Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

How to begin?  It's always difficult to start a new series of art works .... researching and experimenting and making samples  Hopefully, these samples I made this week will form the basis of a series of  mixed media artworks I have been planning for  a couple of months. This is my main  "Borders"  assignment for a twelve month Masterclass I have been studying online this year.  All will be revealed in posts over the next month or so. As you can see from the photos, the underlying comment is feminist. I was very lucky to find   and purchase beautifully stitched corsets, complete with boning to work with.   The rationale for this work?  Considerable achievements towards gender equality have been made throughout history. Many ‘societal’ borders have been crossed. Nevertheless, barriers guarding gender stereotypes and the culture which surrounds them remain firm. The appalling statistics of domestic violence, the un...

Madeline McDowell Breckenridge c 1900    As today, 10 December is United Nations Human Rights Day, I have decided to include a classic Christmas food, baked ham,  with recipes from the Suffrage Cook Book. The cook book is  a collection of recipes and domestic tips supplied by women who were also  activists in the Votes for Women campaigns in the United States.  Here is a sample of the tone of this remarkable cookbook  from Julia Lathrop 1858-1932,    an American social reformer in the area of education, social policy, and children's welfare addressed to the "editress"  of the book ....   from  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26323/26323-h/26323-h.htm Will the following be of any use for the Suffrage Cook Book? Is it not strange how custom can stale our sense of the importance of everyday occurrences, of the ability required for the performance of homely, everyday services? Think of the power of organization re...