Portfolio > Educating Alice

harris question
graphite and watercolor
18.5 x 48.5
2019
$4000
Doormat Eve
acrylic and oil on floorcloth
0.5x39x35 inches
2019
$2000
Doormat Ashtoreth
acrylic and oil on floorcloth
0.5x38x26 inches
2019
$2000
Raleigh Municipal Collection
graphite and watercolor
18.5 x 48.5 inches
2017
Lesson 1
graphite and oil on claybord
12x7.5 inches
2016
$500
Lesson 2
graphite and oil on claybord
11.5x7 inches
2016
$500
Lesson 3
graphite and oil on claybord
11.5x7 inches
2016
$500
sacred feminine
graphite, watercolor on claybord
11.5x7 inches
2017
$500
Lessons Married
graphite and watercolor
30 x 18.5 inches
2017
$3000
Lessons Pregnant
graphite and watercolor
30 x 18.5 inches
2017
$3000
Lessons Interrupted
graphite and watercolor
30 x 18.5 inches
2017
$3000
Lessons Constitution
graphite, watercolor on claybord
18.5x48.5
2017
$4000
Lessons Constitution, detail
graphite, watercolor on claybord
12x12 inches
2017
venus sacred feminine
graphite, watercolor on claybord
18.5x48.5
2017
$4000
Inanna
acrylic and oil on canvas
32 x 92 inches
2017
Adath Doormat
oil (floor cloth)
40.5x33 inches
2017
$3500
Asherah
oil on paper
30x22.25
2017
$3000
Astarte
oil on paper
14.75x10.25
2017
$700
Anath
oil on paper
22.25x15 inches
2017
$1500
Lessons Local
graphite and watercolor
18.5x11.5 inches
2017
sacred
graphite, watercolor on claybord
18.5x11.5 inches
2017
$1250
divine
graphite, watercolor on claybord
18.5x11.5 inches
2017
$1250
sacred feminine mary
graphite, watercolor on claybord
18.5x11.5 inches
2017
$1250
sacred feminine mary
graphite, watercolor on claybord
18.5x11.5 inches
2017
$1250
blessed
graphite, watercolor on claybord
19.5x12 inches
2017
$1250
Drawing test samples
markers on test booklet
8.5x11 inches
2017

Educating Alice explores the emotional conflict I experience in repeated attempts to purge the patriarchal and religious constructs that govern my life and have influenced the lives of women throughout history. Alice - my given name, the one I answered to in grade school, seeks to promote dialogue about the female body, female rights and our formal education concerning female reproductive systems.

In my studio, I've been painting door mats and naming them after pagan goddesses. The introduction of works on the floor, grounded and intentionally anti-monumental, exposes the habitual, complicit behavior of dominion over nature, women and girls. I often use the vulva as source material to reveal our culture’s faulty notions about women’s anatomy. The conception that the vulva is life giving, revered and unexploited plays out visually when related to the Virgin Mary in an internet image search of “St. Mary & vulva.” A taboo juxtaposition, yes, but I find the visual kinship humorous. I designed a stencil to illustrate this sensibility, one of the many layers pushing and pulling for attention in my current work.

I am interested in the changing narratives that affect gender equality, the visual and verbal language we use to illustrate these narratives. There is power in naming. Responses to the question, “what do you call your external female body parts?” reveal a range of attitudes. For example, using the word “vagina,” when “vulva” is what we really mean, erases the body part that brings women the most pleasure and focuses on the female body part that brings men the most pleasure. It’s very subtle... say it with flowers.