Feb 17, 2012 - My Junction Women's Art Round Robin

For the past three years, I've been part of an informal art group that basically makes projects together by passing them around at 3 week intervals, over the course of several months. The first year, we did altered books, each contributing pages using a variety of visual media. The second year, we wrote entries in each others' books. This year, we decided to go 3D, with shadow boxes, or dioramas. Themes have ranged from "the macabre", to "happy places" to "endurance."

I don't want to give too much away, because some of the boxes that make up my project will be on display during the upcoming women's exhibit at Wise Daughters (see www.wisedaughters.com for March 2 opening party details!). But I have to share this much...

My theme is "gender," inspired in part by the controversy last summer around baby Storm, whose parents are choosing not to disclose the baby's gender. As a lesbian and a feminist, I probably think about gender more than some people anyway.

Everyone had to tackle this theme in whatever way she saw fit, filling an empty box like this:

Today I received the box pictured below, filled, as you can see, with a plant that rather splendidly represents the theme.

This box is not exactly mountable on the wall, but will be on display during the women's show nonetheless. I can't even tell you how much this plant improved my day. It's been a strange and frustrating week, in fact, but this outrageous plant is just the thing to wrap up my Friday on a positive note. It's Family Day weekend, but let's leave the discussion about what makes a family for another blog...

Thanks to Anita for the inspired submission to the project!