___ I. 3~ —I !lZJ £S_ i f f ----- ! xrs >1 ___ i. Jx_ _ ~ w ~ Mar Goman: a portrait, with quotations Noted author to do reading A W om an’s Place, in celebration o f its 13th anniversary, w ill host an autograph party and reading by noted lesbian writer, Lee Lynch, on Saturday, March 1. Lynch, whose colum n, Amazon Trail, appears regularly in Just Out and other periodicals nationwide, is the au th o r o f several novels w hich include Tooth pick House, Old Dyke Tales and The by W.C. McRae "Art is not a m atter of perfect technique, it is life of the soul." Pousette Dart Mar Gom an d id n 't even think about pro ducing art until she was in her m id-20s. G orm an, whose “bag ladies" (ungiving fem ale faces painted on paper bags) and canvases o f large bodies in bathing suits against flat crayon backgrounds, are fam iliar to visitors o f the Sunbow Gallery, grew up when "doing as good as the boys was m ost im p o rta n t” After a prelim inary education in the sciences, Gom an moved to Portland and began w orking on an MFA at PSCI. Sw ashbuckler. The autogrpah party w ill be held at A Wo m an's Place (2349 SE Ankeny) between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m . All o f Lynch’s novels w ill be available fo r signing and refreshm ents will be served. Lynch w ill read from her works in the banquet room at O ld Wives Tales (1300 E B urnside) at 6:30 p.m . (A donation is re quested fo r the reading.) A W om an’s Place has provided fem inist novels, literature, resources and m ore in Portland fo r 13 years. "The artist 's enem y is the utilitarian, acquisitive, exploiting society in which any tendency to do anything for its own sake cannot be tolerated." Ad Reinhardt B ut Gom an “ had trouble" at PSCI. "I had a different notion o f what being an artist was." At PSG academ ic prerogatives dem and that art students assign themselves to specific fields, like painting or sculpture. When Go- m an attended, students whose activities were not neatly defined by these categories were fo r academ ic reasons discouraged to experi m ent in other media. “ Established categories d id n ’t allow fo r cross-overs" — drawing, co l lage, constructions "d id n 'tc o u n t" fo ra paint ing student, nor did the notebooks that Go- m an kept, w hich she calls “ the ingredients ou t o f w hich com e the artist” and which are "p a rt o f the artistic enterprise." She left PSG and set herself up and "m ade a rt” "What genuine painters do is to reveal the underlying psychological and spiritual conditions of their relationship to the world." Rollo May G om an claim s she “ spirals in and out of them es" — "there are certain concerns I have and I w ork them through, through a rt" An ongoing them e fo r her has been the alienating potential of com m ercial images of wom en. G om an has treated this in a variety of ways. She has taken the faces o f fashion m odels from magazines and by working them into her paintings, recuperates them fo r her self as im ages involved in her dialectic o f a rt She has also painted w om en’s bodies with joyously expansive torsos, pictorially affirm ing the w om an’s body as wom en experience it, and not as a m edia image. Recently, she has created a series o f parodies o f Vogue covers w ith droll captions: on one, a faceless though well dressed torso flanks the ques tio n in g caption, “ D o wom en need heads?" "Everyone should be as different as possi ble. There is nothing that is common to all of us except our creative urge. Art m eans one thing to me: to discover myself as well as I cam." Heins Hoffman A series currently on show in Seattle is her "M um m ies” — constructions o f wrapped ch ild re n ’s dolls that represent the com ing together o f several themes: a fascination with Egyptian art; concerns about abortion and “ babies all over the world dying because of p o litics"; her own decision not to have children; and the m ore purely aesthetic idea o f w rapping — inner and outer surfaces. "Say to yourselves: I am going to work in order to see m yself and free myself. While working an d in the work I m ust be on the alert to see myself. When I see myself in the 14 work I will know that that is the work I am supposed to do." Agnes Martin G om an has been very active recently as a fem inist activist in her church. She's “ w ork ing very hard for acceptance o f wom en and gays in the church.” This, too, she works out throug h her art in a series she calls “ The C hurching o f Women." O f the images that em erge from this process, she says, “som e thing is w rong with our notion o f wom en if they seem out o f place as spiritual leaders." As influences she cites the English (and gay) painters Francis Bacon and David Hockney. Locally, she credits Gregory Gre- non with helping her realize she too could paint faces, hence her “ bag ladies." “The trouble with people is that they don t have the fucking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it." Tom Robbins Performing Artists for Life to benefit CAN P erform ing Artists for Life are joining forces fo r a benefit concert fo r Cascade AIDS N etw ork on Friday, February 28 at 8:00 p.m. at Arlene Schnitzer C oncert Hall. An im pres sive program , perform ed by Jam es DePriest Stefan Minde, m em bers o f the O regon S ym phony Orchestra, the Portland Choral C onsortium and Portland Civic Theatre will range from Haydn to Sondheim . Jam es DePriest and m em bers o f the Ore - gon Sym phony Orchestra: Beethoven/ A llegro ma non tro p p o " from Sym phony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, "The Pastorale"; R ach m an inoff/’A dag io" from Sym phony No. 2, in E Minor, Op. 27. Stefan M inde and m em bers o f the Oregon S ym phony Orchestra and the Portland C horal C onsortium : Beethoven/excerpts fro m The M ount o f O lives"; H aydn/“ The Heavens are Telling” from “ The C reation". Portland Civic Theatre: excerpts from "A in ’t M isbehavin'"; excerpts from "Sweeney T odd". Patron Party: The W oody Hite Big Band. "Take gay people out o f the arts,” says Fred G om an recently resigned her position as directo r o f Northwest Artists W orkshop, in order to devote m ore tim e to her own a rt Like m ost artists she has to balance com m ercial ism and “ going in m y own direction.” She dislikes having to w ork under dem and, but “ it’s pleasing to know m y art is accepted in hom es across the country.’ Her "bag ladies" are now featured in LA, and Greystone Gal lery in Portland w ill host an exhibition o f her landscapes this spring. ’ Beneath the whole art concept, every peiss in the act, every stroke, should be our own identity." David Smith “A rt is a diary o f what’s going on in life,” says G om an, "and m y vision o f the world. Art com es fro m this deep spo t’ If you lose that you lose the ability to produce genuine a rt" ' Idle curiosity is the artist s best friend." Mar Goman K orm an, “ and you have an em pty stage." K orm an, principal oboist with the O regon Sym phony, has been involved with Cascade AIDS N etw ork’s PAL Project since last fall. K orm an says that his experience with the PAL Project gave him an idea w hich evolved into the upcom ing benefit concert, because, “ It is equally im portant to raise consciousness as it is to raise money.” Fred Korm an, born in Brooklyn, NY, has been a m em ber o f the O regon Sym phony O rchestra since 1978, com ing to Portland after extended stints with the New Orleans and Hartford Sym phony Orchestras. Korman also holds teaching posts at Portland State G niversity and Lewis & Clark College. K orm an took his idea to Jam es DePriest co n d u cto r o f the O regon Sym phony and the benefit was on its way. "People came out of everywhere," Korm an says. Jam es DePriest and Gwyneth Gam ble Booth are co-chairs fo r the b e n e fit Margie Boule, Alyce Rogers and Shirley Nanette are hostesses fo r the event, and the W oody Hite Big Band will play fo r the patron party. Tickets, ranging in price from $ 16 to $52.75 are available at Civic A uditorium , Ste vens & Sons (Lloyd Center), Portland Civic Theatre and G.l. Jo e ’s. So fill up the Schnitz. Edward II makes rare appearance by Jim Hunger Edward II made a rare appearance recently — and in Portland, no less! The play chroni cles the reign, captivity, and m urder o f a rela tively unspectacular E nglish m onarch o f the early 14th century, but has nonetheless earned a position o f significance in literary as well as gay history, although it is seldom per form ed on stage or presented in the classroom. The original play, w ritten around 1590 by C hristopher Marlowe, Shakespeare’s early m entor and m utual influence, is one o f the few surviving literary nuggets that contains w ithin it attractive im ages o f homosexuality. M ost western historians, and western writers in general have scrupulously avoided positive references to homosexuality since the decline o f Rome. Gntil recently, the ir hom ophobia and anal retentive fastidiousness proved fairly effective in obscuring m ost alternative sexu ality references from m ainstream literary consum ption. Edward is an unlikely hero. A bungling warrior, an uninspired and uninspiring leader, he doesn’t begin to reveal his greatness until he is a prisoner and facing death. W hile Ed w ard’s m ediocrity as a ruler and his love affair w ith Gaveston were problem s fo r Elizabethan audiences, they were nothing com pared to the deeds o f M ortim er and the Queen. Their treasonous acts were dam ning crim es against the natural order o f the cosm os, o f whch the divine rig h t o f kings was an im portant link. B ertolt B recht’s Edward II, one o f his earliest plays, was first perform ed in 1924. B recht follow ed the general story line, but added dim ension to som e o f the characters: the Queen, M ortim er the younger, and Gaveston in particular; and incorporated a num ber o f other changes, som e rather curi ous. French knight Piers Gaveston became Irish peasant Daniel Gaveston (“ Danny bo y!"); Queen Isabelle was renam ed Anne; and she meets M ortim er on the road to Scot land, rather than in Paris. B recht also made extensive use of “ pre senters,” choral characters who announce additional com plications o f setting and p lo t T his device, initially disconcerting, helps to convey a sense o f the passage o f tim e, par- ^ Just O ul.T ebrygry,,]^