Link to What's New ThisWeek Answerability in Color, Line, and Form

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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: October 25, 2003
Latest Update: November 25, 2003
E-Mail Icon jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Index of Topics on Site Answerability in Color, Line, and Form

  1. The Statue of Liberty and Our History

    1. Illocutionary Discourse or War and Revenge?
      This page commemorates September 11, 2002, as the Statue of Liberty stands strong against the fires of the World Trade Center bombing. The nation felt many currents of fear, patriotism, resolve, pride, dismay over signals missed and misunderstood. We invite you to express your feelings as you recall them.

    2. Answering Received History: Imagining a Black Statue of Liberty
      Many of us were unaware that the original inspiration for the Statue of Liberty by Bartholdi was never known. Bartholdi wanted to honor the contribution of women to liberty, democracy, and freedom, and it is known that at some point he made drawings for a work that was never cast of an Egyptian peasant woman. Egypt's location in North Africa leads us to realize that at some point, Bartholdi could have contemplated the honoring of African women. Was there ever a consideration that the Statue of Liberty might be of a Black Woman? We will never know. But we recognize how much received history, in other words, the idea that whites discovered, built, and democratized this land, remains unchallenged by other versions. With this page we invite you to contemplate what the Statue of Liberty might have been like as a Black Woman. And we ask you to recall that received history almost always reflects the story of the dominant ruling majority. Open your imaginary.

    3. Illocutionary Discourse on Dismay Over Received History
      On this page you are invited to share your feelings as the Statue of Liberty and Our Imaginary of a Black Statue of Liberty exchange their claims of the justice of choices on liberty made by the United States over its history. Their received history is very different, and we cannot change the past. But the future is ours to create by revisiting our history and the ideas and values that shaped it.

    4. Cuba, Torn The Problem with Paradigms
      I was told and accepted naively that the rooster is an icon for the macho man of Cuba. There was some additional evidence in the art work that that might be real. Here, we invite you to color the rooster as tearing a piece of the Cuban flag. Remember that the flag is only a symbol, not the country itself. Could it be that the rooster wants to make Cuba better by tearing out some of what is not working? Could it be that the rooster is angry at the loss of freedom to dissent? Could it be that the rooster is frustrated and can't think of a more constructive way to proceed? When the U.S. invaded Iraq, Fidel Castro locked up 70 or so dissidents, giving them 28 years in prison for their dissent. Many questions of answerability lie in this situation.

  2. Mudflaps and Naked Ladies

    1. The Infamous Naked Lady Mud Flaps
      Sputter, flutter, and finally splatter. Now that's better. We invite you to have your own reactions to the naked lady of mud flap fame. We are splutter and fluttering and splattering over an ideal that diminishes us and turns into sexual objects. Personally, I like Katie's suggested drawing for that. Just come one step closer . . . .

    2. Finding Belly Wisdom"

      On this page, we invite you to explore women's perceptions of their real bodies and the wisdom they gain for doing so. Doubt that these will end up as mudflaps, but they're still the mother of them all.

    3. Katie's Protest Against the Naked Lady Mud Flaps
      On this page, Katie Williams invites you to share in her protest of the naked lady mudflaps. The naked lady is an ideal image made into an icon as a sex symbol. That is such a small part of what woman is, Bartholdi could never have conceived of the statue of liberty to honor a sex symbol that looks suspiciously anorexic and/or bulimic and/or too young for the role. jeanne

    4. Katie's Suggestion for a "Much Better Picture than the Mud Flap Gals"
      It took a while to turn this into a coloring sheet, but it was worth it. What a wonderful find, Katie. Her left leg has come through her torn jeans as the gun rests peacefully on her lap. But I don't think I'd risk turning her into a sexual object.

  3. The Pimp Goblet

    1. Jeanne's version of Kimberly's Pimp Goblet: The Chalice of Love and Caring
      Like the naked lady mud flaps the pimp goblets are a cultural icon aimed at portraying women as sexual objects. In this painting I turned the tables on them by seeing it, painting it, and treating it as a sacred chalice. There's more than one way to name the objects in our lived experience. jeanne

    2. Growing Up and Letting Go

      1. Growing Up and Letting Go
        On Halloween we think of our worst nightmares about letting our young ones go freely into the world out there. It's a pretty scary place. We invite you, both those who are growing up and those who are letting go, to share the crazy feelings that come from this tension of trying to know how and when to release you. Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos offered us icons of scariness, the unknown, our fears about that point beyond which we can no longer protect you, but just invite you warmly back to our circle of comfort, 16 years of age offers us the icon of "growing up" and the car, yes, the car. Added Friday, October 31, 2003.

        Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, October 2003.
        "Fair use" encouraged.