IN THE MEDIA
Sweet Sixteen: Churning through D.C.’s Studios to find the Cream
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At a young age artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer drew from her personal life experience to create unique artistic expressions. It’s no wonder that one of her first influences was the 17th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi. At a time when women were not allowed into art academies, Gentileschi was trained by her father. She went on to become an accomplished painter known for casting women as the main characters of her narratives.
Thalhammer’s exhibit at the Butchers Daughter Gallery in Ferndale called “Lizards Live” reads as a visual memoir reporting her response to lurid activities in the parking lot of her parents’ truck stop diner. A waitress working in the family business, the artist became privy to an underground culture of sorts involving truck drivers and the prostitutes who hung out in the lot to service them.
The series, expressed through the technique of collage, contains body parts of women cut from fashion magazines, along with symbols of hand-painted rainbows. The pieces reveal the process of working through complex emotions and ideas attached to religious, social, political and psychological issues. The work began when Thalhammer graduated from art school and her parents decided to sell the diner. She set out to photograph the truck stop to document what this part of her life had meant to her.
Thalhammer was raised as a Catholic and points to the religion’s ideology of polarizing women’s sexuality either as whore or virgin. Through her work she seeks to erase boundaries and raise consciousness making the invisible subculture of truck drivers and the women who entertain them visible. The artist contrasts the roles of the women and truck drivers who frequented the diner. This idea is expressed as a metaphor in taking apart the female body and reconfiguring it in the form of “lizard-like creatures that are not completely human but still beautiful.”
Other images contain this female-lizard creature on car hoods, poised for the journey. Thalhammer refers again to the aspect of metaphor in the work speaking of her idea of “romanticizing the journey.”
We all struggle with some element of our lives and experience our own sense of the struggle on the “highway” or “journey” that we find ourselves on. The examination of this universal journey allows viewers to walk away from the show with their own interpretation and feelings.
Other works in the show include mixed-media images from Thalhammer’s acclaimed “Boxer Women” series, a large-scale pastel on paper, and a cut paper animation on DVD. For your holiday shopping, there are t-shirts designed by the artist for sale and postcards of a piece Thalhammer did of Michelle Obama for the 2009 exhibit “Manifest Hope” curated by artist Shepard Fairey. Fairey designed the famous poster of Obama that ended up on the cover of Time magazine. Oh, by the way…Thalhammer was the only artist in that show to portray Michelle Obama rather than the president himself.
The exhibit “Lizards Live” at the Butchers Daughter Gallery runs until November 25th.
www.thebutchersdaughter.com
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Monica Bowman is the owner of Ferndale art gallery The Butcher’s Daughter. Situated in the LGBT-friendly city, Bowman seeks to explore issues such as gender and creativity through the contemporary art shown in her gallery space, as well as to work as an advocate for all. Currently, the gallery is showing the work of openly lesbian artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer… read the story
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ARTNET NEWS: PUBLIC MURALS, PUBLIC CONTROVERSY
October 22, 2009
For some reason, public murals seem to be getting people’s hackles up lately. In Washington, D.C., a controversy has erupted around a mural by artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer in the city’s Bloomingdale neighborhood. The work was installed in May at the corner of 1st & W Streets, on the side of the home of collector Veronica Jackson, and was funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH). Titled Boxer Girl, it depicts a young African-American woman with boxing gloves and a yellow tank top, with a multicolored starburst behind her. According to Thalhammer, the image comes from a series of “boxer girl” drawings created while participating in a mentorship program at DC’s nonprofit Transformer space, and is about “the empowerment of women, the relationship between self esteem and athletics and the beauty within each individual’s personal struggle and journey.”
In her account, Thalhammer says that she “directly interacted with approximately 200 people during the five days that it took me paint the wall,” and that her hope was that the image “brightens the neighborhood.” Since the installation, however, some of these residents have very vociferously decried the mural as a blight, objecting that it is bad art and too “ghetto” for the area, according to DCist (comments on another site leave no doubt about what this means: “Maybe we should add some empty beer cans, cognac bottles, take-out Styrofoam food containers, a few crack bags and maybe some dog crap to really enhance the ‘ghetto’ effect the ‘artist’ was looking for,” says one, anonymous, poster).
The clamor forced a neighborhood meeting of the Bloomingdale Civic Association on Oct. 19 to discuss Boxer Girl, with residents demanding that the work be torn down. Nothing came from this meeting, however, with members of the DCCAH saying that they had no procedure for reversing projects that were already funded. “Someone had actually asked police to see if it caused an increase in crime,” a local blog reported. “They said there has been a 55 percent decrease.”
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NBC Washington
Boxer Girl Ready for a Fight
By Michael Flynn
October 20, 2009
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DCist
‘Boxer Girl’ Controversy Just Won’t Die
By Sommer Mathis in News on October 19, 2009 11:55 AM
Via the comments and IMGoph’s blog, it looks like the uproar over a large mural by local artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer is just refusing to die down. A Bloomingdale Civic Association meeting tonight will reportedly focus on whether to force the artist’s “Boxer Girl” mural to come down.
“Boxer Girl” was installed on the side of the Bloomingdale home of collector Veronica Jackson back in May, and the neighborhood reaction was decidedly vehement. Some neighbors love it, but others just plain hate the thing, for reasons ranging from generalized complaints that it’s an “eyesore” to it being “ghetto,” whatever that means. The piece, which was funded by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, depicts a young woman wearing boxing gloves, sporting a black eye, amid some rainbows and stars.
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Greater Washington, in an interesting blog post the other day, delved into the use of the word “ghetto” in part in response to the heated online discussion that ensued over a mural that went up in Bloomingdale earlier this year.
After a neighborhood blog pictured the mural of “Boxer Girl,” a black woman clad in workout attire with her hands raised in boxer’s gloves and sporting a black eye, at least one commenter expressed dislike for it by dubbing it “ghetto” - thus setting off a long (and unresolved) debate over the mural’s artistic merits, what, exactly, it said about the neighborhood, and, now, the use of that descriptor. read the full story
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This is how it starts. You see a pleasant, little announcement about a city-sponsored mural program. It asks whether you’d allow people to paint an exterior wall of your house. Pretty innocuous. Then, the thing goes up, and your neighbors start complaining about how they can See it from their kitchen!!! And in other rooms!!! It’s outside all the time—every time they look, it’s there! This is upsetting. A local news channel runs a story about their crazy preoccupations. The local listserv goes mad. But you know what? It’s your wall, and you can do what you please with it. So, forget them. Art makes the neighborhood more interesting.
Sign up anyway: The DC Department of Public Works has a program that pairs young people with property owners. The Murals DC program, created to replace illegal graffiti with artistic works, teaches young people mural painting. The program is open to residential and commercial property owners, and interested persons should act quickly to have their sites considered. Contact Nancee Lyons at (202) 671-2637 or at Nancee.Lyons@dc.gov for more information. Note: I don’t believe this city program is the same one that brought “Boxer Girl” to Bloomingdale. (”Boxer Girl” was paid for by DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; The announcement above comes from the Department of Public Works.)
In another listserv message, Lyons says this year’s round of murals will be the second for the program.
“This initiative positively engages DC youth and has been successful in deterring future acts of graffiti vandalism on the property.”
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Feelings about Boxer Girl are pouring onto the Bloomingdale listserv—everything from a high-minded “let’s consider this in a historical context” response to a general screed about gentrification and bigots… read more
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Now, here’s a controversy that just shouldn’t be one. A Bloomingdale woman allowed an artist—with a DC government grant—to paint a mural on the side of her house. She calls it “a boxer girl,” saying “It’s about strength. It’s about creativity.” The neighbors apparently think it’s about…Annoying them. They look outside and have to see it, and that’s terrible.
I’m not sure what’s so offensive about rainbows and stars. One neighbor wonders if it’s a “lesbian pride thing,” but that’s as close as anyone comes to proffering some sort of meaning to “boxer girl.” It would never occur to me to get angry about this.
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Greater Greater Washington
When a “ghetto” is not a “ghetto”
by Lynda Laughlin
June 16, 2009 2:00 pm
The term “ghetto” is often an overused and stereotypical term used to describe urban culture and residential communities.
Any avid reader of neighborhood blogs in DC has most likely noticed how commenters over use the term “ghetto” to describe communities they see as poor, crime ridden, undesirable, and Black. A recent post about a new mural in Bloomingdale produced a number of comments from readers who used the term “ghetto” to describe the mural and the surrounding neighborhood. The flippant use of the term “ghetto” has severely impoverished contemporary debates about the social and economic conditions of urban communities… read the full story.
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ABC Channel 7 News
Community Outraged Over Mural Painted on D.C. House
July 03, 2009
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The Washington Examiner
By Chris Klimek
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The Eye
Today’s art chosen by: Lisa Marie Thalhammer
Occupation: Artist
Residence: Eckington
The Work: “Boxer Girl,” a mural at the corner of 1st and W streets NW, Bloomingdale
What I Want to Tell You About This Piece:
As an artist, it is part of my job to get my art work where people can see it. I enjoy showing in galleries, but at the end of the day, there are only specific people who are able to visit them. Creating public art is a way to share my work with a greater population, engage people in the artistic process and hopefully spark conceptual dialogue about art.
Boxer Girl is based on a series of boxer girl drawings I created while participating and exhibiting in Exercises 3, a peer critique and mentorship program at Transformer, a DC-based non-profit visual arts organization. I hope that viewers who walk by feel that the art work brightens the neighborhood and that they respond to the physical qualities of the work; the bright colors, line quality and shapes. To me, conceptually, Boxer Girl references the empowerment of women, the relationship between self esteem and athletics and the beauty within each individual’s personal struggle and journey. The stars and design pattern are a reaction to the star shape in the window bars and the architectural elements of the building.
The homeowner, Veronica Jackson, who has been a supporter and collector of my art work for years, believes that, “art is, for many, a transformative experience and should be accessible to everyone.” So naturally, when I asked her if she would be willing to house this project, she was thrilled.
During the mural installation, I directly interacted with approximately two hundred people during the five days that it took me paint the wall. Most people would stop to talk or just watch while as I was working. Many people thanked me for bringing a mural to the Bloomingdale neighborhood, but my favorite interactions were with the neighborhood kids who would visit me day after day. Young boys would walk by and comment about how the painting was “tight” and discuss the painting’s development. Past experiences with neighborhood kids originally inspired my desire to make street art. I live up the street from the mural and it was important to me that this specific project live close to my home so that the youth in my neighborhood would be able to visit it. This project is dedicated to them.
IF YOU GO:
Where: Corner of 1st and W Sts. NW, Bloomingdale
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Hoogrrl.com
Va va voom in Bloomingdale
By Philippa Hughes
May 2, 2009
Over the Memorial Day weekend, Lisa Marie Thalhammer painted this fabulous mural on the side of my friend Veronica’s house in Bloomingdale. Wow! One of the neighbor’s said it added “va va voom” to the street. No kidding! see hoogrrl’s pics…
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WAMU 88.5 FM All Things Considered
Sacrificing More than Art in Schools
April 16, 2009 - Music and the art’s are usually the first classes on the chopping block when schools face budget cuts. But artists and educators say more is lost than gained by sacrificing the arts. Private donations play a part in funding the arts, especially when governments and schools lack resources. But among foundations the arts rank below health, human services and other educational priorities.
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Peeking into Lisa Marie’s Studio by Sarah Anderson from Lisa Marie Thalhammer on Vimeo. The heroines portrayed in Lisa Marie Thalhammer’s artwork deconstruct conventional notions of gender, identity and power. Follow documentarian Sarah Anderson into Lisa Marie’s Washington DC based studio for a quick peek at her most recent works on paper and canvas.
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radio hybrid presents: gender fatigue: A weekly radio show on Washington DC based community powered radio station - Radio CPR 97.5 - every Tuesday Bent & Mothershiester take you through a journey of witty banter, scathing commentary, tunes to make you dance, interviews and live guests. On March 3rd, Gender Fatigue was very excited to be joined by amazing local artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer… Follow the link to read the interview.
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Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama by Lisa Marie Thalhammer
The U.S. News World Report
By Maura Judkis
February 5, 2009
We’ve written before about Obama
art, but street artist Shepard Fairey isn’t the only one inspired by our new president. Artists across the country are getting in on Obamamania… …Lisa Marie Thalhammer of D.C. “My work deals with powerful women,” she says. “Michelle is an important figure for us to look up to.” Thalhammer says that she does not usually produce politically minded art but has always been interested in portraying gender and power. Her portrait of the first lady stands out amid a sea of Obama portraits. “People around town talk about how much they admire her already,” said Thalhammer. “I’m excited to see her in her new role. I thought she needed to shine.”
Lisa Marie’s painting Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is also featured on MTV.com and cultureserve.net.
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Blade photo of Lisa Marie by Henry Linser
Washington Blade: Out in DC
Friday, Jan 23, 2009
Queery
20 gay questions for Lisa Marie Thalhammer
Lisa Marie Thalhammer, a 27-year-old St. Louis native, says that art chose her. She works mostly in ink drawings but paints, makes collages and murals and has also done stop-motion animation. She’s working now on a mural for an alleyway in D.C.’s Bloomingdale neighborhood (near where she lives) that was funded by a grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities. Her work can also be seen on display at an office building located at 1506 14th Street, N.W. (see it during business hours or e-mail to info-@thepinklineproject.com to make an appointment).
Growing up as a Catholic schoolgirl and waiting tables at her family’s truck stop, she started pursuing art seriously at about age 16. Thalhammer says her work “deconstructs conventional notions about gender, identity and power.” She works part time at Ellipse Arts Center in Arlington, Va., where she creates educational programs, and spends the rest of her time in her studio, going to hear her girlfriend, DJ Natty Boom spin at BeBar, or swimming or travelling. “I never feel I need to get away from art, but there are a few other things I like to do,” Thalhammer says. She landed in Washington five years ago when she came to visit a cousin. Though she dates women, Thalhammer prefers “queer” to “lesbian.” “I like it because it doesn’t say as much about expressing yourself within certain boundaries and what other people expect you to be,” she says.…
Follow this link to read the interview.
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Simone Leigh's Queen Bee
Artists Talking Art: Lisa Marie Thalhammer on Simone Leigh
By Chris Klimek
The Examiner
February 11, 2009
WASHINGTON – We’re big fans of Lisa Marie Thalhammer’s paintings and works on paper, so naturally we’re interested in what turns her on. So we asked. The sculptures of Brooklyn artist Simone Leigh — at G Fine Art through Saturday — were her answer.
“Walk underneath a chandelier of breastlike terra cotta forms with gold tips and try not to let the antennas poke your eye out,” Thalhammer raves. “The imminent extinction of analog television makes these antennas a timely found object inclusion, and transpose Leigh’s ancestral vessel forms to present-day Western culture.” She also urges visitors not to miss the clamped porcelain plantain piece in the gallery’s back office.
“Queen Bee,” Thalhammer says, makes a fine appetizer for the sculpture-heavy Louis Bourgeois retrospective opening at the Hirshhorn Museum at month’s end. Works for us. While you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to check out “Lifeguard,” Thalhammer’s joint exhibit with Decoy, across the street at 1506 14th St. NW.
If you go
“Simone Leigh: Queen Bee”
Where: G Fine Art, 1515 14 St. NW
When: Through Saturday February 21, 2009
Info: Free; 202-462-1601; gfineartdc.com/gallery-info.cfm
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Washington Blade
30 Under 30
Friday, June 13, 2008
To commemorate this year’s Capital Pride celebration, we decided to look to the future of the gay scene in Washington. From activists to artists, we’ve compiled a list of 30 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender area residents working to make a difference. And there are so many out young people making their mark that we’ve included a list of honorable mentions — people sure to figure prominently in the city’s gay scene for years to come.
Lisa Marie Thalhammer, 26
Washington, D.C.
Visual Artist
How has being gay impacted the work you are doing?
My drawings, installations and videos deal with notions of gender, identity and power. As a visual artist I draw from my everyday experiences when creating art. This makes it impossible for my personal relationships not to influence my work. This is evident in my current series of cut-paper stop motion videos and drawings entitled “Hypnotic Lusting,” currently on view in two different group exhibitions at Meat Market Gallery on 17th Street and at the Arlington Arts Center in Transformer’s flat file exhibition.
What do you hope to contribute to gay D.C.?
There are only a handful of D.C. artists, for example Mary Coble and A. B. Miner, who really challenge conventional notions of gender and identity in their art. Conveying different perspectives and giving small American subcultures visibility is part of my mission as a D.C. based visual artist.
How important is Pride to you?
Pride becomes more important to me every day. Expressing my sexuality is feminism. No matter if it’s in the art I make, the organizations I support or the Phase 1 Jell-O pit I wrestle in, expression is always something I think about.
What do you think is the most important issue facing gay Americans?
Respecting and understanding cultural and sexual differences within our gay community is by far our greatest obstacle. We are not just gay, straight, bi or trans. We are not just black, white or brown. We transcend these boundary lines and make up a complete palette of queer colors. Understanding this is essential to winning the fight for equality, because without respect for these differences, we will never be able to unify and form one strong voice against oppression.
What do you hope to accomplish in the future?
Challenging perspectives through visual art is a lifetime endeavor for me. The power visual images have to impact culture astounds me, and I will continue to use this language as a way to affect hearts and minds.
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GLOBAL ART + CULTURE NEWS
Featured Artist: January 1, 2008
What would the world look like if women were the creators of their own image in popular culture and beyond? If women were more than sensual pleasures or nurturing mothers, for the gaze, and sometimes touch, of onlookers desperate for an escape from the mystery of misery and suffering on planet earth. At its core, this is what the work of Lisa Marie Thalhammer asks. By using the ancient tools of visual pleasure and attraction, Lisa Marie lures viewers into her paintings and mixed media works of women through vibrant color, the female body, beauty and magnetic proportions/composition. However, upon closer look, the eyes (throughout history known as the window to the soul) of her subjects, return the gaze of the viewer and demand respect, not only as a woman, but as a human being.
Lisa Marie’s three latest series of work each address under-represented aspects of female identity in contemporary culture. In particular, her Boxer series and Guns and Girls series (above), address the coexistence of feminine beauty and an empowered spirit at the core of a fully realized woman. They both also force viewers to contemplate the idea that violence is a problem of the human psyche and soul, not just a masculine tendency. In Lisa Marie’s words, her latest series of work, Lot Lizards (below), “tells the story of an American highway underbelly by drawing on my young experiences working within the male dominated subculture of my family’s Middle American truck stop.” Lot Lizards (a slang term for truck stop prostitutes), in the work of Lisa Marie, are tools to explore the transcendence of the traditional female dichotomy of virgin/whore. Her use of Byzantine patterns and illuminated designs from gospel manuscripts envelop her hand drawn semi-trucks while her Lot Lizards are restored to a wholeness through Lisa Marie’s interlaced referencing of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, female figures from Catholic mythology.
Pictured: Boxer, 2006; A Portrait of Stacy with a Gun, 2005; and Lot Lizard BP STLE, 2007
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Washington Post Express
Sight Scene: ‘Sass’ Is Anything But
By Kriston Capps
October 17, 2007
Lisa Marie Thalhammer’s “lot lizard” drawings emphasize the role of women in American mythology, recasting truck-stop prostitutes in a more sympathetic light. Her use of religious iconography highlights the centrality of this narrative, one that ignores or subjugates women. In fact, the West ain’t so lonesome for those who live a life on the open road, but the stories of the prostitutes are skipped over in favor of the stories of the drivers who enjoy their company. Thalhammer’s Mary Magdalene-identified collaged drawings are strong. But similar works have seen a lot of play in recent group shows — not to mention Thalhammer’s solo at G Fine Art…
The word “sass” connotes, to this writer at least, not merely attitude but also insight. Work by the D.C.-based artists Bass and Thalhammer offer plenty of both…
Transformer Gallery, 1404 P St. NW; Wed.-Sat., 1-7 p.m. through Oct. 20;
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The Washington Post
Dark Displays of the American Dream
G Fine Art Exhibit Bares The Underbelly of Privilege
Saturday, June 9, 2007; C02
By Jessica Dawson for the Washington Post
At G Fine Art, three artists hold a mirror to America the not-so-beautiful. Together they explore opportunism, exploitation and the compulsion to hide dirty secrets under a patina of gentility…
Lisa Marie Thalhammer, the second artist in the show, looks at another group of parking lot denizens — a subculture of hookers called “lot lizards,” who troll truck stops for johns. These ladies of the night are the subject of Thalhammer’s collage drawing series “Welcome to Lizard County.” The artist pieced together images of women’s faces and body parts cut from Playboy and Vogue magazines, among others (many sport nice heels or other designer duds), to make Frankenstein monster-style bodies that the artist places on top of drawings she’s done of the hoods of semis.
The fact that Thalhammer made her lizards out of pictures from magazines shows how women’s bodies are essential fuel for economic engines. The female form becomes a coat hanger — for clothing and, metaphorically, for male fantasies. Thalhammer’s idea is rich…
José Ruiz, Vesna Pavlovic and Lisa Marie Thalhammer at G Fine Art, 1515 14th St. NW, Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m.-6 p.m., to July 7. 202-462- 1601, http://www.gfineartdc.com
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June 14, 2007
Lisa Marie Thalhammer’s “Welcome to Lizard County” examines the world of truck-stop prostitution.
Lisa Marie Thalhammer was a Catholic prep school student working as a waitress at her family’s truck stop in Troy, Ill., when she first heard the term “lot lizard,” trucker slang for prostitutes who turn tricks in the parking lots. Many years later, the 25-year-old D.C. artist would be mistaken for one.
Last summer, after her parents decided to sell the business her grandfather bought in 1972, Thalhammer went back with a camera to document the place where she spent nights and weekends as a teenager. As she walked around the lot—and, later, the lots of other truck stops in Maryland and Virginia—truckers would stop her and ask what she was doing. She told them stories about serving fried chicken and mashed potatoes at her family’s truck stop and about her art.
“They would say ‘Yeah, I knew you were too pretty to be working the lot,’ “ recalls Thalhammer, who moved to D.C, in 2004 and recently received a Young Artist Program grant from the D.C Commission of the Arts and Humanities. “I was like ‘Oh my God. I’m getting out of here now.’ “
The experience inspired Thalhammer to create “Welcome to Lizard County,” which opened Saturday, June 2, at G Fine Art. In most of the 15 collage, oil, and ink pieces included in the exhibition, lot lizards lounge seductively on the hoods and in the cabs of line-drawn semis; mismatched high heels dangle over truck grilles or from side windows. The women, whom Thalhammer assembled from snipped-up lad and fashion magazines, are abstract and comely hood ornaments, faces posed in the sultry expressions of models and prostitutes. The images, Thalhammer says, are about voyeurism and how women deal with it.
“The point of the drawings for me was to take an American subculture that is generally looked down on and give it, in a sense, some kind of empowerment, make it about the women, not about the men,” she says. As such, truckers themselves are absent from Thalhammer’s Lizard County; the work focuses on the women, the trucks, and the flat landscape and summer sunsets of the American Midwest. On the borders of many of the pieces, Thalhammer appropriated Gospel illuminations. “I chose to border the drawings to attempt to give a similar sense of importance or reverence to these figures,” she says.
Though she never met any women she was certain were lot lizards, Thalhammer says they were like mythical creatures constantly on the lips of truckers and other workers. And, even if her family’s truck stop has since changed hands, the impressions it left her with are deep-seated; Thalhammer plans to continue working on the theme, which she says could resurface at an exhibit at Transformer scheduled for September.
“I miss it,” Thalhammer says of the place where she learned about lot lizards. “But I am glad I have it in my memory.”
“Welcome to Lizard County,” along with works by José Ruiz and Vesna Pavlovic, is on view from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, to Saturday, July 7, at G Fine Art, 1515 14th St. NW, Suite 200. Free. (202) 462-1601.
