Mesa students show their support for Women’s History month by displaying their art in the LRC.
The art includes paintings, drawings, and sculptures that depict the emotions of how the artists feel about gender and women in society.
The themes range from a 1920s era painting of a woman protesting for women’s suffrage to a woman who has bruises all over her face from being beaten to a drawing full of shoes.
“Women’s History Month is a celebration that honors pioneering women who fought for women’s right to vote, working women’s rights to better conditions, women’s right to their bodies,” said Alessandra Moctezuma, Mesa’s Art Gallery Director.
Seventeen students participated in the exhibit and most of the works included are from Professor Leah Younker’s Life Drawing class from Fall 2006.
“In this class she encourages students to think about gender issues as they develop their drawings working from a live model,” Moctezuma said. “Professor Younker submitted excellent examples and I narrowed the number of works because of space limitations.”
Mesa student Megan Perry painted a striking painting that reflects the pain of domestic violence. It is of a young woman who has bruises and blood all over the left side of her face. On the top of the painting “But he loves me” is written in cursive.
“In this painting, I attempted to open a dialogue with the viewer, to confront them with the reality that this could be a mother, a sister, a child, a friend or a loved one,” Perry said in her artist statement.
The way Perry portrayed the girls face evokes a feeling of sadness and realness. The girl looks innocent, like she is pleading for someone to save her, amongst the devastating reality of an abusive relationship.
“She uses intense colors and bold, powerful strokes of the brush to evoke a torrent of feeling, a powerful condemnation of violence; beauty that emerges from a painful societal ill,” Moctezuma said.
The only painting that reflects Women’s History is one of a woman protesting for voting rights in the 1920s. The painting depicts the hardships that women encountered before they had equal rights. It portrays a pioneering time in the history of women. The painting doesn’t have a lot of details, in fact the people don’t really have faces, but the message is one of power and hope as the woman holds up a sign that says “Votes for women” in the middle of a street.
“This being the first time a woman has had a real shot at the presidency I thought it appropriate to do a piece on the woman’s suffrage movement,” said the artist A.K. Miles in the artist statement.
Several of the works of art use nudity to express the female body. The facial features are very realistic, from the wrinkles on the face to the details of the eyes. The women do not have perfect bodies, and most of them are elderly, but the artists give them an empowering look.
There are also paintings from Professor Lynn Engstrom and Barbara Sexton’s art classes. Professor Angel Adame’s Sculpture class has two sculptures on display.
One of the sculptures created by Orisya Barua looks like something out of a museum. There are no arms, legs or head on the sculpture. It looks aged because the head and arms were cracked off and the edges are left rough and uneven.
The art is on display for the month of March on the second floor of the LRC.
“The LRC is an ideal venue to exhibit the work of our students and faculty,” Moctezuma said. “Hundreds of our students and visitors to the campus are able to view the work. It gives them insight into the variety and excellence of artwork being created in our classes.”