Untitled (Covergirl)

From the Artist

My work focuses on pride in our heritage because the town I grew up in is very racist. I was proud of being Indian, but nothing was supportive of this. There was very little community activity, very little ceremony, very little traditional activity. But I knew something important was there and felt that something had to be done.

I was always an artist in school; they were always having me do the classroom art. They had me paint a mural of Sir Francis Drake christening the Indians, the Indians bowing down to him. Well, this was the beginning of some of the mural work that I did.

Mural work is so important to me. I like to do large paintings, but I didn’t like the European mentality of having one painting for one patron or just one person. I like the community-art aspect. I was affected by the Chicano art movement. They did murals around town for the community. Also, I began in printmaking. I just loved to print because it was multiples—many prints for many people. I liked what Jules Heller had to say about the print medium: it is for so many thousands of people, while one painting is for one person for many thousands of dollars.
_{—Excerpted from https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/interview-jean-la}

Brandywine artist prints celebrate cultural diversity and allow the viewer to experience the richness of the human condition firsthand. Jean LaMarr’s representational work validates gender and cultural identity and manifests a positive self for those who remain invisible. LaMarr’s paintings illustrate and dramatize the cultural divide that exists between Native Americans and non-Native Americans. Untitled (Covergirl) depicts a Native American woman wearing a traditional rawhide skirt and leggings as well as a non-traditional lace bodice. LaMarr’s goal, she says, is to create a visual experience that allows viewers to interact with both Indian and non-Indian cultures. She used printmaking as a tool for political art after being inspired by the Chicano mural and printmaking movement in California. In her 1989 Cover Girl Series, LaMarr silkscreened exploitative nineteenth-century photographs of half-dressed native women with clothing, jewelry, and basketry to reclaim the women’s dignity and respect.
_{—Adapted from Brandywine Workshop and Archives records and “Fresh, Human and Personal: Signature of Brandywine Workshop,” Three Decades of American Printmaking: The Brandywine Workshop Collection (Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2004)}