Making a voice

Hamilton, Ohio – One needn’t scream and shout to be heard, but making noise matters.

Meet the newest SOS ART Fitton Center Artist in Residence, Libby DeFoor.

“I have a lot of political messages in my art,” she said. “Art has always been political for me and it’s been a way for me to express my outrage at injustices. I’m especially responding to issues of bodily autonomy and queer rights.”

DeFoor comes from a multi-generational line of creators – her great-grandmother was a weaver and her grandma made quilts – though her forebears didn’t necessarily consider themselves artists.

DeFoor graduated from the School of Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati before matriculating to the University of Iowa. Earlier this year, she earned her degree in creative writing, sculpture and museum studies.

“I was pretty convinced that I would be writing poetry and going into the publishing world for my career, but things changed with sculpture,” she said.

The world around DeFoor changed as well. The pandemic. Escalating racial tension in the wake of George Floyd’s murder (and others). Lingering – and later, returning – Trumpism that created fear and chaos in the LGBTQ+ community.

“It’s really easy to give in to despair,” she said. “But art is a way for me to get out of that despair and connect with people in an expressive way. A lot of my artwork this year has been really angry. Getting rid of that anger through art, that also is a way to find peace and find joy and find beauty in the world around us.”

DeFoor’s residency focuses on sculpture created in the cartapesta technique, akin to papier-mâché. However, instead of wrapping paste-soaked paper around an object and creating a hollow shell, she presses pulp and glue into a mold to make solid – albeit lightweight - objects.

As part of her residency, DeFoor also offers a workshop – Collage & the Body Politic – from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, November 8. The workshop is free and all experience levels are welcome, but guests must register here to attend because space is limited.

“We’ll use some critical thinking skills about imagery and how to put photos together to make new images,” she said. “Collage harkens back to what the avant-garde and surrealist artists were doing in the early part of the last century. That’s how they were making their social commentary, so we’ll honor that.”

In addition to her Artist in Residence workshop, DeFoor invites the community to join her in another collaborative art project – Handwork - promoting LGBTQ+ solidarity, pride and wellbeing in the face of discrimination and oppression.

Handwork features several pairs of paper hand molds layered over one another to form a circle of peace. While every hand comes from the same process, each collaborator retains artistic control over its final appearance. To learn more or to lend a literal hand to the project, contact DeFoor at artcollab.handwork@gmail.com. 

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