Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 3/15/99
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   5

"THE DIVINE FEMININE" EXHIBIT AT SLU'S WESLEY CENTER
     HAMMOND -- Nine women artists will celebrate feminine aspects of the divine in
painting, sculpture, and prints in an exhibition through March 21 at the Robert Ciruti Gallery,
located at Southeastern Louisiana University's Wesley Center. 
     The Divine Feminine, sponsored in cooperation with Southeastern's Clark Hall Gallery
and Cultural Resource Management Program, is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., weekdays. A closing
reception is scheduled for 4-7 p.m., March 20. The Wesley Center is located at 307 West Dakota.
     The show features the works of Kim Finley-Stansbury, Denise Tullier-Holly, and Karen
Wallsten of Hammond; Annie Stohl of Ponchatoula; Luz Maria Lyles and Darlene Olivo of
Covington, Barbara Tardo of Folsom; Allison Stewart of New Orleans, and Marjorie Spiller, of
Baton Rouge.
     The show includes two pieces by  Stewart, both highly stylized manifestations of goddess
figures. "Aria Noir" is mixed media on paper and "Matrix" is sculpted hydrostone.  Kim
Finley-Stansbury's three "Lipstick Goddesses" are derived from ancient fertility figures from
Europe.  The unique works are painted in lipstick, in sensuous red, coral and hot pink colors.  
     Three paintings by Luz Mar¡a Lyles derive their inspiration from the strength of the
female in traditional Meso-American belief systems. A sculpted altarpiece, "Mar¡a," and its two
companion paintings, "Primavera" and "Madre Selva," celebrate the influence of pre-Christian
female deities to the delight of contemporary ecofeminists. 

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Divine Feminine/ADD ONE


     The show also includes works by Wallsten, "Birth" and "Dream Float," that express
feminine spiritual experiences. Tullier-Holly has contributed a reverent silkscreen nude, "Soul:
The Alpha and the Omega," and a playfully irreverent sculpted mixed-media washboard that
speaks volumes on the domesticity women. 
     Times-Picayune staff photographer Olivo's four sculpted ironing boards take the theme of
women's domesticity even further. "Trapped by the Poverty of Ironing:  for Anna Mae," a highly
decorated ironing board with plastic sandals chained its legs, is dedicated to the woman who
worked for $3.50 a day doing the artist's family's ironing in New Orleans in the 1950s. 
     Stohl has several pieces in the show, including bronze and clay statuettes, and two large
sculptures, "Moon under her Feet" and "Corn Goddess" are both heavy metal wind chimes. 
Finally, the works of  Barbara Tardo, a SLU faculty member, and Baton Rouge artist Marjorie
Spiller, represent the divine femininity of nature.
     The closing reception on March 20 will celebrate the vernal equinox. For additional
information about the exhibit, call 345-6175. 
                            - SLU -
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     www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp99.htm