Instead of gardening and enjoying the (hot) weather, I spent most of the late summer putting together a project that is very dear to my heart: the group of women ‘of a certain age’ that make their art here, at the Stutz. More than a year ago, I began to realize what a great asset in training and experience we, the Association, has in these talented, resourceful, and courageous women. Ten of us came together to build an exhibition in October of last year, called Voices: Women of a Certain Age. It was well received, so the group decided to do another in October 2011. Early on I wanted to do something special to enhance this year’s exhibit, which we decided should be about ‘the skin we’re in’, however that translates to us (spiritual skin, artistic skin, physical skin), but all about reaching and growing and figuring out who we are, as artists, as we accumulate years of experience.
I had this wacky idea that we could do a calendar, since there were twelve of us—that we could do something different from the ‘calendar girl’ thing that had been done so much. I had a vision that we could be photographed nude (or semi), and digitally merged with our work. The idea kept evolving as we met and planned, and, the summer was spent discussing all the issues around how we feel about our bodies, and whether that has anything to do with our art. While I found photographers, scheduled photo shoots, the twelve of us met and discussed the many different aspects of the germ of an idea that I had over snacks and cocktails. It was a democratic process. For the most part we made all our decisions together. And we had such fun! Getting to know each other better, and struggling to get to know our selves better. In the end we came to the conclusion that our bodies are just that…vessels that hold all that we are, but are not who we are. The journey that we took produced twelve beautiful pieces of art that reflect our personalities– each piece became a third thing, that is neither the photograph or the original piece of work. These new pieces compose our calendar.
– Leigh Dunnington Jones
