PAM'S CONTRIBUTION TO : Francine Haskins' Book



The Process
When I began working on Francine's book, I had a different idea in my head, but once I actually had the book in my hands I decided to let the materials I had guide me.  I really want my participation in this project to push me into using mediums I don't usually use.  I don't want each page I create to be a 'signature' Pam piece. I have a lot of stuff from teaching and from print work.  I knew I wanted to use the happy little girl template Francine provided.  I have a lot of small leather samples and used one of those to create the body for the girl.  I then used material samples and some 'hair-like' blue yarn I had.  As I began to think about the story my pages would tell --given 2020 was dubbed the "year of the woman" in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 21st Amendment, giving (most) women the right to vote and the historic election of our first woman/ BIPOC Vice President--I decided to focus on positive messages for women and girls.  Kamala Harris talks about how inspiring Shirley Chisolm was for her.  I knew I wanted to include images of both women on the page with the girl. Then looking through collage scraps I found pieces of letterpress prints that worked with the theme.  I'd already come up with a slogan for the little girl to hold: "Believe you can" and decided I wanted a quote from Shirley Chisholm as well---and the one I found, "Don't listen to those who say you CAN'T. Listen to the voice inside yourself that says, I CAN" connected perfectly to my idea.  I also found an image of a mural honoring girls and womxn which I folded and printed the Chisholm quote on the front of--adding an interactive component to the page. But I also wanted the page to speak to the challenges we face. So I found a postcard from Mexico with a calavera print by Mexican journalist/printmaker Jose Posada to represent the losses due to COVID-19. I then write a Haiku inspired poem (mine has one extra line) about COVID: 

The times we live in.
COVID in the air. 
Racism everywhere;
Pandemonium


For the signature page I glued a gel transfer of a drawing I did of me in profile and included my website.  I really enjoyed the challenge of Francine's book which is so colorful and filled with textures. For an artist who works mainly in black and white this project has been a great challenge for me artistically.  I hope you like it Francine!


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