Worlds Within

I can't believe I forgot to post this here!  Time has truly gotten away from me.  Without further ado...

Worlds Within
Art show by Jennifer Weigel with workshop by Sarah Wilson of Sustainable Cycles
YWCA Cambridge, 7 Temple St., Cambridge, MA
September 3 - 29, 2016

Worlds Within will be on display at YWCA Cambridge, 7 Temple St., Cambridge, MA through September 2016.
The art show features mixed media works by Jennifer Weigel, a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Somerville, MA, whose works for this show are heavily influenced by Miriam Shapiro’s Femmage and Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party.  The show includes an advocacy campaign to raise awareness of the need for feminine care products & diapers among women’s shelters and public spaces.  Bring a donation of a new, unused product for YWCA Cambridge and enter the raffle to win an original artwork(s).  All show attendees are welcome to enter once without donating anything; donors who bring products for YWCA Cambridge can enter once more per item donated.

Sarah Wilson of Sustainable Cycles will conduct a brief workshop on eco-friendly alternatives to traditional femcare products on Sunday, Sept. 11 from 1 - 3 PM at YWCA Cambridge.
The workshop will feature information on LunaPads cloth pads and DivaCup menstrual cups as well as other products.  A handful of new, unused menstrual cups will be given away to workshop attendees, first come first served.

There will be a "Hey, Sugar!” closing candy reception on Thursday, Sept. 29 from 7 - 9 PM in conjunction with the raffle of artworks which will happen at 8:30 PM.  Ticketholders need not be present at the raffle to win but it is highly recommended since artworks will be offered by choice to the winning ticket holders present.  Weigel will raffle off one artwork for every 10 items donated to YWCA, while supplies last.  Raffle items must be picked up in person on Sept. 29 or Sept. 30 or be forfeited.

Vagina Monologues pictures

Here are some photos of the table setup during the Vagina Monologues at University of Missouri - St. Louis.  I included The Goddess Within and Jewelry Set with some information about my other work, bracelets and Life Blood catalogs.

Vagina Monologues

I will be setting up a table with some of my menstruation-themed art this Friday (tomorrow) at the University of Missouri - St. Louis' 2014 presentation for the Vagina Monologues.  I will have menstrual cycle bracelets & Life Blood Exhibit catalogs for sale, and will post photos after the event.  Please feel free to drop by if you're coming to the performance.

Bloodletting Installation

Here are some photos of the Bloodletting installation at Blue Jacket Books in Xenia, Ohio.  The installation will be up until August so please be sure to check it out if you're in the area.  A hearty thank you to everyone who came out for the opening, and especially for the wonderful vagonut by Alice Miller (pictured below with a photo from before the reception).

Bloodletting
solo art installation also featuring Wombs by Carlynn Forst
Blue Jacket Books
30 S. Detroit St.
Xenia, OH
March - Aug. 2014

Bloodletting Opening

I just finished installing my Bloodletting piece at Blue Jacket Books in Xenia, OH.  Please feel free to drop by tomorrow and check it out.  And a hearty thank you to my husband Charles Wilbur for all of your help!

First annual "Bring your daughters (and sons) to art" day!
Blue Jacket Books
30 S. Detroit St.
Xenia, OH
Sat., March 1, 2014, 2 - 5 PM
Check out Jennifer Weigel's new Bloodletting art installation.  Light refreshments.
Installation will be on display until August 2014.

Bloodletting Flyer

As mentioned before, I am getting ready for my biggest installation to date: Bloodletting at Blue Jacket Books in Xenia, OH.  I look forward to posting photos of the work installed and invite anyone who wishes to do so to meet me there and help with installation.  Here's a flyer for the show, featuring my tampon jewelry from July.

Bloodletting
solo art installation also featuring Wombs by Carlynn Forst
Blue Jacket Books
30 S. Detroit St.
Xenia, OH
March - Aug. 2014

Bloodletting Installation Preview

I am about to embark on my largest scale installation to date, upcoming in late February at Blue Jacket Books in Xenia, Ohio.  The installation, called Bloodletting, will further my explorations into menstruation and female reproductive health.  The creation of the work will be a sort of performance unto itself, and I modified another found dress (actually purchased on a previous trip to Ohio) with faux flowers for the experience.  I have included some preview photos here.

More information about Bloodletting will be forthcoming after the fact.  It is a truly rare opportunity to be able to create such a large-scale work themed around such a taboo topic as menstruation, and I am most grateful to Lawrence Hammar for inviting me to do so.  Aspects of the installation will be included throughout the space to further viewer interaction, with the entire experience presented in such a way that it must be seen in person in order to be fully absorbed.

My goal is to create a "destination installation" of sorts, a large-scale artwork of considerable scope in an unexpected setting that draws people to bear witness and prompts discussion - we shall see how it goes...  That's a very lofty goal and just having such a work remain on view for any length of time is a big first step.  So here's hoping...

Moon Goddess Exhibit

Channeling My Inner Goddess
Portrait of Jennifer Weigel, in her Moon Goddess attire with Relic from The Goddess Within, photograph by Aunia Kahn.

Jennifer Weigel will have a new advocacy-based work themed around demystifying menstruation in Moon Goddess Exhibit with The Goddess Within, celebrating the Goddess that resides within each and every woman.


Please check out her work for the show by following these gallery links.
The Goddess Within
Prints
Bracelets

Moon Goddess Exhibit
curated by Aunia Kahn & Russell Moon
Modern Eden Gallery
403 Francisco St.
San Francisco, CA
Oct. 2012
Reception: Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012

Fannta Drummer

Fannta Drummer joined Life Blood Exhibit with the Gallery Visio show. Here is her piece, Parvati, which can currently be seen in the show at Black Door Gallery in Cape Girardeau. Smaller prints of the piece are also available. You can learn more about Fanta Drummer on her website here.

Artist's Statement:
Women from all over the world adorn their bodies in one fashion or another. In my image, I wanted to draw attention to different forms of beauty. The physical markings on Parvati’s body symbolize beauty marks and her regal, black skin represents the power of melanin.

Parvati is definitely a celebratory piece. She not only celebrates the strength of Nubian women, but she also celebrates wealth through tradition. Unfortunately, in our society black women are not viewed as objects of beauty, but more so as sex objects. This perspective, which began during slavery, is still prevalent today. It is important that audiences digest positive representations of black women in order to counteract the negative ones circulating in Western art and the media.

I took a fine point, black Sharpie and sketched the image. My goal was to provide enough detail so that the viewer could discern that the figure was a woman. Then, I scanned the sketch into Adobe Photoshop and used the program to reverse the colors. The black lines became white lines and the white background became black. Next, I added color to the beads to draw attention to the top of the image and to guide the eye from top to bottom.

Janiece Senn - More New Artwork

Here is a picture of Janiece Senn's newest piece Legacy (With All That I Am). This piece is the culmination of much of the soul searching evident in Senn's other works for Life Blood Exhibit and I am honored to include it among them.

Janiece Senn - More New Artwork

Here's a photo of Janiece Senn's newest piece, PMS.

Janiece Senn - Artist's Statement

In exploring the theme “Lifeʼs Blood” it had so many meanings and connections that my collective works might seem to jump around a bit.

First and foremost is the connection of being a mother. Only women have periods and being a woman for me, in my set of experiences meant that I had to bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, cut the grass, repair broken toys and hearts and cars and homes, on my own. My daughters father left us with no form of support and I for most of my life worked several jobs at a time, many of them hard labor so as to make more per hour but still having to work an extra 20 hrs a week bar tending or waiting tables to do it on my own. I say on my own but my mother helped me with watching my daughter a lot and all the other things associated with raising children, i.e. food, clothing, stability. The problem with that is that she always held it against me as a failure. Even as I put myself through school and worked 60 hr/week and won several scholarships, I was still a failure at being a mother, and in many ways I agree with her. There were many days I saw my daughter an hour in the morning and that was it. Ultimately I failed big time for many years of her life not being able to be “it all” and falling into depression and substance abuse. But she remained my gravity and it was for love of her alone that I pulled myself out of it. My daughter doesn't think I failed so bad but children are very forgiving.

Another aspect to me is related to the first aspect “a womanʼs work is never done”. It's about being plugged into a machine I have no control of and can't detach from. I don't feel I'm alone in my generation to feel this either. I think it is sort of a trend that developed with woman's liberation and women in the work force but still having to maintain all of the household chores from before. It took a few decades for women to start pushing back on that and insisting men start cooking, cleaning and actually raising children. I think men are more and more enjoying being involved in those day to day things that strengthen the bonds between them and their children and feel that this is a good thing.

The final and much more depressing aspect that Lifeʼs Blood invoked in me was for the first time ever to deal with my experiences as a child survivor of sexual, emotional and physical abuse from my father, through my art. I intentionally never allowed him into that place so sacred to me as it served as the door he couldnʼt force open or make ugly and I felt some power in keeping him away. I am a much better person than he could ever have ruined though and Iʼm not afraid of him any more. Scarred yes, but as odd as I know it sounds to some, I am proud of those scars because Iʼve overcome so much and can still love. I choose to believe that everything, including that, happens for a reason and I have chosen that reason to be making me a stronger better person. I believe this because to just believe I was unlucky gives me nothing to grow and heal from. I can even find a tiny touch of forgiveness for him if I look at the soul purpose of his life was to make mine hell so that my soul could learn to forgive even the worst of crimes and to allow each other to fail and be human. I have gotten pretty good at forgiving others their trespasses, but not yet attained the nirvana of self-forgiveness. Maybe I can find some of that too in my further examination of “Lifeʼs Blood”

In conclusion Iʼd like to thank Jennifer Weigel for her friendship and support and for letting me butt in on this project that captured my imagination.

Here are some images of Janiece Senn's work.

Janiece Senn - Artwork Preview

Family Secrets

Dear God, I really need a baby monkey. Amen

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Here is a preview of some works that Janiece Senn has made in response to the theme of the show. These pieces reflect on Senn's history and experience as a woman to "bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, cut the grass, repair broken toys and hearts and cars and homes, on my own."

Please be sure to check out Janiece Senn's artist's statement.

More Artists

Life Blood Exhibit welcomes more St. Louis artists.

Dail Chambers
Virginia Dragschutz
Connie LaFlam
Janiece Senn
Jeane Vogel

Core Artists

Here is a list of the core group of artists who started the exhibition. These artists are represented in the catalog and were featured in the Preview Party at Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts and the grand opening at the St. Louis Community College - Florissant Valley Contemporary Art Gallery. To learn more about their approaches, read their statements and see some examples of their works, please visit the Life Blood Exhibit website.

Lisa Becker
Danielle Correll
Annette Crymes
Marsha Heck
Christine Ilewski
Aunia Kahn
Arlene Ligori
Barbara Merlotti
Janice Nesser
Pat Owoc
Roxanne Phillips
Evie Shucart
Jennifer Weigel