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Claudia - "Nightime Prayer"
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Doris - "No Regrets"
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Pamela - "Eyes Speak"
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Lynda - "Looking Left"
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Gerda Clasica
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Puberty and pregnancy, childbirth and fatigue, injuries and surgeries, working and aging. These and more inscribe themselves into a woman's flesh, redefine her contours, weigh her down, and lift her up.
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Her body may signal promise or survival - or trial's struggle `twixt the two. It is her domain and her mirror - but circumscribed, often, by standards of appearance that deprive her of self-confidence and self-love.
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Her body is biography, really; and society - that ruthless judge - misguides us into devaluing the ways life events are recorded on a woman's skin; encouraging her to "white-out," with botox and in shame, the storied evidence of her progress through life.
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Like many figurative artists, I have long photographed women as reference for paintings and drawings; and I have always sought to honor and celebrate the women portrayed in those works.
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In “Bodies Mapping Time” this communication is more direct, the women's voices less filtered. I work with each model in the late morning light of my studio: a few chairs, some pillows, two bolts of fabric, my camera on a tripod, and the magic that each woman brings to her session.
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We work collaboratively, choosing poses together, chatting as we work; and then each woman selects those portraits she feels most effectively convey who she is. This heretical approach - where the model partners with the artist, where the sitter selects her portrait - counter-intuitively affords greater artistic freedom, permitting me to witness (and hopefully capture) each woman's fullest expression of her self.
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In a sense, “Bodies Mapping Time” is really two exhibitions: an intimate, celebratory conversation among women; and a beneficent, consciousness-raising invitation to men to reconsider popular culture's commercialized and eroticized portrayals of women.
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I hope this ongoing project - now encompassing the participation of more than twenty women, ranging in age from 30 to 80 years old - enriches and helps jump-start these important conversations.
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J Michael Walker
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Mary Frances - "Breathing Light"
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