"Womenswear" by R.L. Gibson
Diptych - 14"x14" each
watercolor & embroidery
on 140 lb. coldpress
$300/pair
"Clothing for women has never been an easy utilitarian choice. From corsets & crinolines, to stockings & purses, womenswear has been fashioned, primarily by men, to reinforce assigned gender roles of immodestly shaggable, modestly marriageable, domestically proper, and/or professionally manageable.
"I often hear men say 'But, women can wear whatever they want. No one is stopping them.' Yes, if we want to paint targets on our backs. In 1993, newly elected senator Carol Moseley Braun showed up to work in a pantsuit, to audible GASPS from her colleagues. And today, in the South, there are still judges that will recess court so that a female attorney can more properly attire herself in a skirt. There are offices where bare legs and bare arms are dress code violations. Meanwhile, I am here just hoping for functional pockets."
R.L. GIBSON (Rachel) works as a mixed media artist with work in galleries from New York to Los Angeles and collections around the world. A happily-married, mother of one, Gibson lives & works in Marion, Virginia in the southeast United States. Her practice currently explores work that overlays watercolor with embroidery. The hand-stitched component of this work lends movement to otherwise still media while paying homage to the band of quilting women she calls family.