BEAUTY: Mixed Media--Clare Finin

Clare Finin evokes Victorian Hair Art and Victorian mourning jewelry by embellishing, embroidering, or repairing heirlooms or keepsakes with her own hair.

Top to bottom: Place Setting #1; Place Setting #2; Fractures; Fractures detail; Cocktail Napkin; Things I Never Said; Truth Statements

http://clarefinin.com/

BEAUTY: Mixed Media--Vadis Turner

I love soft sculpture, and the work of New York artist Vadis Turner not only explores the medium it is made of but explores the larger meaning and cultural context of the fabric itself. Fashioned from items (ribbons, antique quilts, vintage clothing and lingerie, vintage bedsheets, handkerchiefs, and vintage gloves) that have connections to femininity, cultural and physical womanhood, dowries, betrothal, marriage, and the commodification of a woman's sex, her work speaks to how ideas and expected behaviors have been imposed on women from, yes I will say it, the patriarchy.

Her abstract wall pieces made from satin ribbons and antique quilts function on their own.

But the aforementioned artist commentary on femininity and feminism is quite apparent in her installation work. Just take a look at her wedding cakes made from lingerie or tampons, a woman's pelvis made from throw-away costume jewelry, and her piece entitled Vanity (My Beautiful Education) in which she cuts up MFA and BFA diplomas to make fake eyelashes, jewelry, and press-on nails.

Top to bottom: Forest Fire; Primrose Path Engulfed In Smoke; Red Mold Melt; Ripe Dirt/ Fresh Burial; Scorch; Best In Show; Bridal Lingerie Cake; Burial Feast (at the Brooklyn Museum Artist's Ball); Pelvis; Tampon Cake; Vanity (My Beautiful Education); Vanity (My Beautiful Education) detail

http://www.vadisturner.com/

BEAUTY: MIxed Media--Kate Keara Pelen

Kate Keara Pelen is another artist who works within a traditionally "feminine" form. Embroidery ("woman's work") has been the past time of women for centuries, and proficiency at needle work was one of the marks of a well-rounded--and thus highly prized for marriage--young woman in long-ago Europe. Pelen brings a modern, abstract sensibility to an ancient art form. Many of her pieces are mounted wrapped around the wooden hoop that is used in embroidery. Interestingly, she takes many of her design cues from the world of medicine (her piece Mimic, seen below in detail, is embroidered on a water stained medical bandage) and close-up views of bacteria.

In her piece Spread, Pelen works her abstract embroidery technique on an inherited lace table cloth, playing with the idea of feminine heirlooms, and what women supposedly value.

Top to bottom: Jolly Rancher; Copper Sulphate; For A Holy Place; On The Surface; Zig Zag; Mimic (detail); Twiglets (detail); Spread (detail); Spread

Her website also shows her painting, drawing, photography and video work.
http://www.katekearapelen.net/

And her blog she kept while she was a resident artist at Imperial College in London is pretty interesting too!
http://katekearapelen.wordpress.com/