Artist’s Statement: Bodies by Design, Exercise and Diet are a means of refining our contours literally. Since the early 1980’s Jane Fonda has been a symbol of health, fitness and wellness, inspiring trends including leg warms and fitness tapes. As Fonda was being worshiped as the proverbial goddess of fitness and nutrition, it was well documented that she was struggling with Anorexia and Bulimia, low self esteem and poor body image.  Yet today she is still heralded an example of fitness for people now entering their elder years. A thin body does not a healthy person make neither in mind nor body.  The Venus of Fonda is a super sized reproduction of the Venus of Willendorf, made entirely out of Jane Fonda’s early diet and fitness books.  Dieting has been shown to increase the body’s natural ability to store to fat, slowing the metabolism, resulting in the opposite of the desired outcome.

October 3rd Bodies by Design: Modification, Coercion and Resistance”

Every October Oakton Community College and the Koehnline Museum of Art sponsor an all women’s juried art exhibition.  This year was my second time taking part and I honestly have to say it is one of the best opportunities out there for women in the arts working on feminist art issues in their work.

Kathleen Carot the Coordinator of the show and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Oakton Community College has put together a fabulous program with this yearly exhibition.  Well funded and attended by throngs of students yearly, who are invited to engage with the artists at the opening with well thought out interview questions.  Each year not only do they put out a beautiful postcard for each artist to send out to their collectors, friends and family; but they also do a beautiful catalogue which is free to all the artists and to the people who attend the exhibition.  ( Did I say that there is also no entry fee or a hanging fee to submit work?  Truly a wonderful thing in these hard times.)

Artists from all over the world are free to enter, this year there was an artist from the Netherlands in attendance.  Sadly my real camera took a crap so until I can get those pictures off it my cell phone pictures will have to do for this update.