When SHE Calls, the momentum is palpable! Artists share the pull toward the majesty of, "A Generous Queendom"
- Jennifer Gillia Cutshall
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
"Fit for a Queen depicts a modern blend of traditional royal family necklaces, the notorious RGB dissent collars, as well as traditional protective neck ware of indigenous people around the globe. These necklaces embody the regal spirit of royalty and the strength of feminist proclamation and protest. Many indigenous traditions include adorning young women with jewelry made with mother of pearl and other shells during sacred rites of passage when coming of age. In this time of limited bodily autonomy for many girls and women, as well as our non-binary, queer and trans communities, these works are defiant statement pieces of dissent, talismans to be worn as celebration and protection of one’s own bodily queendom."
KENDRA ROBERTS
BRITT BLOCK
"My lifetime healing is a journey into the absolute depths- the Night Sky - of my experience: the glistening deep black space at the core of things. The journey from that infinite, radiant blackness to the world through the body is documented here. The actual physical sensation of Absolute Black is bliss. The bliss comes from a blackness which radiates and glimmers. The sound of the glimmers emanating from darkness is the sound of the Tibetan Gyoto monks chanting, the sound of the buzzing of the bees. The bees emanate from the radiant darkness and take up the true work of being in the world: creation of honey; the work of the hive. The bees are not metaphor. The healing of the Bees is the healing of my soul and the healing of the world. There is not a separation: the moment is the whole. The healing gesture is blissful radiance expressing its love for the world."
Britt Block
NANCY WATTERSON SCHARF
"I was drawn to A Generous Queendom because it speaks to abundance and the unsung labor and love women give us. My ancestors sometimes speak to me. I sense their songs and stories as I work. I feel their reverence and respect for life in all its forms, and I try to give voice to the countless generations of plants and animals and women who hold together the fabric of our world."
Nancy Watterson Scharf
TOM MCINTIRE
"I believe in the miracle of right now and often mourn a beautiful passing moment. Stories, and our perception of precious time that stories attempt to capture, drive me. Color in my paintings shocks out moods and separates moments into a quilt of experience. Nature, our companion, expresses itself in personal symbology, colliding with the built environment and technology in my work as it does in our urban lives. I seek out breaths of whimsy or humor but am swimming through dark undercurrents."
Tom McIntire
LIZ BOROWSKI
"Hope is a form of planning."
-Gloria Steinem
"A generous Queendom begins with an empowered Queen. One who knows their inherent value and is at home in their body. Being well resourced, connected to their desires and generative in nature, only then are they able to give to others."
Liz Borowski
CALEB WHEELER
"I'm most interested in bridging the dissonance between the very deep past and the immediacy of our present."
Caleb Wheeler
DENISE MONAGHAN
"Joanna’s painting, Light in Dark, was part of a series of portraits I did of people who inspire me. Joanna had courage and deep regard for the earth and its inhabitants. She just recently died, which is why I was particularly pleased to get to show this one at Verum Ultimum. It seemed a fitting farewell, with the theme of a generous queendom. Joanna’s teachings have been a guiding light for so many of us in these dark times. She was a luminous being...
She said something that helped me a lot...
"The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world.” It’s hard but essential to being really alive. “Right now we can be here to honor life. It’s a precious thing to be giving thanks for what we have instead of insisting it must last forever. Well, it’s not lasting forever. Can we still be grateful?" says Joanna. "Right now."
Denise Monaghan
JULIE JOHNSON
"Working in collaboration with elements of nature, my sculptures are a celebration of the natural world. Drawing from an extensive background in basketry, hand papermaking, and natural dyes, I combine techniques and materials to respond to the ideas at hand. The strengths, limitations and availability of each natural element helps guide my creative process.
Thorns figure prominently in my work. My delight in their many forms and a deep admiration for their inherently passive, yet fiercely protective nature have always inspired me. My piece for this show, Protection Shield, was made for a home's hearth - to quietly protect all who are invited to gather around the warmth of the fire."
Julie Johnson
I also like this line about the nature of thorns from Homesick: A Plea for our Planet by Andrea Gibson:
"I spent that summer, as I had every summer before, racing to the forest behind my house down the path my father called the old logging road to a meadow thick with raspberry bushes whose thorns were my very first heroes because they did nothing with their life but protect what was sweet."
LIZA BRENNER
"I was drawn to the change of term Queendom this year. In my painting, you see me standing in my bathrobe as the queen of the underworld Persephone...reminding us that life can be mundane and even macabre, but also with a hint of hope of renewal as spring approaches."
Liza Brenner
RIO WREN
"Nature is a multi-faceted medicine. To understand that we are all connected to this earth through iron brings a yearning to find comfort in all the things that surround me. The abundance of this earth is witnessed each year as the seasons flow and it never gets old. As a matter of fact, it becomes more integrated with my human existence, and I am inspired to create. Art as gestation and birthing of a vision only a mother can give."
Rio Wren
LAURA WISE
"Verum Ultimum consistently has thought provoking themes for exhibits, and the title “Queendom” is no exception. The title provides the opportunity to relate a personal visual story, the expression of the artist’s personal realm."
Laura Wise
“To create one’s own world takes courage” Georgia O’Keefe.
BRANDIN BARON
"Though the media pretends we are diversifying the definitions of “what is beautiful”, I fear we will look back on our age with a gasp at how many celebrities appear similar, largely through their adaptation of plastic surgery techniques that reflect a narrow ideal of feminine beauty. But historically, fashion icons like Twiggy, Isabelle Blow, The Duchess of Windsor, and many others have brought attention to their individual differences as a means to express their strong sense of self. My “queens”—the females who inspire me to create artwork—have embraced their natural features and learned ways to accent their unusual-ness."
Brandin Barón
DAVID COHEN
"I spent many years exploring different technical, compositional and other formal ideas, while at the same time making work that fortunately seemed to connect with people. But I longed to create art that was a bit more complex and required more from the viewer than just looking at something deemed interesting or beautiful. What would make the viewer come back again to a piece, study it in a different way, constantly see new things that they hadn't seen before? I wanted to inject a narrative into the work that engaged the viewer on another level - a space where they had to bring their stories, their ideas, their imagination to the work. It is something I will now spend the rest of my life exploring and, hopefully, working to be a storyteller whose pieces resonate on some deeper level."
David Cohen
ALLISON HMURA
"I was drawn to this call because I keep returning to the idea of strength that doesn’t dominate but holds. The kind of strength found in roots—quiet, unseen, persistent. My piece shows roots wrapping around the female pelvic floor, a place of creation, grounding, and deep embodied wisdom. To me, it speaks to the way humans are meant to be supported by nature, not separated from it.
In a time that feels fragile and uncertain, I find myself trusting the intelligence of the natural world more than ever. Roots don’t rush. They grow slowly, adapting to obstacles, finding nourishment in darkness and continue to grow. There is something deeply hopeful in that. The female body, like the earth, carries stories of endurance, abundance, and renewal. When we allow ourselves to rely on nature—to listen to it, to remember we belong to it—we remember our own resilience."
Allison Hmura
