the Truckee River makes it easy to bike or walk to tour the city’s creative treasures. Officially, the district stretches from Idlewild Park in the west to Lake Street in the east, and from California Avenue on the southern end to West First Street in the north. A map of the district can be downloaded, here.

“The Mona Lisa” on of Reno’s public sculptures (Photo: Courtesy of nileguide.com)

To check out the art scene, several tours of artists’ studios, galleries, and museums are available. Artouring, a part of Reno’s Open Studios, offers a walking tour that takes art enthusiasts behind the scenes into artists’ studios in Reno-Tahoe region. Reno has a growing public art collection that can be viewed by walking around the city or by taking a walking tour of the city’s public art collection presented by the city’s Arts and Culture Division (775-825-9255 or 775-334-2417, info@renoriver.org). Reno Public Art Walking Tours takes guests along one of two tour routes (guests can view the artworks at the Downtown Collection or the ReTRAC collection) during the 50 minute tours that begin at the City Center Plaza, across from City Hall, (N. Virginia and 1st Streets) on the first Friday of the month.

Another option for a guided tour for Reno visitors in the city at the beginning of the month, you can catch the monthly Artwalk in the District presented by the West Street Market and the Riverwalk Merchants Association that runs from the beginning of spring through the end of fall. Artwalk in the District is the right price, free, every first Thursday of the month from 4 p.m. – 9 p.m. Be prepared to dance, the walk will be filled with food, drink, live music, and salsa lessons. A guide can be picked up at a number of Riverwalk or West Street Market merchants.

Art affectionados can develop your own tour of Reno’s creative scene and either bike, walk, or catch the Sierra Spirit (a free shuttle service that runs from the University of Nevada, Reno and the Truckee River Arts District).

Art by bicycle
While Super G was off teeing off on one of Reno’s 100 golf courses, I opted to create my own tour of Reno’s art scene by bicycle. There is nothing like a casual bike ride checking out local artwork on a sunny day.

It is the best way to get around old town Reno, in spite of a lack of bike lanes and racks, the ride is worth it.

I checked out my bike that I brought from San Francisco, Calif. from the bell desk at the Silver Legacy (407 N Virginia St., 775-325-7401, SilverLegacyReno.com). If you don’t want to bring your own two wheels, you can rent a bike at Sierra Adventures at the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino’s Adventure Desk.

Be prepared to pay to enter museums and to make a small donation to some of the smaller museums. Most artist co-ops and galleries are free to enter.

My first stop on the tour, the Nevada Museum of Art (160 W. Liberty St., 775-329-3333, NevadaArt.org) a short six minute ride from the Silver Legacy. I parked my bike at the bike rack at the back of the museum’s parking lot.

I was surprised by the myriad of artistic samplings from around the world and local California and Nevada artists on display at the museum, the oldest cultural institution in Nevada. The museum recently launched a long-term collaboration with New York’s El Museo del Barrio, with the exhibit “Voces y Visiones” running through July 7. The museum is also showcasing “A Real Van Gogh? An Unsolved Art World Mystery” running through August 25; the “Amerique Powell: Explosions and Possibilities” running through September 1; and “Erika Osborne: The Back of the Map” running through November 17, to name a few of the exhibits currently on display. The traveling exhibits are only a portion of the museum’s offerings. Its highlights are its collection of local and regional artists.

Before leaving the museum, I grabbed lunch at Café Musee downstairs at the museum and checked out the shop. Café Musee is a great lunch spot offering up gourmet sandwiches and soups.

Leaving my bike at the museum, I walked around the corner to Arte Italia (442 Flint St., 775-333-0313, ArteItaliaUSA.com), an Italian art museum that also has an Italian culinary art institute at the Joseph Giraud House. It was a surprise to discover this museum in the turn-of-the-century Colonial Revival style as it was a gem that wasn’t on my list, but suggested to me by a woman at the front desk at the Nevada Museum of Art.
Italy enthusiasts will enjoy the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Italia, a photographic tour of Italy’s 47 World Heritage Sites running September through November I happened to catch the “Michele Cascella — Un Pittore Senza Tempo” exhibit last fall, but the museum has been closed during other visits where I attempted to see “Beauty and the Beasts”, “Titans of Venice”, and other shows. It is a museum definitely not to be missed while in Reno.

I returned to NMA grabbed my bike and headed up the street and around the corner heading towards the river to the VSA Nevada at the Lake Mansion (250 Court St., 775-826-6100, VSANevada.org). The gallery displays artwork created by disabled individuals in the rooms including the sitting area and the parlor on the first floor of the historic mansion, which was moved several times before settling into its current location. There are a wide variety of works from acrylic and oil paintings of abstract and landscapes to ornaments to pottery, and more. The quality of work is quite high with some rivaling intermediate and advanced artists’ works. Pieces of artwork can be purchased off the floor and 100 percent of the proceeds go directly to the artist.

Upon leaving VSA Nevada, I headed toward the river to Sierra Arts (17 S. Virginia St., 775-329-2787, Sierra-Arts.org). I parked my bike in front of the Wild River Grille (17 S. Virginia St., 775-2847455, BestRenoRestaurant.com), where there was a bike rack. The gallery is an eclectic collection of paintings and photography, but leans more towards photography by emerging artists. I was quite pleased by the photography and the fact that a good number of the artists on display were women.

After wandering around the gallery it was time for me to head back to the hotel to meet Super G to get ready for dinner at the 4th Street Bistro, Reno’s first class restaurant that prompts locals to oooh and aaah any time it is mentioned.

It was a perfect ending to a day of art and great food and drinks in Reno.

Reno artist and former gallery owner Meredith Tanzer contributed to this article.

Originally published by GirlsThatRoam.com

The post Reno is Artopia first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Washington DC artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer poses with her work “Desires for Connectivity: Shauna & Jaime,” oil on canvas. (Photo via SwedishScene.com)

BY ERIN DURKIN
Washington Blade

The Fridge, a Washington DC art and performance space, hosts lesbian artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer in her first solo show since 2007 called “Intimate Network.” She will give an artist talk and live mural painting Saturday at noon.

The subjects of Thalhammer’s work are people from her personal life, family and friends in the LGBT community. The art asserts ideas about civil rights, marriage and equality using rainbow palettes in large oil and pastel rich portraits. The show continues through Feb. 24.

Read more at Washington Blade

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Imagine you are cleaning out your attic one day and find that dusty old box of photos you have stored deep in the corner. You know the one. Now imagine picking through each photo, smiling with fond memories. Then, before you even have time to gear up, it happens. You come across that one picture you forgot all about. The one of you sitting there on the front stoop all ruddy and dirty and happy as a clam. It all makes sense now. You think: I should have known back then.

This, or some variation of it, is what one imagines the contributors to Paul Vitagliano’s new compilation “Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing up Gay” (Quirk Books, 2012) felt when they looked with fresh adult perspective on the various “telling” moments captured in their childhood photos. To see themselves, albeit often much smaller and with more hair, reflected back in the timeless moments of their youth proved to be quite the profound experience for each author.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

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We were pretty miffed when we received a press release for Taras Polataiko’s performance art piece, “Sleeping Beauties,” at the National Art Museum of Ukraine. The idea of five women feigning sleep on a white satin bed, waiting for a kiss from some guy with an Eastern European mullet, was slightly stomach-lurching. Then we learned that the volunteer princesses and their eager spit-swapping companions were contractually bound, required to marry each other if the beauty in question opened her eyes after the kiss. What kind of guys would participate in the exhibition, and what would happen when the women opened their eyes after an especially compelling smooch?

What we thought was an archaic fairy tale construction has delivered quite the unexpected ending, however. On September 5th, the first Sleeping Beauty to wake from her slumber opened her eyes to a princess charming, not a prince. That’s right, the traditional tale of a heterosexual “happily ever after” gave way to a gay version that ends with two damsels instead of one (and neither is in distress this time around).

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

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LGBT artists have continually challenged mainstream understandings of gender and sexuality, and the impact of this on our society is immeasurable. Like artists of the 1980s who worked tirelessly to bring attention to HIV/AIDS in America, artists today maintain their roles as leading figures striving for change and cultural awareness.

As Pride Month comes to a close, we would like to showcase a number of LGBT artists who have influenced the progress of art and society throughout the past hundred years or so. While this list is in no way comprehensive, we hope to highlight some of the many creative individuals who as members of the LGBT community have put their unique stamp on art history.

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

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