Robin Brooks – Purple Coats, Purses, and People—My Non-Traditional Portraits

Feminist artists sought to create a dialogue between the viewer and the artwork through the inclusion of women’s perspective. Art was not merely an object for aesthetic admiration but could also incite the viewer to question the social and political landscape, and through this questioning, possibly affect the world and bring change toward equality. As artist Suzanne Lacy declared, the goal of Feminist Art was to “influence cultural attitudes and transform stereotypes.”

 

—The Art Story

When I think about the role of portraiture in my work, one thing is certain—my portraits are not traditional. As in feminist art, I elevate women’s stories through depicting the objects used by women at different stages of life. Most often, the objects and people I choose to paint can seem ordinary on the surface. My attention to their image and life story elevates them; without my visual storytelling, they would fade into oblivion. It is my relationship to my subject matter—person or thing—that becomes compelling.

My painting process becomes a dialogue with the person or thing I am painting. And my source material—whether it is the object itself or a photograph—is the psychic medium that permits me entry. None of my artworks are commissioned portraits so I am not trying to please a sitter. What’s more, in my portraits I allow myself flights of fancy—collaging, layering, and bringing a person to life through the elements I include or leave out. I like to be surprised by what I discover, but ultimately the finished work has to feel whole, complete, and resolved.

Fannie’s Friendship Club: Portraiture as a Feminist Statement

I paint portraits of the forgotten, the seemingly ordinary, mundane, or insignificant.This is the antithesis of traditional portraiture which, by its very definition seeks to preserve for all time the images of the rich and famous. By painting my great aunt Fannie as an elder, I bring attention to her story. Who was she and what would she say to us if she were to speak through time? What was Fannie’s Friendship Club, and who were these people at the table? (Note: I appear as a guest at the table, as does my sister Susan who took the photo I used for the painting.)

Why are women’s friendships important, and how does this group portrait resonate for us in this day and age? One sees evidence of a meal, with coffee cups stacked on the table. Bringing people together for a meal and conversation is a role that women have played for generations. At Fannie’s table, not only was food shared between the friends, but poetry, song, and conversation about the world’s troubles. In documenting this gathering, I have created a statement of solidarity and friendship.

Beyond Time—Conjuring My Grandmother Rebecca

Because I never met my maternal grandmother—Rebecca died at age forty from a rare auto-immune disease—painting from her photograph enabled me to communicate with her beyond time, bridging past and present. In Rebecca in a Purple Coat I used various tones of purple and yellow, a complementary pair. Interestingly, my source photo was in black and white. After showing my mother the finished portrait, she remarked that purple was her mother’s favorite color.

In contrast to The Friendship Club, the painting I made of Rebecca is more ethereal. In the original photograph as well as my painting, we see her standing alone on a brick sidewalk dressed in a fancy winter coat with the triple decker buildings of Worcester, MA behind her. Rebecca looks out, her face shaded by the brim of her cloche hat. She is smiling, perhaps at the photographer. Her gaze does not meet ours—she is looking beyond us toward the future, and we can only imagine her thoughts and dreams.

Why is it important to remember the forgotten ones? How can their lives illuminate ours? These are questions that motivate me in the search for the next subject in my portrait series.

Portraits of Things—Rendering Objects with Emotional Resonance

For me, an object such as a purse or a coat can hold emotional resonance, bringing to mind women’s stories and their lives. I’ve found this to be equally true whether I’m looking at a small clutch bag handed down to me from my mother or a purse I found at a thrift store. I usually begin acquainting myself with the object’s form by drawing it. Only later, once I feel like I know my subject, do I move into painting or mixed-media collage. And when I choose to work in collage, I allow other materials and ideas to enter into the creative process, as in Magical Purse of Memories.

For me, getting it right in a portrait doesn’t mean including every wart or blemish, or, in the case of my Grandma Sarah’s Kitchen, showing every pot and pan. What I want you to feel is something emotionally true about my subject. I depict my grandmother’s beloved parakeets, a pot of African violets, and a window that looks out beyond the confines of her small kitchen. Each of the elements I included in this collage carries emotional resonance, evoking a warm familial space.

The Coat Series

The coat series emerged because of the union label I found in the fur-collared wool coat; a thrift-store find. After completing the pastel version, A Good Coat, Union-Made, I began thinking of the role of fashion and how anonymous women have sacrificed their lives to create these clothes we live in. In Who Sews the Buttons? and We Are Made from the Same Cloth, the coat is a stand-in for the women who sew our clothing, both in the past and continuing today in the sweatshop factories overseas. We feel empathy for those women because of my loving attention to detail. By being quietly feminist and even subversive, my art can make us more aware of hidden stories and meaning in ordinary objects and people, but we have to learn how to look and listen.

 

Image at top: Robin Brooks, Magical Purse of Memories, mixed-media on panel, 12 x 9 in., 2023, private collection.