lUStOUt
NIGHTLI
JULY b. 2007
NIGHTt IFF
NIGHTLIFE
Before and After
Painter documents women in transition
ormally when you have before-and-
affer images, they are focused on the
location of change,” painter Gwenn
Seemel tells me over a plate of
freshly baked banana bread. “I want
ed to debunk that.... It’s a whole person; it’s not just
having their genitals changed or having bigger
breasts put on or getting your period or whatever.”
The artist invited me to her home, studio to
discuss Swollen: Portraits of Before and After, an ambi
tious exhibit d<Kumenting women who have experi
enced some sort of profound transition in the past
BY JIM RADOSTA
year: puberty, pregnancy, marriage, even breast
enlargement surgery. Two of the subjects are queer.
“Each...is going through some kind of physical
Funatake, who is raising a 10-year-oid son
change, except me. I’m sort of the control
named Evan, founded Transparentcy, an online
subject,” Seemel says. “I wanted to include back resource to raise awareness and provide information
ground elements that would make obvious what
for transgender parents around the world. “A sig
their change was but also have an interesting
nificant number of them are U.S., hut I’ve interact
metaphor. So each of the women has a physical
ed with someone from Israel, Mexico, Singapore,
change that the Earth has gone through assigned
Canada, kind of all over.”
to her...for breast enlargement, it’s tectonic plates
Funatake exudes serenity in her “after” portrait.
colliding.”
Appropriately, a rainbow shines in the background,
Although Mary Anne Gard considers herself
representing the beautiful outcome of a long
a reserved person, she agreed to share an intimate
process.
personal change with Seemel: The 56-year-old
“The focus is very personal, but 1 notice just
lesbian just went through menopause. “It’s hard, in
another level of comfort, at-easeness, less worry...
a way, because I am private, but it’s universal, and
even though it’s not something that’s obvious,” she
there’s many women that are going through it,” she
says. “This is something that I started thinking about
says, “and the men that are surrounding them are
wanting back in pre-double-digit years, so for a signif
going to go through it in some way, too."
icant part of life, [transition] was unattainable or not
Gard, a physical therapist who is pursuing
realistic or risky.”
a master’s of divinity to become a hospice chaplain,
Funatake is eager to see how Swollen captures
reveals that the effects from menopause were more
her interior and exterior changes. Regardless of
than physical. “It turned me more to look at spiri
what she thinks about the finished product, Seemel
tuality in my life. There’s sort of a softening of hopes for a strong reaction.
a person. There’s also more of a fearlessness in a lot
“A lot of art doesn’t connect with people, so 1 like
of ways; you don’t care so much what people
doing portraits because 1 know that 1 have at least
think.” (See Page 28 for visual evidence.)
one person who will love, or hate, that painting," she
Paula Funatake also underwent a monumental
says. “Hopefully, 1 manage to communicate to more
people." ©
change in the past 12 months: After living as
a woman for many years, she took the final step
toward a body that matched her identity by flying
Gwenn Seemel’s S wollen : P ortraits of B efore
to Thailand for sex reassignment surgery. Seemel
AND AFTER is on display through July 25 at Littman
says she was “fkxired" upon seeing the 51-year-old
Callery, 1825 S.W. Broadway #250, with an artist
business analyst for her second sitting.
talk from noon to 1 p.m. July 17. For more
“1 expected changes for everyone...hers,
information about Paula Funatake, visit U'U’U’.
though, was really marked. I told her, ‘You’re so
transparentcy.com and m2f2hangkok.hloaspot.com.
much more confident now.’ She’s like, ‘I’m not hid
ing anything anymore.’ 1 really wanted to make
Arts and Culture Editor J IM RADOSTA needs your
sure to show that.”
feedback. Write to jim@justout.com.
Jim's Closet
'BEFORE AND AFTER SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY* (2006 AND 2007)
46
“It was very interesting for her to pick up on changes I never really noticed,” Paula Funatake says.
”l'm living every day with gradual pace, so she was able to see differences that I wouldn't have.”