This IS My Costume #2 by jparadisi 2011
Scrubs Magazine published two series of paintings by moi in the Fall 2011issue. It is a rare opportunity for an artist to publish more than one or two images in a article, so to see the newest series, Vessels of Containment: Part I posted on the Scrubs Mag website is gratifying. I usually create paintings in a series; while each one stands alone, they were intended to be exhibited together. Vessels of Containment: Part I featuring Catalina Island Pottery (made on Catalina Island from 1927-1937) and vintage dolls, explores collecting as a means of holding.
Also unique about the Scrubs Magazine, is that the print version is entirely different from their website. Previously available only in uniform stores, now you can subscribe for monthly home delivery. Past issues have included articles by popular authors Theresa Brown, RN, Garrison Keillor, and in the Fall 2011 issue, Dana Jennings, journalist and cancer survivor who posts for the NY Times Well Blog. You’ll find a very nice article about me, which features five paintings from my series, From Cradle to Grave: The Color White on page 48.
This morning fellow nurse blogger Joni Watson at Nursetopia urges our friends here in Oregon, Nike, to make scrubs for nurses. I like the idea, considering the physical nature of our jobs, which requires both strength and endurance. What really caught my attention, however, was the link she included to an article criticizing the U.S. Women’s Soccer team for looking like nurses in their white uniforms at the World Games. I can’t help but to track back to my recent post The Color White and the series of paintings I made From Cradle to Grave: The Color White.
In June, I have a painting in the horse-themed Equine, a group show at the Froelick Gallery, opening June 1-July 16, 2011.
Last night was the opening reception for the Froelick Gallery group show, Equine. I am fortune that my painting Twenty-One is included among the work of many accomplished artists. Tonight is First Thursday, and there is a reception for the show from 5:00 pm until 8:00 pm. The show runs all of June, through July 16, 2011.
The Froelick Gallery is located at 714 NW Davis Street, Portland Oregon, 97209.
Artist Statement for Twenty-One
The painting Twenty-One is inspired by the prehistoric drawings found on the walls of the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in France. These drawings, made before humans possessed written language, are the earliest known record of primordial expression, and they are images of horses. Later, humans learned to use symbols instead of pictures to create words. Inspired by the transition of pictorial language into words, the repetitive form of grazing horses in Twenty-One suggests ancient cuneiform. Impressed by stylus into clay tablets, cuneiform script marks the abstraction of pictorial expression into symbolic characters. It is the precursor of the modern alphabet.
Twenty-One by jparadisi
Color-Coded For Your Safety is my latest series of images about identity. Color-Coded for Your Safety consists of nine photographs of flip-top caps collected from medication vials, which are commonly used in hospital pharmacies. Color-coding medication vials is a visual aid created by pharmaceutical companies (medication manufacturers) assisting pharmacists, nurses and physicians to identify the medications they administer to patients. The goal is to prevent patients from accidentally receiving the wrong medication. Color-Coded For Your Safety explores identity through the metaphor of color-coded flip-off caps used to identify medications in hospitals. Each cap color represents a different medication. According to studies, the variety of shades within any given color family is visually confusing to most people. Despite this fact, color-coding remains a popular system of identification in health care institutions.
Continue to scroll down to view the entire set of photographs.
Four Shades of Grey artist: JParadisi 2011
Four Shades of Grey II artist: JParadisi 2011
Four Shades of Grey III artist: JParadisi 2011
Four Shades of Blue artist: JParadisi 2011
Blue Compared to Purple artist: JParadisi 2011
Blue, Purple, Magenta & Maroon artist: JParadisi 2011
Four Shades of Orange artist: JParadisi 2011
Three Shades of Green artist: JParadisi 2011
Three Shades of Green II artist: JParadisi 2011
By: ANKA GALLERY
Portland based art critic Richard Speer writes about the paintings of From Cradle to Grave: The Color White, my art show at the Anka Gallery, in the visual arts section of this week’s Willamette Week.
“The highlights of the four-person show Kalos Eidos (Color/Beauty/Form) are the haunting paintings of Julianna Paradisi. The artist takes on the color white, normally associated with purity and nobility, and coaxes the creepiness out of it. Her eerie children in christening outfits, brides with empty eyes, and downright scary nurses in white uniforms are deeply unsettling. The fact that Paradisi is herself a registered nurse adds an additional layer of autobiography and ambiguity to the work.” by Richard Speer for WW, http://wweek.com/events/latest/visualarts/#36.49
The Anka Gallery will host an open house reception on Thursday, October 21, 2010 from 4pm to 7pm. From Cradle to Grave: The Color White is part of the group show Kalos Eidos, curated by Anna Solcaniova King. The show closes October 29th.
The White that Binds (Pinning Ceremony) mixed media & collage on paper. JParadisi 2010 SOLD
The White That Binds (Pinning Ceremony) 10″ x 13″ is available for purchase online through Anka Gallery.
The color white is prominent in traditionally female rituals and ceremonies of western culture. Nursing, with its iconic white uniform, began as a woman’s occupation and stayed that way for many years.
During pinning ceremonies nurses usually recite The Nightingale Pledge, which was not written by Florence Nightingale. Arranged by a Mrs. Lystra E. Gretter and a Committee for the Farrand Training School for Nurses, Detroit in 1893, the original pledge reads:
I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.
Another version, author unknown, expands the responsibilities of the profession:
“I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to faithfully practice my profession of nursing. I will do all in my power to make and maintain the highest standards and practices of my profession. I will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping in the practice of my calling. I will assist the physician in his work and will devote myself to the welfare of my patients, my family, and my community. I will endeavor to fulfill my rights and privileges as a good citizen and take my share of responsibility in promoting the health and welfare of the community. I will constantly endeavor to increase my knowledge and skills in nursing and to use them wisely. I will zealously seek to nurse those who are ill wherever they may be and whenever they are in need.
I will be active in assisting others in safeguarding and promoting the health and happiness of mankind.”
The original pledge links purity to nursing. Both pledges refer to God, and the color white is worn during the pinning ceremony. Each pledge has strong expectations for nurses to fulfill in caring for other. The phrase “I will endeavor to fulfill my rights and privileges as a good citizen” in the second to last paragraph of the second version is unclear about what “rights and privileges” nurses may expect in return for this dedication. Women did not have the right to vote in the United States until the passage of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920. What were the “rights and privileges” of women when these pledges were written? What rights and privileges does the color white represent for nurses and women today?
Somtimes My Surgical Mask Feels Like a Gag by JParadisi 2010
by JParadisi
13 x 11 3/4″ oil and charcoal on paper 2010
“I will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping in the practice of my calling.”
The Nightingale Pledge
Sometimes My Surgical Mask Feels Like a Gag is available for purchase online through Anka Gallery
Die Krankenschwester 