Reading The Key Essay 9 of 17

The Enlightenment of Gladys and Myrtle I

MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS, 24 X 12
ACRYLIC, INK, OLD PHOTOGRAPH, BIBLE PAGE, SKELETON KEY, 1956 BEGINNING DICTIONARY PAGE

Whether enlightenment came to women as their role in American culture changed, or whether the change in their role simply recognized their enlightenment, is the question asked in “The Enlightenment of Gladys and Myrtle I.” Initially, it seems like an easy question to answer, and to a postmodern thinker, it is. But in the time that these women lived, was the question so easy to answer?

The artist was smitten with the two ladies she met in a handful of old photographs obtained at an antique auction. Based on hairstyles and fashion, Gladys and Myrtle (as nicknamed by the artist) seem to have been captured in these images circa 1920. This is the Jazz Age in America: the era when the Surrealism and Art Deco movements began, when the Scopes Monkey Trials created tension between creationists and evolutionists, and when women obtained the right to vote.

Enlightenment involves the internalization of truth and new knowledge. And, with it comes a level of irrevocable responsibility. With new understanding should come new behavior.

“The Enlightenment of Gladys and Myrtle I” is a vibrant cruciform composition with intense hues of phthalo blue and quinacridone gold, which also result, through the artist’s experimental watermedia approach, in quite a bit of rich green. There are sweeps of bold color, and the iconic placement of a skeleton key embracing the image of the two ladies. A suggestion of wildflowers in the foreground is quirky yet purposeful. The subtle placement of a dictionary page that includes “enlighten” and a Bible page from Hebrews that discusses the responsibilities of enlightenment provide the viewer a little bit of reading, which by now is standard issue for Reading The Key.

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©Ginger Meek Allen