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Liking Your Own Shape

05.16.2022 by Barbara Grant //

It took the scenic view of a beach in Hawaii to provoke me to action with my artwork. It wasn’t the beauty of the sand, sea and sky. Not this time. It was 30 years ago…

I was sitting on a hillside in the shade to protect my fair skin, a tablet on my knees, sketching families enjoying the open air. I noticed a woman enter the scene like walking skin and bones. She carefully set up her space with her beach towel. I could not avert my eyes, capturing poses quickly as if she was a model in a live drawing session. I was riveted!

Afterward… holiday over, I did my homework. I knew what I’d witnessed did not seem healthy. It had been an intense experience for me. I immersed myself to learn all I could. Back then the research was just beginning to come out regarding eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. I learned about body image and how difficult it is to escape the social influences that teach us to look in the mirror with critical eyes. I acquired an understanding of how control issues can intertwine with eating disorders and mental illness. And sadly, I became aware of the deadly consequences in many cases.

Anorexic Sunbather

What resulted from my immersion in this fact-finding exercise was a small body of artwork from my studio – an installation* displayed in an exhibit, which included an Altar piece, drawings of The Anorexic Sunbather and my 20-page illustrated booklet entitled Liking Your Own Shape.

It was a long time ago, but I still remember that at the opening reception various women approached me about the subject of eating disorders. Several quietly wrote notes in my comment book sharing their feelings. I specifically remember one woman, a friend of a mother who’s daughter suffered from anorexia; her sad eyes met mine after reading through my booklet, which was displayed on a music stand. Those are the kind of connections you don’t forget.

My Altar piece, was destroyed by water damage in storage some years ago, but the drawings survived. I came across a yellowed copy of the booklet in my files recently. Paging through I mused at the illustrations that flowed out of my psyche with such force. And I realized this subject is still relevant. I decided to have copies printed to bring it back to the present and into the future. It is available in my shop in three sizes.

Liking Your Own Shape
Liking Your Own Shape
Liking Your Own Shape
Liking Your Own Shape

* I’ve learned the Gallery is no longer exists at 1633 N. Damen Avenue in Chicago. But during the summer of 1991 it was Gallery 1633 Show 8: Artists: Aimee Chappell, Barbara Grant, Joseph Rodeder, Robin Bresemann, Micheal Hopkins, Charley Whittle, Wendle Yudis, Paul Lorenx Gallery Artists: Bill Boyce, Montana, Leslie Lenz, Kirk Smith

Categories // Art for worthy causes, Creative Process Tags // art community, art therapy, beach scenes, body image, eating disorders, view of self

Art of Poetry

10.29.2019 by Barbara Grant //

This weekend I’m taking part in the Art of Poetry Soiree, a celebration and fundraiser for Milwaukee SCORES.* This is the fifth year I’ve accepted this invitation to choose a poem written by one of the soccer-player poets in this wonderful program. Area artists are asked to chose from a list of poems the children have created in hopes that it will inspire a work of art to donate to the auction.

I chose a poem by 8-year old Lily which touched me immediately. I’d recently finished reading two books about trees: a novel by Richard Powers called The Overstory and a non-fiction by arborist William Bryant Logan called Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees. Both are excellent! Presently, many trees in our neighborhood are needing to be cut down because they are diseased, which breaks my heart. I love trees… and I love what the America Scores program does to help kids get on the right path.

The title of Lily’s poem is “Trees”:

Trees are tall
Trees are short
Some are maple
Some are oak
Leaves are yellow
Leaves are green
These are the beautiful trees I have seen

Book of Trees
Book of Trees

*America SCORES is a transformational after-school program which educates and prepares 1st-5th grade students to lead healthy and confident lives. For more information: America Scores in Milwaukee

Categories // Art for worthy causes, Limelights on my friends Tags // books, children, poetry, soccer, trees

Color Me Poetry

11.27.2018 by Barbara Grant //

Blue Whale
Blue Whale*

Color Me Poetry (by Aldo, age 10)

There was a blue whale.
He was as hungry as the sky was for the water.
Soon he saw a red chili.
It was like fireworks (boom, boom) that went up into the sky.
Soon the blue whale got the chili and became purple like grapes and bumpy like a chameleon.

* Blue Whale 2018 watercolor painting by Barbara Grant was donated to today’s fundraiser for America Scores in Milwaukee 

Categories // Art for worthy causes

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