By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO –Among the 40 portraits of “Groundbreaking Girls” on exhibit through April 28 at the Women’s Museum of California are six people who self-identified as Jews or were of Jewish descent. A seventh portrait of particular Jewish interest is of Irena Sendler (1910-2008), who estimated she saved the lives of 2,500 Jewish children during the Holocaust by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Artist Allison Adams’ portrait subjects include Anne Frank (1929-1945); Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958); Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933- ); Frida Kahlo (1907-1954); Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000), and Gloria Steinem (1934- ).
The collection, in which Adams reached out to include girls and women of many different ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds, was grouped by the museum into ten categories indicating how diverse were the trendsetting accomplishments of various women. For example, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who currently serves on the U.S. Supreme Court, is among five women honored in the field of “activism/ politics.” She shares that distinction with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and California farm worker activist Dolores Huerta, among others.
Anne Frank, whose diary written while hiding with her family from the Nazis in Amsterdam, Holland, helped personalize the Holocaust for millions of readers and playgoers, was grouped in the category of “girls” along with Helen Keller, who overcame both deafness and blindness; and Malala, the Nobel Peace Prize winning advocate for universal education.
Frida Kahlo, whose self portraits invoked a world of pain and dignity, was among five women artists whom Adams painted. Mary Cassatt and Georgia O’Keefe were among the others.
In the field of science were Rosalind Franklin, whose work was a step toward the discovery and identification of DNA, and actress Hedy Lamarr—who besides being a popular movie actress – figured out ways to protect radio messages from being detected or jammed by the enemy, a step toward the development of CDMA, the technology used in cell phones.
The portrait of Gloria Steinem, founder of MS Magazine and a leader in the Feminist Movement, is in a catch-all category, called “Paper,” referring to the fact that the medium for her portrait and those of others in that category was gouache on paper whereas paintings in the other categories were either oil or acrylic on canvas, panel, or board. Joining Steinem in the “paper” category were such African-American luminaries at Bessie Coleman, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman, among others.
Sendler, who worked as a public health official in Warsaw and thereby was able to go in and out of the Ghetto, was grouped with Florence Nightingale and others in the category of Medicine.
Adams, who lives in San Clemente, California, says the collection represents approximately one-fifth of her ongoing work depicting girls and women of accomplishment. In some cases, she has painted more than one portrait of the same subject. All the works are for sale for prices ranging from $300 for some of the portraits in the “paper” series to $2,400 for the oil on canvas portraits of Amelia Earhart and Frida Kahlo.
The first painting to be sold at the exhibit’s opening on February 1 was that of Anne Frank, an 11 x 14 oil on panel, for $925. The painting and others that are sold will remain at the Women’s Museum of California at 2730 Historic Decatur Road in Liberty Station, through the end of the exhibition.
With the subjects of the paintings being both girls and women, Adams was faced with the issue of what to call her collection. “Women” would seem to leave out young ladies like Anne Frank and Malala, but “girls” also is problematic. Many women object to being called “girls,” considering it sexist. However, Adams said in a telephone interview from her home in San Clemente, all of her subjects “started as girls, and they all were young in spirit.” Besides, she said, she personally has never had a problem with someone referring to her as a girl, even though today she is 47 and has a son, 17, and a daughter, 8, of her own. Another reason for calling the collection “Groundbreaking Girls,” she said, was that she “wanted to make it relatable” for her daughter.
Justice Ginsburg was the most recent painting in the collection, completed in January, just a month before the exhibition began. Adams said Ginsburg is a favorite among the museum’s leadership, and this is evidenced by the fact that in the gift shop, one can find books about the Supreme Court justice. For children attending the exhibit there also are coloring pages showing the outlines of Ginsburg’s portrait as well as that of Kahlo’s, among others.
Adams said that ever since childhood, she was interested both in the visual arts and the performing arts. Initially, she acted under her maiden name of Allison Moore, taking parts both in theater productions and as a voice talent in Dexter’s Laboratory, an animated series on Cartoon Network in which she was the voice of the character DeeDee.
Her acting background has contributed to how she goes about preparing herself to do a portrait, she said. “My process had a lot to do about learning about the character, spending time as I did when I went into a role.” Reading widely about her subjects before she ever paints them helps her experience “a sense of connection with each of them. They are people that I have spent time with.” Adams said she can share something of her own feelings with her subjects, “usually in their eyes.”
Generally, Adams will find a black and white photograph of a subject, “which gives me a lot of freedom to choose my own colors, because I’m not trying to copy. By bringing color into these paintings, it makes these women young again, it makes them fresh. They were colorful personalities, but some of them lived so long ago, they didn’t have color photography.”
She said that she began painting the “Groundbreaking Girls” series in 2016 about three months after her husband, Vernon, died. He had been in an automobile accident, which had left him without memory and in a nursing home. Adams said that during that period she thought about women who had overcome obstacles. Her first portrait was of Eleanor Roosevelt. “I found great strength in her story, she overcame so much.” After completing the portrait, she said she started asking herself “who else can I find out about?” She compiled a list of women whom she admired, and the more she read, the more the list grew.
“Now I have all these ladies (past and present) who want to be painted,” she said.
Sometime after the “Groundbreaking Girls” exhibition closes at the Women’s Museum of California, a similar exhibition is planned at Chapman University in Orange, California. Details of that exhibition still were being finalized. Examples of Adams’ works may be found on her website at http://allisonadams.net/
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com