34 J M
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' august 1fi, 200?
ART
Love is love
Suppor/ DCe/ivorÁ
Julia Waco: straight artist
on a queer mission
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Casual
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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.