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Whenever I look at Sheila Hicks’s sculpture Banisteriopsis II, I think of my son. For the record he is not blond nor particularly fluffy! But the exhibition Fiber: Sculpture 1960 – Present, in which this work was a highlight, was one of my primary occupations while pregnant, and Hicks’s magnificent floppy pile has imprinted on my brain as the visual companion to this period. 

Knowing a little bit about Hicks, I appreciate the poignancy of this. Many of the artists recognized in the Fiber exhibition were women whose contributions to art went overlooked for decades due to gender and the implications of working in a medium associated with craft. I was also happy to see Hicks, at the tender age of 83, the subject of a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 2017. This long arc of achievement is inspiring. Perhaps there is hope that my foggy brain will re-emerge, sharp and kicking, in a few decades. 

I will let our wall text do its job of highlighting the work’s formal qualities and art historical significance. Here, I just wanted to give voice, for a moment, to a thought and a memory – one of the many that Banisteriopsis II has inspired and will continue to inspire every time it is on view.  

I first wrote these reflections in May 2018. In summer 2019, the ICA produced a print compilation of staff art notes and sent them to the artists whose works were mentioned. A few months later, I went to the mailroom and found a postcard addressed to me, written in a classic slanted script. I was puzzled – you will recall the aforementioned foggy brain – but it slowly dawned on me that the postcard was from Sheila Hicks, in response to my art note written the year before. What a joy! She said that she had read my text and that it “pleased her immensely” because in 1965 (the year that Banisteriopsis II is dated) she gave birth to her own son and had many dear memories associated with the work. It warms my heart to think of these stories and memories, so personal and meaningful, unknowingly intertwined in one artwork. 

Colette Randall has worked at the ICA since 2008 and is the Director of Audience Development and Communications. 

Friday Art Notes are personal reflections on works of art shown or in the permanent collection of the ICA, written by ICA staff, volunteers, and supporters. Read more

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Explore and celebrate the layers of Motherhood through this portrait-making activity. This activity is adaptable for beginners to experts, and involves tracing and cutting. This could be a gift for a Mother-figure, a fun activity to work on together, or a reflective art-making activity for anyone who wants to celebrate Motherhood.

Art making supplies including scissors, an assortment of scrap paper and a brown plastic bag.

You will need:

  • 2 pieces of white paper
  • Pencil
  • Black marker or sharpie
  • A digital or printed photograph of a Mother-figure or a device to take a photo
  • Found paper and materials to collage with
  • Scissors
  • Glue or tape

1. Choose or take a photo of your Mother-figure. (Can be a digital or printed image.)

2.   Write + reflect.

On a piece of paper, spend some time writing and reflecting on your Mother-figure using these prompts.

  • Describe a memory of a time spent together.
  • How have they helped you, and what are you most grateful for?
  • What is unique about your relationship with them?
  • If this person is no longer with you, what message do you want to share with them?
     

A pencil in hand with the words

3. Trace + cut.

Trace facial features in your photo: the outline of the face, eyes, nose, mouth, hair/ head accessory. Use a sunlit window or device screen to carefully trace onto a piece of paper. Be gentle here and use a dull pencil! Next, go over all lines with a thick black marker, and cut along the outside edge of the people. This will become your template.

A hand with a sharpie marker over a line drawing of two smiling figures.

A hand holding up a cut-out silhouette of a line drawing of two smiling figures.

4. Using your template.

Cut out face shapes to create individual templates, then trace onto collage materials to make textured and colorful portrait elements. For example, trace your hair template onto purple paper to make purple hair.

Cutouts of shapes that makes one smiling figure when put together.

Cut-out shape of a hat over a lattice patterned background.

5.  Collage!

Collect materials that represent your Mother-figure, like fabric scraps, or paper maps! Using these materials, your handwritten reflection, and face templates, cut pieces and play around with interesting compositions. Create your own background! Tape or glue your pieces onto your background. Sign and date your artwork.

Four images presenting cut-out shapes of two smiling figures in various prints, pattern, and colored outfits.

This lesson was developed by Brooke Scibelli, Family and Art Lab Programs Coordinator

While the ICA is temporarily closed, stay creative and connected with us.

Get inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s infinity room LOVE IS CALLING (1st image). Find or create the largest infinity in the smallest space. Snap a photo. 

To share, email them to teens@icaboston.org and/or tag us @icateens on Instagram.

(Examples by Betsy, Director of Teen Programs, featuring a hat by amazing alum Ren enhanced with polka dots by Betsy)

The pieces of the “puzzle” gradually come together. And the Japanese concept of umami comes to mind. Robert Pruitt’s Woman with X-Patterned Dress (after Bill Traylor) is simultaneously salty, sweet, and sour; a bit magical and mostly mysterious.

There is a synergy about the painting on butcher paper that joins identity and process. Robert Pruitt is a stylistic polymath producing art in a variety of mediums and paintings. This painting represents both personal and cultural concerns. Looking closely is rewarded when you notice the box cutter partially hidden behind the women’s back, as if to cry out, “I’ve had it.”  Box cutters have a fraught history in America. Despite the diversity of the African American population, there is an undercurrent of collective oppression. Witness an artist who once worked briefly designing craft projects for Martha Stewart flexing his visual muscles to remind viewers of the trouble he’s seen. The visual tension Pruitt portrays is palpable. Note the butcher-paper hue and that of the subject’s skin. The lighting contrasts support the mystery. And at the same time, the brown and black hues dance as comfortable partners. The figure is in profile in a patterned dress. But the facial expression is both confident and quizzical. Without background noise, the figure strengthens and presages a violence that just might be out there. Roughly the size of life, the lone figure warily presents. And I am reminded that after all, we all put our pants on one leg at a time.

Pruitt’s image indeed touches a nerve. We can write our own story from this image.

Upon retiring in 2009, Ruth Quattlebaum “fed her passion” by training for and subsequently guiding public and private tours at the ICA. 

Friday Art Notes are personal reflections on works of art shown or in the permanent collection of the ICA, written by ICA staff, volunteers, and supporters. Read more

 

While the ICA is temporarily closed, stay creative and connected with us.

Watch this video by artist Rachel Perry where she lip-syncs to voicemail messages left in error. Create your own video that expresses something about communication in our time. 

To share, email them to teens@icaboston.org and/or tag us @icateens on Instagram.