Yankee Doodle Dandy

Welcome back to the April Arts Marathon to support our local Asylum Seekers!

During this marathon, as alluded to, I’ve been puzzling out my upcoming summer show at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center: Yankee Doodle Dandy. Without giving too much away — it’s my response to the rhetoric used in the last year where words like ‘patriot,’ ‘American,’ ‘citizen’ have bloomed connotations that don’t always mesh with my reality. I want to take up and make space for my fellow Americans (and people who live here on this planet) to be their own Yankee Doodle Dandy selves in this exhibit for the USA’s Semiquincentennial. (I’m proud that this word now just flies out of my mouth when I want to say it… it’s taken a minute).

I’ve been thinking about this since last summer. I love all the Doodles and Dandies, and Yankees and Noodles, not to mention the Yodels, Yokels, and Poodles. Oodles I say, I love ‘em oodles. There’s so much fun in our American Identity, such abundance for laughs, joy, surprises, and tricksters, too. I choose to be spacious about this topic. I’d love to include them all in the show… this one won’t fit in. It needs to be part of this world and not just part of my ideas that didn’t make it!

Also — do you have a tri-cornered hat or a foam finger that you would like to give, lend, or sell to me?

Get it? She’s a doodle - like part poodle!

This was my free inking from yesterday — when I was wondering about Gravity and what it wants. and then I jostled the paper and everything went sideways.