QUESTION: WHAT’S IN A NAME? – Art Work Setting the Stage for Socially Engaged Art Project in Chicago

Each panel frame of the diptych is 11″w x 17″ tall. They were photographed separately, then placed here to indicate real sizing and spacing relative to one another. What’s In a Name is now on view at the Austin Irving Branch of the Chicago Public Library January 4 through March 29, 2025, in the Our Lives, NOT Yours exhibit organized by Sara Peak Convery. Library address is 6100 W. Irving Park, Chicago, IL.

ANSWER:   In the case of the women called out in this work, their names have become synonymous with the impact they’ve had on my life and the course of world events.  Their individual life experiences in a myriad of modes and disciplines brought them to use their voices, their minds, their work, their creativity, their hearts and bodies to express themselves, thereby making the world a better place.  There are millions of women who have had a transformative effect on the world in ways large, small and every point on the spectrum between. 

However, this homage is necessarily limited to 50 women I personally acknowledge and thank for their impact on me.  I am better, stronger, wiser, more compassionate, more hopeful, and more capable because of their contributions.

The word search puzzle containing the names of the 50 celebrated women (embedded in the right panel of the diptych) is available in PDF form below.  The postcards in the left panel are individual notes to each woman whose contributions made a lasting impression on me and the ways in which I live and contribute my voice and work in the world. I imagine the postcards as leaves sourcing sustenance from the tree of women’s lives through all time. These ‘leaves’ symbolize the way each woman’s life synthesize the sun’s light and return food to the tree.

I invite you to consider the women who’ve made a difference in your life and write them a postcard – whether they are in the afterlife or still walking this world. You might even hang it on a tree branch where you can see and remember daily their contributions to your life.

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT: If you would like the name of the woman you are celebrating included in my next art installation and your message to her/them included in that exhibit in my northside Chicago neighborhood (location TBD), please write an email to me containing a photo of the postcard with the words you’ve written, and include their first name. Due to privacy concerns, unless the person is an established public entity, I can not post their last names, only yours, should you provide that permission.

In the days and weeks ahead, I will be posting copies of the postcards I’ve written that are hanging like leaves from the branches in the left panel.

Send your email to me at Julia.M.Volkmann@gmail.com

My letters to the transformative women whose lives and works were integral in my act of becoming.

CAROL GILLIGAN – American Feminist, ethicist, and psychologist, best known for her work on ethical community and ethical relationships.

Zora Neale Hurston American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker.