Goddesses, Divas & Femme Fatales: Oh My!

The estrogen (and plenty of testosterone, too) was oozing at 627 Madison St. this past Saturday night as more than 200 fans and friends packed Studio Miska for the unveiling of LowerTown’s hottest new exhibit.

Goddesses, Divas & Femme Fatales celebrates the female form through the passionate eyes of four fabulously female artists.

The show is the brainchild — braingoddess? — of artist Freda Fairchild, who moved to Paducah from San Diego in 2001. She came up with the idea for the show last December.

“It’s never been my thing to draw the female body — or any body at all,” says Fairchild, a multimedia artist and printmaking instructor. “I usually do abstracts. But I thought it would be fun to have female artists look at female bodies — each with very different artistic styles.”

So Fairchild reached out to LowerTown artists Nikki May and Charlotte Erwin, and West End artist Amy Taylor Nolan. After six months of working on their various pieces, the four gathered at the studio two nights before the show to hang and discuss their art.

The result: a circle of representations and interpretations that flow smoothly from each artist to the next.

Fairchild’s six pieces show images of three different models — one is her daughter and Studio Miska owner Cricket Alexander — using the intaglio and collagraph methods of printmaking. Fairchild likes to add layer to layer, showing an interplay of images on top of one another.

May, who moved here from Atlanta in late 2003 and, by the way, designs ilistpaducah.com and other great Web sites, created her 14 small pieces using a process she calls encaustic collage (pictured at right). Encaustic is pigmented beeswax applied in a molten state and fused with heat to previous layers. May uses her original drawings and photographs — often scanned and printed onto translucent tissue paper, old book pages, and other found papers and objects and collages them into the encaustic medium. The resulting pieces have a nostalgic and intimate feel, inviting the viewer to look closely.


Erwin, of Working Artist Studios, created her six gorgeous pieces using her signature aqueous monotype method. She began with one, When the Goddesses Came, which then inspired the other five, with titles such as Water Garden Goddess (pictured left), Earth Garden Goddess and Fire Garden Goddess. “We all have a goddess within us,” Erwin says. “We just need to recognize her.”

And Nolan — famous for encasing pregnant bellies in plaster casts, then painting the result — showed seven pairs of local breasts (one of which is pictured below) and one breasts/belly combo, all beautifully decorated. Given that one in eight women will likely develop breast cancer, the casts serve as a gentle reminder about the importance of awareness, support and a cure.

Fairchild admits that, from time to time, she worried about the project. “Normally, when I do something, I say, 'Wow, this is fantastic! Look at what I've done!' But this show was difficult for me,” she says. “I wondered, is it too beautiful? Too sappy? Too girly? I just was unsure.”

Well, she certainly should be sure now. Opening night was so crowded that it resembled Holly Golightly’s apartment party in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The lively crowd purchased pieces from each of the artists.

Congratulations to the artists on a lovely show! The exhibit will remain up until Sept. 1, so be sure to stop by!

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