Art – Page 35 – Feminism and Religion

Elise M. Edwards is a Ph.D. candidate in Theology, Ethics, and Culture at Claremont Graduate University and registered architect in the State of Florida. She does interdisciplinary work in the fields of theology, ethics, and aesthetics, examining how they inform and shape each other and express the commitments of their communities.

“You should watch this. It’s inspiring,” my sister said to me about Born to Dance: Laurieann Gibson, the dance competition show on BET. So I watched. And I loved it. I can’t remember watching any other reality show–especially a competition-based one- that left me with such a sense of the spirituality of its star.

Laurieann Gibson fulfills many roles on Born to Dance: host, mentor, judge, and executive producer. Laurieann is a respected dancer and choreographer. TV viewers may remember her from MTV’s Making the Band franchise, in which she trained members of Dannity Kane in dance and sometimes clashed with P. Diddy, the star and producer of that show. In this show that features her name, we learn more about her approach to dance and to life. On Born to Dance, we see the same drive and demanding ethic that she displayed in other shows, but we also see her spirituality. She says grace before eating dinner with the contestants. She speaks of God and gifts. And most surprisingly, she prays in Jesus’ name before very elimination. These prayers are for the contestants that will be eliminated, that they may continue to grow in confidence and belief in their dreams to become dancers, and that they may have many opportunities and paths in the future to do so. Continue reading “A Spirit of Competition By Elise M. Edwards”

Kittredge Cherry With Stone Wall 600 px — Kittredge Cherry

The following is a guest post written by Rev. Kittredge Cherry, lesbian Christian author and art historian who blogs about LGBT spirituality and the arts at the Jesus in Love Blog. Her books include “Equal Rites” and “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More“.

Originally posted at Jesus in Love.

Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi inspires many with her paintings of strong Biblical women — created despite the discrimination and sexual violence that she faced as a woman in 17th-century Italy.

Gentileschi (1593–1652) was successful in her own day, but was mostly written out of art history until the 1970s, when feminist scholars rediscovered her work. Now she is celebrated in many books, films and plays, and her work is widely reproduced. Her greatest paintings include “Judith Beheading Holofernes” and “Susanna and the Elders.”

Many women and queer people can relate to her battles against prejudice and sexual violence, documented in her rape trial in 1612. She could be considered the patron saint of women artists.

Gentileschi_judith_ and_her_maid1 — "Judith and Her Maidservant" by Artemisia Gentileschi

Although Gentileschi was apparently heterosexual, lesbians have drawn energy from her life and art.

Lesbians who have created tributes to Gentileschi include painter Becki Jayne Harrelson and playwright Carolyn Gage. In the play “Artemisia and Hildegard,” Gage has two of history’s great women artists debate their contrasting survival strategies: Gentileschi battled to achieve in the male-dominated art world while Hildegard of Bingen found support for her art in the women-only community of a medieval German nunnery.

The daughter of a painter, Gentileschi was born in Rome and trained as a painter in her father’s workshop there. She was refused admission to the art academy because she was a woman, so her father arranged for her to have a private painting teacher — who raped her when she was about 19. Gentileschi herself was tortured by thumbscrews during the seven-month rape trial, but she stuck to her testimony. The teacher was convicted, but received a suspended sentence. Continue reading “Artemisia Gentileschi: Baroque artist and rape survivor painted strong Biblical women, By Kittredge Cherry”