Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Home Page
  • The Journal
    • Current Issue
    • Forthcoming in Signs
    • Recently Published Issues
    • Virtual Issues
      • Signs Resources on Abortion and Reproductive Justice
      • Feminist Resources for #TheResistance
      • Signs@40: Feminist Scholarship through Four Decades
      • Visibility and Visuality: Reframing Gender in the Middle East, North Africa, and Their Diasporas
    • Art
      • Featured Artist
      • Cover Art Gallery
      • Visibility and Visuality Artists
    • Calls for Papers
    • For the Classroom
      • Signs on the Syllabus
        • WGSS Teaching Resources
        • Feminist Practices
      • Films for the Feminist Classroom
  • Feminist Public Intellectuals Project
    • Short Takes
      • Lady Justice
      • Bad Sex
      • The Women’s House of Detention
      • In Defense of Witches
      • Abolition. Feminism. Now.
      • The Right to Sex
      • Believing
      • Against White Feminism
      • Still Mad
      • Controlling Women
      • Period. End of Sentence.
      • Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again
      • Mediocre
      • Entitled
      • Boys and Sex
      • Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls
      • Reckoning
      • No Visible Bruises
      • Maid
      • Unapologetic
      • Rage Becomes Her
      • In a Day’s Work
      • Eloquent Rage
      • Crash Override
      • What Happened
      • Destruction of Hillary Clinton
      • Unwanted Advances
      • Feminist Fight Club
      • In the Darkroom
      • We Were Feminists Once
      • All the Single Ladies
      • My Life on the Road and Notorious RBG
      • Unfinished Business
      • Pro
      • Bad Feminist
    • Feminist Frictions
      • Radical Feminism
      • The Field of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
      • Free Speech
      • Title IX
      • Sex Work
      • Identity Politics
      • Celebrity Feminism
      • Trigger Warnings
      • Affirmative Consent
    • Ask a Feminist
      • Reproduction in the Age of Epigenetics, a Conversation with Rene Almeling, Sarah Richardson, and Natali Valdez
      • Jennifer Fluri Discusses the Gender Politics of the US Withdrawal from Afghanistan with Sandra McEvoy
      • Patricia Williams Discusses Rage and Humor as an Act of Disobedience with Carla Kaplan and Durba Mitra
      • Eesha Pandit and Paula Moya Discuss Activism and the Academy with Carla Kaplan and Suzanna Walters
      • Byllye Avery Discusses the Past and Future of Reproductive Justice with Susan Reverby
      • Deborah Anker Discusses Gender and US Asylum Law with Aziza Ahmed
      • Soraya Chemaly Discusses Feminist Rage with Carla Kaplan and Durba Mitra
      • Cynthia Enloe, Agnieszka Graff, Ratna Kapur, and Suzanna Danuta Walters on Gender and the Rise of the Global Right
      • Catharine A. MacKinnon and Durba Mitra on Sexual Harassment in the Age of #MeToo
      • Dolores Huerta and Rachel Rosenbloom on Gender and Immigrant Rights
      • Michael Kimmel and Lisa Wade on Toxic Masculinity
      • Angela P. Harris on Gender and Gun Violence
      • Susan J. Carroll on Gender and Electoral Politics
      • Cathy Cohen and Sarah Jackson on Black Lives Matter
  • About & Guidelines
    • About
    • Masthead
    • History
    • For Authors
      • Author Guidelines
      • Submitting a Manuscript
      • Reprints and Permissions
      • Calls for Papers
  • #FeministResistance

Toni Bowers and Natasha Ward – Detail from an Untitled Composition (2011)

Tweet
Share
Toni Bowers and Natasha Ward - Detail from an untitled composition

Toni Bowers and Natasha Ward – Detail from an untitled composition (2011). Charcoal and paint. © 2002 by Ann Hermes for the Christian Science Monitor. Photo courtesy of the Image Works.

Toni Bowers and Natasha Ward’s work appeared on the Autumn 2013 issue of Signs (vol. 39, no. 1), a special issue titled “Women, Gender, and Prison: National and Global Perspectives.”

Artist Statements:

Toni Bowers: Being able to express my inner/outer feelings through art was something I had never experienced before. It was a way of an escape for me. Then partnering up with Natasha, being women from different cultures leading totally different lifestyles, merged together in an expression of love through art. It was so amazing! Our handprints represent unity.

Natasha Ward: The image myself and Toni did was a partner artwork. We express ourself in our mind, our feelings, and express our art. It showed how artwork can be expressed by just doing art.

Biographical Statements: 

Toni Bowers has served eighteen years in an Alabama state prison for women. Even though her journey has not been easy, it’s given her time for self-exploration. It’s enabled her to walk through and face her past failures and mistakes that so easily beset her and to overcome them clean and sober. It’s not just what awaits you on the other side, it’s all about the climb.

Natasha Ward has been incarcerated for eight years, and it took her mind into thinking unhealthy thoughts. When she heard of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project for helping women to express their artwork, she took her chance in the class to do art. She had never done art before, but she got the chance to express herself. It helped out on her feelings, her mind, and her life.


Signs extends special thanks to Kyes Stevens of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, a program that provides access to sustained and quality educational experiences in the arts, humanities, hard sciences, and human sciences for prisoners in Alabama.

Tweet
Share

Search the site:

Key Links

  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Guidelines for Authors
  • Signs Archives on University of Chicago Press
  • Subscribe to Signs
  • Library Recommendation Form
  • Sitemap

Contact Signs

  • (617) 373-5837
  • signs@northeastern.edu
  • Contact Us

(c) 2012 Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

 

Loading Comments...