Telling women’s stories

OLGA LIVSHIN

Sharalee Regehr is a storyteller and stories are as integral to her art as color and brushstrokes.

The Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver is presenting 15 of Regehr’s visual stories in the new exhibition, In the Image of G-d, open now until March 21. In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8, the paintings are all women’s stories.

Regehr grew up in a family of artists. She had always painted but, for many years, it had been a hobby. Meanwhile, she performed as a professional musician, recorded and toured with bands, worked as an interior designer and taught art and music full time at high schools in Saskatchewan.

About 12 years ago, she read a book by Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way, and the book changed her attitude. “I had this brain shift,” she recalled. “I realized how important it was to express myself in visual art. I had to do it full-time.”

Since then, the focus of her life has become art, although she still teaches part-time. “I was a single mom and I supported my kids and myself by selling my paintings,” she said, admitting that it wasn’t easy. “It was feast or famine; my kids can attest to the challenges of our lives, but I didn’t have a choice. As an artist, I have to create. If I don’t, I get cranky.” The confession sounded like an inside joke, but the sentiment was heartfelt in its veiled intensity.

Most of the paintings in the current exhibition are mixed media on paper; they all have a specific look, reminiscent of old icons and medieval tapestries. “I traveled to New York after university,” Regehr explained. “I visited the Cloisters, and the tapestries and illuminated manuscripts there influenced the way I paint.”

She attributes the main subject of her paintings to her feminist nature and one long-ago conversation with her high school students. “My students asked me once why there are no great women artists, or politicians, or scientists.” Surprised by the question, she started researching the roles of women in society. Invigorated by the stories that emerged, she dug deeper, finally coming up with one of the oldest documents in history – the Bible. “I wanted to tell the stories of the great women from the Old Testament. We only know those stories from a male chronicler’s point of view: Eve was the wife of Adam. But in reality, she was much more. She was the first mother in the world. And unlike every other mother after her, she couldn’t ask her mom what to do if her son got sick or killed his brother. I wanted to tell her story and the stories of other women from the Bible from a woman’s perspective.”

Reflecting the artist’s whimsical view, most of the paintings in the current show look like headless mannequins, filled with metaphorical images and surrounded by colorful, symbolic frames. “We don’t know how Eve looked like, or Sarah, or Esther. That’s why they don’t have faces. Besides, in the old times, women mostly had values as mothers. A woman’s womb was important. Her face was not.”

Accordingly, Regehr concentrated on the particular attributes that made her heroines famous. Delilah in “Delilah: A Matter of Money” is a businesswoman, her torso clothed in coins, while scissors ornament the frame, hinting at the legend of Samson and his hair. “Esther: Hidden Strength” reveals a woman whose body is covered with obscure silvery design. Stars of David, hidden in the pattern, remind the viewers of Esther’s Jewish origins.

Biblical women are only part of the show, which also incorporates a number of notable women of the 20th century. Rosalind Franklin was a British DNA researcher, largely unacknowledged in her lifetime. The painting dedicated to her short, tragic life is done in delicate blue and pink, framed by the curling strands of DNA. Betty Friedan was an American activist, sometimes credited with sparking the second wave of feminism. In “Ironing Bored,” Regehr painted a woman on an ironing board, this time with a face, but bored to the point of screaming.

“I wanted to create a women’s hall of fame,” Regehr said. She is succeeding admirably.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She is available for contract work. Contact her at [email protected].

^TOP