Leah Knecht

Fallout Leah Knecht

Alkyd on Cradled Wood Panel, Acrylic on Canvas, Colored Plexiglass, Japanese Folk-Art Doll, Transparencies, Sand, Dominoes 24" x 24" x 1.75" $4000

Part of my “Whitewash” series, “Fallout” has faint paintings of a Japanese landscape print and a

Southwest scene inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe. The top hole is filled with an actual Japanese folkart doll I bought in Japan and overlaid with a transparency of an atomic bomb mushroom cloud. The bottom hole has layers of the United States Capitol building and the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. White paint drips over the top, along with sand embedded in acrylic medium.

Overlaid are parts of a painting I did years ago, a Cadillac, and a “missile-riding” pinup girl, which was a popular genre during WWII. The division sign is implied. This is a very painful subject for me, as I had relatives in Hiroshima, Japan. It is something that still causes anger and sadness, and could have only happened because Japanese were seen as less than human. 40 Contact information for this artist can be found on page 81.

Standard Beauty Leah Knecht

Old Window, Plexiglass, Tranparencies, Resin, Ads, Sharpie 24" x 23.5" x 1.75" $4000

The recent increase in anti-Asian hate has influenced my newest series, “Whitewash.” “Standard Beauty” speaks to the pressure Asian women face to Westernize their appearance, which some fall victim to, perhaps to fit in and not become a target. The beauty products I incorporated are from Asian companies, sadly. I used CMYK colors, which are the four colors used in print advertising, for the abstracted face fragments. The faces are of my relatives. The frame is an old discarded window I restored and whitewashed. The faces and ads are on transparencies, and I used a Sharpie to draw editing comments similar to those used in publishing. Text and comments are overlaid on the top plexiglass layer, casting shadows on the background wall where it is hung. All races should celebrate their own unique beauty, and resist pressure to conform. Contact information for this artist can be found on page 81. 41