COQINNE
b y R osanne K ing
The forms bloom on the pages like black
and white renditions of tropical flowers in
blossom. Heads turn right left attempting to
discern the type of foliage, even though the
book’s title gives that away. It's called
L abia flow ers.
Tee Corinne has published four books, the
last appearing in January. Leibiaflowers,
formerly The C unt C oloring Book, was her
first She has done most covers for Naiad
Press since 1977, illustrated Seipphistry by
Pat Califa and has compiled a slide show
entitled “Lesbian Sexual Imagery in the Pine
Arts.*’
That slide show proved enlightening, at the
very least As Corinne mentioned during the
presentation Jan. 21 at Metropolitan Com
munity Church, she went through seven
years of art school with virtually no exposure
to the erotic depiction of Lesbians. Her MCC
audience responded positively, with reac
tions ranging from laughter to murmurs of
appreciation and awe. Those responses are
typical of audience response nearly every
where, according to Corinne.
“There’s a real hunger for this," she said.
"W e’ve seen over and over again in psychol
ogy that those things we don’t have names or
images for are those we consider evil. Label
ing tells you what to do with an emotion. I’m
working at it through images, rather than
words."
"It’s an affirmation of who we are now, that
we’ve been around for a long time, that we’ve
been sexual a long time," she said.
Corinne acknowledges her slide show and
m uch of her work is “a hard-core
presentation."
"I edit for oral sex," Corinne said. “If there’s
a romantic image of two women kissing and
two women going down on each other, I will
invariably pick the one of the two women
having oral sex I want it to be perfectly clear
they're not just good friends.”
There seems to be a wealth of the types of
pictures Corinne edits for, if her slide show is
a correct indicator. She agrees.
“It’s much more available than people
know about because it’s so scattered,” she
said. Her presentation of the slide show be
gan in 1976 with 75 slides and “very little
information." Research began with a review
of literature and investigation of “every erotic
art book in the San Francisco library.” Any
artist depicting erotic contact between
women in one instance merited a complete
investigation of her/his work, Corinne said.
Artists represented are about half female,
half male. The obscurity of much of the work
featured in the show is not due to overt
censorship, but “censorship by disinterest,"
Corinne said. She is currently seeking to
compile the slides into a book to combat that
disinterest A publisher has rejected the first
draft of that volume, but is considering a
second.
Corinne’s work in progress will also assist
in the battle against obscurity. Underway are
"In Search of a Lavender Muse,” a study of
Lesbian writers, and a series of posters il
lustrating Lesbians from history. Corinne is a
printmaker and has compiled about 40 such
posters which will be shown in an exhibit in
the Bay Area in late spring or early summer.
The importance of Lesbian imagery in art
now and then, cannot be underestimated.
According to Corinne, “Those who forget
their histories are doomed to repeat it”
Copies of Labiaflow ers and Corinne’s
other works, Yantras o f W om an love, The
S outhern O regon Women W riters ' Group.
G ourm et E ating Society a n d Chorus
Picture Book, and D raw ings 1963 are avail
able through A W om an’s Place Bookstore,
2 3 6 -3 6 0 9 ,2 3 4 9 SE Ankeny.
Just Out February 3-February 17