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"A Soap of My Work"

By Mildred R. Toman

Shirley Aley Campbell has embarked upon a new and innovative approach to express her talents and philosophy as an artist. In her new series, "The Image and Its Echo: Reflections on Reality," Ms. Campbell exemplifies women's role in our times by painting famous women in American life. As an extension of each painting, Ms. Campbell has produced a video accompaniment which she facetiously refers to as "a soap of my work". In her desire to explore video as an art form, Ms. Campbell has transcended traditional painting boundaries without the risk of sacrificing the excellence of her paintings. Both the paintings and the video accompaniments reflect images of reality and the artist's philosophy:

The Image and Its Echo: Reflections on Reality. Is the fleeting moment that is lost when an act is finished, or its permanent image in painting or photography more attuned to reality?

Are both perhaps reflections of truth and of falsehood? Perhaps the echo that appears hollow and then vanishes sadly reminds us of our temporary being; and perhaps the painted image that defies time also establishes the hope that we truly do influence tomorrow.

-Shirley Aley Campbell

When asked if there was a particular painting she was enthusiastic about, Ms. Campbell replied, "Yes, the Woman Astronaut painting, only because its completion has yet to be resolved." The ideas being entertained for its completion are new avenues of Ms. Campbell's creative ventures Presently, the painted image of the Woman Astronaut painting encompasses only one-third of the canvas, whereas two-thirds is painted in the fashion of a silver screen, ready to accept a projected image, and that final projected image will denote completion of the painting.

Ms. Campbell's completed paintings include the chanteuse Hildegarde, Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar, Judge Ann McManamon, Congresswoman

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Bella Abzug comments on Ms. Campbell's painting The Pride of Baltimore.

Bella Abzug, Gladys Noon Spellman, Barbara Ann Mikulski and' Millicent Fenwick. Women to be painted include race car driver Janet Guthrie, Olympic champion Stella Walsh, actresses Lillian Gish andMargaret Hamilton, scientists Eleanor Russell and Bodil Schmidt Neilsen, and astronauts Ann Fisher and Kathy Sullivan.

The beginnings of Ms. Campbell's 7-year venture are on view now through March 22 at Spaces Gallery, Room 209 at One Playhouse Square, 1375 Euclid Avenue. Gallery hours are Wednesday and Thursday, 11-5 p.m.; Friday, 11-8 p.m.; and Saturday, 11-3 p.m.

REVIEWS

Besides Bella Abzug, The Pride of Baltimore features three other Congresswomen, Gladys Noon Spellman, Barbara Ann Mikulski and Millicent Fenwick.

Notes from the Underground

Vida by Marge Piercy. New York: Summit Press, 1979. $12.95, hardbound.

By Linda Jane

Vida, Marge Piercy's latest novel, is the story of Vida Asch, a former antiwar activist who has spent the last ten years eluding the Feds. On a larger scale, it is the story of the radical left of the 1960's and those who survived, and didn't survive, in the underground of the 1970's.

As the novel opens, Vida is working her way from the west coast to the east for an annual meeting of the Network. The Network is a group of underground fugitives set up to harbor other fugitives and to provide an outlet for their political expression. Through a series of encounters with friends and acquaintances, we soon learn what life is like in the underground: the "honed paranoia" manifested in

NOVA Photography Show

The NOVA open photography show presently on view through March 17 at Fawick Gallery, BaldwinWallace College, Berea, makes a statement that photography is an art form. Greater Cleveland area women photographers in the show include Phyllis Setter, Alicia Dal Lago, Mildred R. Toman, Patricia Marlene Sielski, Judy McKenzie, Barbara Canfield, Nikki Klem, Marion Epstein, and M. B. Camp.

JCC Photography Show

The Jewish Community Center's 15th Annual Competitive Photography Show will run through March 24 in the Center's Mandel Hall, 3505 Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights. Some of the photographers exhibited are Mildred R. Toman, Nikki Klem, Judy McKenzie, Alicia Dal Lago, Patricia M. Sielski, Phyllis Setter, Marion Epstein, and M. B. Camp.

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disguises, code names and coded messages, and the sexual favors extended for daily essentials. Even rendezvous with her closest friends and family are tempered by her complete dependence on their caution and the desperation that each meeting might be their last.

Using flashbacks, Piercy traces Vida's political radicalization beginning with her involvement in SAW (Students Against the War), an organization clearly reminiscent of SDS, through the Little Red Wagon, a small offshoot that specializes in bombing corporations during off hours, to her eventual entrenchment in the underground. Her stability throughout this process is provided by a tight, but often strained, group of friends. They include Leigh, a leftist radio broadcaster whom she marries, Natalie, her half sister and the "maternal"

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PREVIEWS

"Inner Views" on Display.

"Inner Views,” an invitational show of works by twelve Northeastern Ohio women photographers, will be held in the Akron-Summit County Library's Third Floor Gallery March 10-28. The public is invited to meet the twelve women photographers on Tuesday evening, March 11, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

Women from the Akron area include Cindy Beidler, Sandy Louise Cleveland, Laura A. Judge, Penny Rakoff, and Jane Walker Snider. Canton is represented by Sally Young, and the greater Cleveland area women are Patricia Sielski, Mildred R. Toman, Judy McKenzie, Barbara Canfield, Judy Gregory and Alicia Dal Lago.

March, 1980/What She Wants/Page 7