16 MARCH 2015
RED NOT GREEN Ten years ago today, on the day before everybody would be wearing GREEN, some folks were seeing RED. Myself, in the choice of media and hue of my next illustration, "Not A Girl Who Misses Much." And the Steering Committee of Gallery 267 in their rejection of my application to become a member and the furor it caused among the artists.
"Red Em" is what I called this piece. My nickname for its lengthy title and the counterpart to "Blue Em" my previous Emily Dickinson portrait. For everything true blue and conservative in "Blue Em," there were equal parts of red hot and rebellious in "Red Em." It also was the follow-up to WHEN, and so I was purposely the pushing buttons of blasphemy and 'sell-out' in this piece, too, as I wanted acceptance in to this gallery, in what seemed, the worst way.
And that way wasn't going all that well. However, I did have an ally. A present member of the group. The woman who suggested I apply, in the first place. And she had sent an "open letter" to the Steering Committee and all the members and asked them to define art and determine what art they would not accept in their art gallery.
Yes, things had turned to RED.
