April's show with fellow artist Bente Christensen was titled "Modern Extremes: Bright & Cheery, Dark & Dirty" and it showcased how two different styles of Mid-century modern artwork could work and play well together.

We both share a similar and very complementary color palette that made the room come alive. The Dark & Dirty portion of the show was my doing and based on the responses it definitely delivered.

The pieces that primarily represented "Dark" were from my appliance series. Two of the five works, Big Bikini and Motown, had never been shown. Big Bikini, featuring one of the Bikini Atoll atomic bombs, was made in 2005 and showed how the treatment of my spokesmodels and the ground had evolved.

The Motown piece talks of radio segregation in the early 60s and how Motown helped break those racial barriers.

The "Dirty" portion was the unveiling of my "Forbidden Comics: The Dirty Secrets Between the Panels" series. I clipped and sorted thousands of panels from a vast collection of public domain, Mid-century comic books. Mixing and matching the panels highlighted the misogyny, violence, and antiquated social norms that filled those books. The "new" stories the selected panels tell are salacious, surprisingly graphic, and refreshing.

One artist friend who came to see the show told me, "These are WAY more dirty than you lead on." I thought I was pretty clear with titles like "Swinger" and "Ecstacy" but I'm realizing people don't always take me seriously enough. Within the first hour of the opening three Forbidden Comics pieces sold (Swinger, Ecstacy, and Decoded Comics), serving as confirmation that my dark, naughty idea had legs (and whips and multiple partners).

My favorite part of this show was the vintage snack table and it was a huge hit. It was filled with nostalgia including aspic salmon, aspic Spaghettio-s, fluffernutter sandwiches and a fishbowl of Lipalux promotional keys with a Swinger keychain with vintage keys.

Those keychains went quick! A few brave souls tried the aspics and all of the quartered sandwiches (including PB&J and bologne) were eaten.

Concurrent to this show was La Luz de Jesus' "Lost and Found" group assemblage show in Los Angeles. I'd been pursuing this gallery since the early 90s and I was delighted to learn that "No Smoking" and "Girl Fight" were selected. This show was an intense collection of wild works and it was such an honor to be a part of it. The attendees were a good time and a few visitors were game for a friendly tussle.

Having two shows opening over one weekend was really intense and for a moment it was very much what I was hoping my artist's life would look like. One male artist visiting the Modern Extremes show had the gall to tell me that the only way I could get recognition as a woman artist (before I die) would be if I had an affair with a successful gallery owner. That comment proved that, just as my Mid-century work suggests, the chauvinism of yesteryear may have quieted down, but it hasn't gone anywhere.

As I've said, "Look how far we've fallen behind."

Forbidden Comics: The Dirty Secrets Between the Panels

The Artist's Speedball and Finding Validation

Duo (Lipa) Exhibition