40Women40

WAUKESHA - 40Women40, an art exhibition that combines portrait drawings of women over the age of 40 with text compiled from interviews of the subjects, runs through Monday, Oct. 24 in the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha’s fine arts gallery.

The work of Judith Waller, professor of art at UW-Fox Valley, and Tammy Ladwig, assistant professor of education at UW-Fox Valley, is featured. The exhibition, which can be viewed noon to 1 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, 9 to 11 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 11a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, is free and open to the public. UW-Waukesha is located at 1500 N. University Drive in Waukesha.

Waller, who did the drawings, and Ladwig, who conducted interviews, said their original idea for the exhibition was to show pastel portraits and share the voices of 40 women over 40 years of age. They eventually decided to go beyond 40 women and have sought out women of varying ages beyond 40 and of various occupations, backgrounds and philosophies.

Waller traces the show’s origins to a video store visit a few summers back.

“I visited a movie rental store and tried to find a film that would speak to me as a woman gearing up to approach my 50th year,” she said. “What I found were numerous films starring young women (or somewhat older women who had so many surgical procedures that they no longer appeared their actual age) and, of course, lots of men of all ages linked up with these young or surgically ‘young” women.”

The films she was able to find that night featuring women 40 and older tended to depict the women as mentally ill, criminal or “or conflicted because they were in love with their daughter’s boyfriends, or the more positive individuals found life had meaning for them at last since they found romance,” Waller said.

Waller had hoped to find films featuring independent, reasonable, interesting and intelligent characters.

“It surprised me that I wasn’t able to put my hands on films with those characters given the fact that there is a lot of money in the hands of women of my age (give or take a decade),” she said. “I imagined there existed women who would enjoy watching such films yet, that evening, I was frustrated in my search. I thought to myself: is society saying it is so dreadful to look one’s age—when one is over 40?”

In considering how an artist could respond to such as question, Waller came up with the idea for the exhibition. “I saw this show depicting women who live meaningful lives and that evidence of those lives are beautifully present in their faces and bodies,” she said. “It was my hope to showcase these women as the best kind of role models for girls and young women.”

Soon after, Waller had dinner with Ladwig and another friend and told them of her idea.

“As the three of us talked over dinner about the possibilities of the show, Tammy mentioned that her recent dissertation focused on women’s voices,” she said. “This sounded fascinating to me. After some discussion, I asked Tammy if she would be willing to work as partner with me on this project by focusing on the stories of interesting women we admire. She was interested and I am just thrilled by the thought of this show having a multi-dimensional component thanks to her involvement.”

Biographies enable researchers to gain a subjective perspective on the various issues and topics an individual experiences. Women, however, have rarely had their voices heard because men have traditionally written many biographies, Ladwig said.

“Women’s own understandings and interpretations of their experiences have been unrecorded, and also silenced,” she said. “This contributes to the common stereotype that women are one-dimensional and uniformly apolitical creatures caricatured mainly by men who have studied their lives.”

Waller said 40Women40 is unique in that is brings together the art and education departments.

“We use two different mediums to express the participants’ voice.  It becomes imperative that we find new ways to sponsor women’s voices,” she said.  “What better way than to interview them and have their portraits drawn.  I believe that through these research project-giving women the opportunity to talk about their lives-provides the reader with personal and practical insights into the participants’ expertise. Tammy believes that we can facilitate genuine voice of the women, uncontaminated by others.” 

Waller was born in St. Louis. She earned undergraduate degrees in drawing, painting and art history from Wichita State University and completed her terminal degree in painting at Indiana University, Bloomington. She taught art in higher education institutions in Indiana, Washington, Illinois and Wisconsin and has exhibited her work in those states and others over the years.

Ladwig was born in Sheboygan and received her Ph.D. from UW-Milwaukee.  She has been teaching 20 years in a variety of capacities: high school alternative teacher, special education teacher, business and marketing teacher in the technical colleges and 10 years in the University of Wisconsin Colleges.

40Women40 is made possible by support from the UW-Fox Valley Foundation Inc., UW Colleges Women’s Studies Professional Development and the UW-Fox Student Association.

For more information about the exhibition, contact Barbara Reinhart at barbara.reinhart@uwc.edu.

UW-Waukesha

UW–Waukesha has the largest enrollment among the 13 UW Colleges campuses with more than 2,000 students.  These freshman/sophomore campuses and UW Colleges Online comprise the UW Colleges. They offer an Associate of Arts and Sciences degree and prepare students of all ages and backgrounds for baccalaureate and professional programs. In addition, UW-Waukesha offers several collaborative bachelor’s degrees through UW-Milwaukee and UW-Oshkosh.

For information about programs, admission or financial aid, contact the Student Services office at 262-521-5040 or visit the Web at www.waukesha.uwc.edu. You can follow the campus on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UWWaukesha or Twitter at www.twitter.com/UWWaukesha.