Internationally renown artist Betty LaDuke uses art to promote social justice. These are some of the panels of farmworkers. They’re on permanent display at the Rogue Valley International Airport in Medford, Oregon.
A new book, Migrants, Border Lands, and Social Justice: An Artist’s Journeys, by internationally recognized artist, writer, and social justice activist, Betty LaDuke, has just been released. The book uses art to promote social justice.
Based on LaDuke’s journeys to borderlands around the world, Migrants, Border Lands, and Social Justice explores social issues affecting migrants and people of color.
Betty LaDuke is one of the most important and original female artists alive today. Professor of Art Emeritus at Southern Oregon University, she creates paintings and mural panels to celebrate cultural diversity.
A sketchbook in hand and a discerning eye, LaDuke visually document people’s everyday life. She then returns to her studio. Using acrylic paints, she make nearly life-sized brightly colored wood panels from what she’s seen on her travels. She has worked in many different media over a long career. However, LaDuke currently uses wood panels that she cuts, shapes, routes, and then paints.
Motivated to uplift women
LaDuke feels motivated to uplift women in poverty, people of color, and those living on the edge of society. To do this, she has long partnered with several nonprofits. These include Freedom from Hunger and Heifer International. LaDuke’s travels and research have resulted in six previous books. Among them:
Campaneras: Women, Art, & Social Change in Latin America (1985)
Africa through the Eyes of Women Artists (1991),
Bountiful Harvest: From Land to Table (2016).
Even if you think you haven’t heard of her, if you’ve ever traveled anywhere in southern Oregon you have seen her work. Twenty-six life-size panels of farm workers are on permanent display at the Rogue Valley International Airport in Medford.
You can also view her highly imaginative and stylized art installments in museums across the country, as well as inside Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s office, and in galleries as far away as Eritrea, Ecuador, and Mexico.
The 87-year-old is also mom to a famous daughter. Winona LaDuke, a two-time vice presidential candidate and running mate of Ralph Nader.
Art to promote social justice: observing, sketching, and painting to bring awareness of hardship, celebrate life
Migrants, Border Lands, and Social Justice: An Artist’s Journeys brings together experiences around the underlying theme of people on the move. It explores individuals and families uprooted from their homes. Because of seasonal employment needs, safety and security concerns, or a search for a better future for the children.
In the book LaDuke’s art is amplified with text to tell different families’ stories.
“What intrigued me most is that everyday people saw injustice and started helping, using their own resources to better other people’s lives,” LaDuke explains.
Each section contains the author’s symbolic painted wood panels that conclude with “Build Bridges Not Walls.”
When LaDuke published Bountiful Harvest: From Land to Table, there was an exhibit at the Schneider Art Museum. A line of 150 people snaked out the door. They were all waiting and exciting for her to sign their books. But as the museum is closed and Oregon is still in a state of near total lockdown, LaDuke has no plans for any in-person book signings at this time.
Social justice on everyone’s mind
But this new book feels particularly timely. Migrants, Border Lands, and Social Justice: An Artist’s Journeys tackles subjects that are on everyone’s mind right now. These include prejudice, displacement, and social disenfranchisement.
There’s “an element of hope in her work,” Anthony Faris, director of the Memorial Union Gallery in North Dakota, said in an interview. It’s “very colorful and very vibrant. So, it’s very approachable. But then when you actually approach it, you are faced with something that does have a darker theme and a darker context to it.”
“There are a lot of social justice issues coming to a head right now,” says LaDuke. “We have to make lasting change. We need equal opportunities in education and fair wages, so everyone can develop their talents and feel good about themselves.”
LaDuke’s work has been addressing issues of racism for over sixty years. “People of color are being beaten up and killed—a crime that keeps repeating. This has been going on for centuries but now people are able to capture it on video and Americans are demanding better. These are huge issues right now.”
Advance Praise for Migrants, Border Lands, and Social Justice: An Artist’s Journeys
“The last 50 years have provided ample occasions for LaDuke to deploy her considerable artistic talents as a force for good not motivated by greed or defeated by cynicism. Her most recent work could not be more relevant for our times.” ~Gloria Ruff, Associate Curator/Registrar, Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso University.
“With a career that extends over 65 years, Betty LaDuke has created a profound and compassionate body of work, along with a life rich in activism and community engagement reaching around the globe. She’s carved her own path as an artist, working primarily outside of art world centres, and following her own interests and approach to art making. LaDuke has an intense drive. As well as passion to meet and engage with people from all cultural backgrounds.” ~Jonathan Bucci, Curator of Collections & Exhibitions, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.
Order the book (ISBN: 978-1-56902-661-8, $24.95) at the Africa World Press website or by phone: +1-609-695-3200.
This is a Spotlight Saturday post. Spotlight Saturdays showcase books and authors—both contemporary and classic. If you’re a published author with a new book coming out and you are interested in being showcased on JenniferMargulis.net, please ask your publicist to contact us.
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