Mary Beth EdelsonI'm looking forward to Tuesday.  Wouldn't you like to meet an artist who draws herself with bunny ears?

I've been reading about Mary Beth Edelson.  In the early 1970s she gave up on painting, after 18 years, and began working with others—22 others exactly.  She invited them to suggest what she should create, and based on those suggestions out came an exhibition/installation/earthwork using fire, mud, trees, shells, gourds, mother of pearl, clay, rocks, wood, canvas, twine, scrim, foam rubber, paint, colored pencils, glass, ink, honey, paper, kitchen tables, stools, mirrors, and electric lights...

Dr. Kathleen Wentrackwith which she created

...sculpture, environments, earthworks, videos, performances, bedcovers, offset posters, photographs, paintings, drawings, boxes and books. 

Other works of the '70s included Woman Rising, Your 5,000 Years are Up!, Memorials to 9,000,000 Women Burned as Witches in the Christian Era, and The Nature of Balancing: Dark Shelters/Light Rocks.

This illustrated (of course) lecture by Kathleen Wentrack kicks off our December series of presentations from writers of the Wertheim Study: Singular and Collective: Radical Women Artists [in NYC during the 1970s]. The others are Feminist Art Collectives and Charlotte Moorman, the topless cellist (and so much more).  I hope to see you there, and if so, mention this blog for an inconsequential gift (but I hope in the spirit of the talk).