WOMEN WARRIORS receives a grant!

With great excitement, fanfare and clanging of swords, I am proud to announce the WOMEN WARRIORS has received a grant! The grant is the Minnesota State Arts Board 2008 Artist Initiative Grant, and I am one of twenty-one recipients who were selected from 117 applicants.

The Artist Initiative Grant alternates discipline eligibility from year to year, and photography is one of the mediums for 2008. While most grant programs are designed specifically for the completion of a project, with an exhibit at the end of the grant period, the Artist Initiative Grant is deigned to help artists explore, create and grow in whatever way will best help them. Part of the application process is to specify how you will use your funding to further your career and growth as an artist. My goal for the WOMEN WARRIORS in 2008 is to create a minimum of six new portraits, which would bring my current total to ten images. With these images I will then produce three high-end portfolios to have available to send to galleries and museums, both nationally and internationally. Without a strong portfolio for this work, I will not be able to effectively promote my project, nor seek further funding or exhibitions, so the portfolios will be the culmination of my work from this grant.

You're probably wondering who my new warriors will be! The WOMEN WARRIORS will be expanding to include women of other cultures from around the world. As always I will seek to portray women who are not well known, and who lived prior to 1850 so that no photograph of them could possibly exist. I have seleceted four new warriors, two who are sisters, but as always I am open to your suggestions! Here are the new warriors:

Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's female Pharaoh who was one of the most prolific builders in ancient Egypt. Fans of Egyptology will know that her mummy was recently discovered and DNA analyzed, allowing us to know more about her lineage and physical build. Interesting fact: at the time of her death, Hatshepsut was obese and diabetic.

Vietnam's Trung Sisters. Trung Trac and Trung Nhi were two 1st century women leaders who successfully repelled Chinese invasions for three years, and are regarded as national heroines of Vietnam. Many of their generals were women.

Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi. Lakshmi was the queen of the Maratha-ruled princely state of Jhansi in North India, was one of the leading figures of the Indian rebellion of 1857, and a symbol of resistance to British rule in India. Her fall brought about many significant changes in India. Due to her bravery, she became a national hero and the epitome of female bravery.

Needless to say I am very excited to get started! Thank you to everyone for your support, and especially to my Women Warriors without whom this project would not have happened.

(previously posted on MySpace 12-15-2007)