Rancho Cordova Arts is participating in Rancho Cordova’s first-ever Holiday Lights Drive-Through Event at the Mineshaft. It runs December 11-20, 2020 from 5pm to 10pm. (Tickets are available at https://www.cordovacouncil.org/rancho-cordova-holiday-lights, $10/car. It’s best to buy online, then your QR code can be scanned at entry.)

We’ve been given a prime spot - on the porch of a small building where cars queue up to move through the lighted displays. Our theme? Let’s get this pARTy started!!

I designed ten abstracted figures for our party scene, then metal artists John Schuck and Marsh Wildman fabricated them. They are designed so that a standard 5-meter length of LED ‘neon’ flex tubing could be zip tied onto each outline of 1/2” square-stock steel. They’re done and waiting for their close-up! It’ll be a fun time, and safe. You’ll stay in your car throughout the tour.

Hope you can make it! With over 15 lighted vignettes to delight the eye, t’s going to be glorious!

My mixed-media piece, "Walking in Our Grandmothers' Footsteps", won Best of Show at the Mills Station Arts & Culture Center (MACC's) 'Century of Suffrage' exhibit this month. It's part of Curator/Director Cheryl Gleason's video tour (below), starting at about 7:20 minutes into it. https://www.facebook.com/gleasongallery2/videos/10220499172421842

It's a 3-D piece, inspired by 100+ year-old leather boot tops we retrieved from John's mother's Idaho home. They belonged (we think) to John's stepfather's grandmother. I attached them to a pair of my walking shoes (tennies).

On a weathered plank, these boots have walked past the finish line of 1920, the 19th Amendment, securing the vote for women. (The footsteps of those who've gone before us are imprinted on the plank.) They are walking over the finish line for 1963 & 2010's Equal Pay Acts, and they've yet to arrive at the last finish line, a goal to 'Let People Vote' (a goal without a known date..)

In researching the effort to ratify, I discovered many women - from the suffragist period forward - who started organizations that still survive. These women weren't just working for 'Votes for Women'. They also fought to protect children, eliminate poverty, ensure civil rights, and address inequalities in sex, gender, race, and class. Some of these women are named on the spines of the boots, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg - and her iconic lace collar - sitting at the top of the one on the left.

I filled the boot tops with colorful flowers, a nod to supporters who picked bouquets of flowers to welcome Inez Milholland on her 12,000 mile campaign to gather support for ratification of the 19th amendment. The journey was her last; she died of exhaustion in Los Angeles for her efforts.

We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. This piece is a small acknowledgement of them and the sacrifices they made. I'm so grateful for them!

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