Artist Booklet - Family Housing Fund

Lori Greene | Untitled | 2004, glass and mixed mediaBarbara Harman | Remember (9-11) | 2003, acrylic on paperArtist’s Statement | lori greeneArtist’s Statement | barbara harman10I have been struggling with the issue of affordable housing for a numberof years. While I do own my home, it is small and five of us share twobedrooms. And because of the current housing market, the equity wehave in this house does not allow us to move into a larger one or a saferneighborhood. Unfortunately, our situation is a common one, especiallyfor low-income people of color and the working poor.My hinged triptych takes the form of a house and utilizes foundobjects, glass mosaics, and photographs. When opened, it reveals thingsthat make a community healthy: images of children playing outside,gardens growing, and neighbors talking. I use the triptych shape becausefor me it represents a spiritual place, a place for dreams and hopes.I began my current series, Homework: Meditations on the Meaning ofHome, in early 2001 as a light-hearted response to my daughter and herfamily acquiring their first home. But September 11 and its aftermathtransformed it dramatically.Home is a universal metaphor for safety, refuge, love, family, andbelonging. And while Homework draws on those associations, theiropposites are represented in some of the most powerful pieces in theseries. The losses of September 11 remind us of the unpredictabledangers of childhood, where home as we know it can cease to exist andparents can leave and never return. In Remember (9-11), home is a ghostlyleaf between two towers of lit windows. It is about the children whowaited at school all that day for parents who never came back for them.11..................................................................................Lori Greene received her B.F.A. from theCalifornia College of Arts and Crafts in Oaklandand her M.F.A. from the Maryland InstituteCollege of Art in Baltimore. A past recipientof a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant, a BushFoundation Fellowship, and a Henry WaltersTravel Scholarship, Greene has exhibited herwork in California, Minnesota, New York, andVirginia. She also has taught local children howto create mosaic murals and has been an artistin-residencefor the St. Paul public schools.As a working artist, Barbara Harman makespaintings, prints, and artist’s books. Her work isin such prestigious collections as the Museum ofModern Art in New York City and the Victoriaand Albert Museum in London. A teacher formore than twenty years, she also has givenworkshops in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan,Missouri, California, and Guatemala. Harmanhas a master’s degree in fine arts and currentlyserves as president of the Women’s Art Registryof Minnesota (WARM).