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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 2002)
34 J M M ' august 1fi, 200? ART Love is love Suppor/ DCe/ivorÁ Julia Waco: straight artist on a queer mission H A M I3LETO N PR O JECT by Offers FREE education, advocacy, su p p o rt groups, and d ire ct services for lesbians and their families dealing with cancer and other life-threatening conditions. 1112 NE 21 st • Portland, OR 97232-2114 (503) 335-6591 • www.lgbt.org/hp 602 SE 38th Ave. Portland, OR 97214 503.231.3922 W ed - Sat PF1UL M ITCHELL Protect Your Assets Through Estate Planning Call the Law Office of James D. McVittie 503 224-6611 - • To Receive Your FREE Booklet A Practical Guide to Estate PLanning. • Schedule a FREE 30 minute consultation to discuss your personal estate plan. PHOTOS BY ALAN NORRIS /¿esbian C an cer James D. McVittie Attorney at Law 2310 N W Everett Suite 200 Portland. Oregon 97210 503.224.6611 Casual Elegance For Less x k ' Í ' > M eg D aly t’s only fitting that painter Julia Waco’s day job is as a public defender. This is a woman who wants to make a difference in people’s lives, both in her profession and in her art. As a way of contributing positive images of lesbian couples to mainstream society, Waco will open her latest show, Lola Sweetlips, Sept. 5 at the Attic Gallery in Portland. The petite 32-year-old sits across from me at the Heathman lounge, brimming with excitement for the new show. She spent sev eral months interviewing lesbians about their love lives, starting with a friend at work and branching out from there. She asked individuals and couples to describe various important milestones in their rela tionships, which became the basis for the bright, whimsical paintings. “Crowning MerQueen,” which features two mermaids with their red and yellow tails entwined against a backdrop of a Van Gogh- like starry night, depicts when one couple first knew they really loved each other. Another, titled “Becoming,” subtly portrays a PG version of an S/M scene. The question bums. “Why lesbians?” I ask Waco, who identifies as straight and has never had a sexual relationship with a woman. She explains the series grew out of her previous show — Kisses for Carlos, paintings of gay men in love. That series was a gift to a close friend who is gay. It was a huge success. Female viewers of Kisses told her they wished for images of women in love. “So I had to do it,” she says, adding she knows what it’s like to feel different. A s a Jew whose grandparents are con centration camp sur vivors, W aco feels an obligation to try to make the world a better place— one in which all people feel included. Hoping to Meet Mr. I O who thinks people focus too much on the physical part of same-sex relation ships and ignore the commonalties all lovers share. She hopes her work can help the straight world get more comfortable with images of queers in love “so that the concepts of health care benefits for same-sex partners or same-sex mar riage or adoption, or two women just holding hands” are more readily accepted. W aco calls her style “representa tional whimsy,” in an d ^ b jecK become “ Ceremony” is a blending of body and spirit metaphors for the content o f the story. Her color palette is ripe with bright greens, deep blues and reds as well as softer grays, yellows Right” from K isses for Carlos riginally from Los Angeles, W aco now and pinks. Com m on among many of the lives in Tigard with her husband. Though paintings is a black and white cat, which she’s been painting since she was 13 and both represents a real person’s pet and also has taken a lot of classes, participates in the telling she’s not an art school of the story. grad but rather a Lewis & Citing Chagall and Clark law school alum. Alex Calder as her main Her creative side survived influences, Waco strives for by doodling on paper cof a balance of color and fee cups and napkins. light, where one aspect of Since graduation, she’s the painting anchors worked full time as a lawyer another. Typically, she likes and devoted herself to to work on large, wall-size evening and weekend canvasses, but for Lola she’s painting, producing several created paintings in a more themed shows. Her first, standard size range— 18 Bob Loves Dorese, was fea inches by 20 inches, for tured at Borders. That’s example. She works in when her gay friend told acrylic on canvas and then her how he wanted to see covers the finished paint ing in a gloss that gives images of two men holding hands. them a good sheen. “I hope the paintings As part of her research help bridge a gap in public on lesbian communities and perception of gay and les lifestyles, the artist consult Julia Waco puts gay and lesbian ed the nonfiction book The bian couples,” says Waco, relationships on view Girls Next Door: Into the Heart of Lesbian Amer ica and the fictional The Riverhouse Stories: How Pubah S. Queen & Lazy Larue Save the World. And then, of course, there were the real women’s stories. “It’s been so rewarding,” Waco says of the entire interviewing and painting process. She is grateful to the women who shared their lives with her and says their stories have deepened her understanding of love and how to make a good part nership last. “I think about the women in the painting ‘Light,’ ” she says, referring to the image of two women on a sunny hill chasing the dark “depression” bird back into its hailstorm. “It’s kind of like the necessity of cleaning up and examining those dark places inside so that there is room for another person to move into your heart.” Waco is hopeful that Lola Sweetlips will be well attended; she has canvassed the streets with information about the show and about her slide show presentation at In Other Words, which will also include a discussion of Kisses for Carlos. A successful art show o f lesbian subjects might just convince other galleries to dis play lesbian work as well. 'XTiat other straight artist do you know who has that as her mission? i n Julie Waco’s L o la S weetlips is on display Sept. 5 to 28 at the Attic Gallery, 206 S.W. First Ave. The artist’s slide show presentation is 6:30 p.m . Aug. 29 at In Other Words, 3734 S .E . Hawthorne Blvd. M eg D aly is a Portland free-lance writer.
