Monday, February 21, 2011

Monday February 21, 2011/ Podcast Becky Papp - Signed... bkm/ Statement The Red Shoe Artists Book Project A Small Stone/

This is a link to Becky Papp, podcast. She is interviewing (signed...bkm,) Barbara MacKenzie. I think you will like this, and Barbara talks about the Red Shoe artists book project. She also reads some of her poetry, which is so beautiful!

http://www.beckypapp.libsyn.com/-10-becky-papp-podcast-barbara-mac-kenzie

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A Small Stone

The dark night is
Sometimes an endless road
Pain fills my right leg like sand
Filling the lower half of an hourglass
At last I am forced to move
Alas turning and tossing

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This is the latest painting for the Red Shoe artists book project.

The Red Shoes
Statement 2011

I stand in the ring
In the dead city
And tie on the red shoes
They are not mine,
The
...

They are not mine,
They are my mother's
Her mother's before,
Handed down like an heirloom
But hidden like shameful letters.
--Anne Sexton

The red shoes are a symbol of creativity for women and our legacy. It is this legacy that the Red Shoes artists book project addresses. And it is this legacy that contemporary women do not know or have forgotten.

Women today are able to grasp the pen, hold the brush, sing and dance because of the women who went before, who struggled in isolation, which felt like illness -- alienation, that felt like madness -- obscurity, that felt like paralysis to overcome the anxiety of authorship that was endemic to their literary and creative subculture.

I have asked sixteen artists to join me in The Red Shoe project. The writings of these women are diverse in language, style, approach and form. They each seem to be remaking, renewing, renaming, re-experiencing and recasting old ideas about the Red Shoes.

"Women are writing wonderfully exciting, approachable, rich, funny and moving poetry (and prose) that can speak to a wider readership that it usually gets. Women are writing much of the best poetry being written, but remain poorly represented in anthologies, textbooks, reading series, prize lists, awards and every other institution controlled by white men who like the way things are presently run just fine. Women are still mostly read by women." --Marge Percy, Early Ripening

The artists were chosen for this project simply because I love their work. There are many others that could have been included; perhaps this is just the beginning.

I conceived the idea of a Red Shoe artists book project, while reading the Madwoman in the attic, by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar. They explain that the women of the nineteenth- century had what was called "anxiety of authorship," --a fear that she could not create, that because she could never become a "precursor" the act of creating would isolate or destroy hr. The symbol of the red shoes is often used in fairly tales as the symbol for the creativity of women, i.e. Snow White, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, and others.

Feet bound securely
Toes tucked under
Fire licks tenderly
Red Shoes insist
They are made for dancing
Glass shoes will cut
Red all over
But without fear
Many women
Slip on the red shoes
And they dance

I have written other posts about artists book projects. If you go to the sidebar and put into the search bar "artists book projects."

11 comments:

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Fantastically wonderful post, Annell....the podcast was great!!!! So sorry about the leg pain - maybe putting on the red shoes will ease it:) Love the explanation of the red shoe project - isnt it the truth that women are mainly read by women? After all this time!!!! Great read, this morning.

signed...bkm said...

Yes Annell, What a wonderful write up by you and piece by Anne Sexton. I am truly excited about seeing the project on completion and reading the varied writings of all the women involved. I believe that woman and (men) will fully embrace The Red Shoe Project and that for many woman it will open up that creative attic kept hidden and other doors that are now locked or feared..

Thank you also for mentioning Becky Papp a young woman that is now blooming into her own sense of the world and her creative nature....bkm

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed all the poems here!
I've come across the Red Shoe syndrome a lot in my studies, I just wish more people knew about it! Thanks for referencing it here.

http://jessicasjapes.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/home/

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

your presentations are always clean and beautiful.
Thanks for the support.

A++

Kathe W. said...

and my favorite shoes are red! Tah Dah! Great post Annell!

Brian Miller said...

fills the leg like sand....very cool imagery there anell...and very cool ont he red shoes...i def think arts should be celebrated...

Elizabeth said...

I absolutely love your explanation of the Red Shoes book project. I look forward to seeing it, and reading all of the diverse contributions. And Thank you especially for creating this space for all of us. Hugs.

Elizabeth

Unknown said...

Really enjoyed the info in this post, as well as your ongoing outreach and support of other artists. wonderful work!

Helen said...

Thank you so much for noticing my blog header ... I so enjoyed your comment! Have a great week, Annell.

I'm going to slip into my red flat heeled shoes tonight ............ whew!

SandyCarlson said...

I enjoyed all of this. Your red shoes have me thinking of Jane Eyre, the Wide Sargasso Sea, Little Women....the tendency of the upright and respectful around me to talk about certain reds as "whore red." What that means but shouldn't. You are a great inspiration. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

great thoughts annell.. my potluck's here: http://fiveloaf.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/metamorphosis/

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