Art in Oregon Virtual Exhibit

My series Tied to the Moon looks at the continuity of women’s experiences across the centuries.

A lot has changed for women over time, but a lot has also remained the same, in positive as well as negative ways. We are less defined by our biology, in some ways, able to choose if we want children and less likely to die in childbirth. Yet we are going through the same monthly and age-dependent cycles as all women before us, we mature and we grow old. We have more access to education and the workplace than ever before, but we are, on average, still not treated or paid as equals. We are no longer forced into marriages, but we still suffer when relationships break apart. We love and long, we work, play and explore, we nurture, maintain friendships and fight rivals. Most of us have an unending sense of wonder when we are young and a view of the world narrowed by pragmatism when we reach adulthood – as did our historic sisters. I find that continuity empowering, knowing that there is something shared with all those that came before, a richness of female experience and evidence of women’s strength. 

The photomontages try to stress that sense of continuity by using photos I took of paintings of women that were created across centuries. With the help of a photoshop program, Adobe CS6, I place the portraits into images of contemporary environments that I took both here in the U.S. and in Europe. Each montage contains a representation of the moon and some means of tying the figure to it, with ropes or strings and the like, depicting our biological connection to the calendar and the fact that women’s lives are affected by something that stands outside of specific cultural and/or historical contexts. The series consists of 20+ images, with those before you a small sample. The work is printed with archival inkjet print on German etching paper.

Tied to the Moon was curated by Art in Oregon and hosted by the Clackamas County Historical Society.
To purchase artwork email tjwilson@artinoregon.org

This exhibition was installed and ready to open at the Stevens-Crawford Heritage House Museum in April 2020. The museum had to close abruptly due to covid-19 and will remain closed until further notice. To learn more about the Stevens-Crawford House and its partner the Museum of the Oregon Territory visit clackamashistory.org.