Anne Taintor

Last updated
Anne Taintor
Born
Anne Marie Taintor

(1953-08-16) August 16, 1953 (age 71)
Alma mater Harvard University
OccupationArtist

Anne Taintor (born August 16, 1953) is an artist whose themes deal with domestic stereotypes, as viewed through the lens of mid-century advertisements typically found in publications such as Ladies Home Journal and Life . Juxtaposing these images with tongue-in-cheek captions, her work serves as a commentary on the stereotypes of women popularized in the 1940s and 1950s. She has been credited by some as being a pioneer in the pairing of mid-century imagery with modern slogans. [1] [2]

Contents

Biography and work

Taintor was born in 1953 in Lewiston, Maine to Frederick G. and Jane S. Taintor. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a law school graduate turned housewife. She is the second of five children and lives in Portland, Maine, having returned to her home state after spending 11 years in New Mexico. [3]

After graduating from Lewiston High School in 1971, Taintor attended Harvard University, from which she graduated in 1977 with a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies. [1] As a student she enrolled in a class on collage animation, which would become her technique of choice. [2] Upon leaving Harvard, she eventually moved back to Maine working as, among other things, a cartographer drawing maps for state atlases. She continued to collage, selling her works at local craft fairs. [4]

In the early 1980s, Taintor bounced around in different jobs, including as a waitress and a seamstress, while also working her way through a divorce. [5] At that time, she began focusing more on creating and selling her collages as a way to support herself and her daughter. [3] Her first products were handmade wooden lapel pins and earrings [3] with collage artwork, which she created by cutting and pasting artwork from 1940s and 1950s advertisements. [4]

Anne Taintor, Inc.

In 1985, while at a garage sale in South Portland, Maine, Taintor came across an old Ladies Home Journal , which prompted her to begin creating what would become her signature work. [4] [6] Her first piece of this kind, Intellectuals Gone Bad, was sold at the Maine Festival, an annual performance and crafts fair held in Portland, Maine, and featured an image of a woman and a man mixed with the caption "intellectuals gone bad". It was well received and, soon after, she started Anne Taintor, Inc. [1]

Celebrating her 25th anniversary in 2010, Taintor's work is available on her personal website and in thousands of retail locations across 25 countries. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Struthers</span> American actress and activist (born 1947)

Sally Anne Struthers is an American actress and activist. She played Gloria Stivic, the daughter of Archie and Edith Bunker on All in the Family, for which she won two Emmy Awards, and Babette on Gilmore Girls. She was also the voice of Charlene Sinclair on the ABC sitcom Dinosaurs, Pebbles Flintstone on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, and Rebecca Cunningham on the Disney animated series TaleSpin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Redpath</span> Scottish painter (1895–1965)

Anne Redpath (1895–1965) was a Scottish artist whose vivid domestic still lifes are among her best-known works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betye Saar</span> American artist (born 1926)

Betye Irene Saar is an American artist known for her work in the medium of assemblage. Saar is a visual storyteller and an accomplished printmaker. Saar was a part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, which engaged myths and stereotypes about race and femininity. Her work is considered highly political, as she challenged negative ideas about African Americans throughout her career; Saar is best known for her artwork that critiques anti-Black racism in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John H. Reed</span> American politician (1921–2012)

John Hathaway Reed was the 67th Governor of Maine, holding office during the 1960s. He was once an Aroostook County potato farmer. Reed was a Republican who took office following the death of Governor Clinton Clauson.

Julie Madelein Josephine Parisien is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She specialized in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. Parisien was the silver medalist in the slalom at the World Championships in 1993 and competed in three Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Aldridge</span> American actress and model

Katharine ("Kay") Gratten Aldridge was an American actress and model, best known for playing feisty and imperiled heroines in black-and-white serials during the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Schapiro</span> Canadian artist (1923–2015)

Miriam Schapiro was a Canadian-born artist based in the United States. She was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and a pioneer of feminist art. She was also considered a leader of the Pattern and Decoration art movement. Schapiro's artwork blurs the line between fine art and craft. She incorporated craft elements into her paintings due to their association with women and femininity. Schapiro's work touches on the issue of feminism and art: especially in the aspect of feminism in relation to abstract art. Schapiro honed in her domesticated craft work and was able to create work that stood amongst the rest of the high art. These works represent Schapiro's identity as an artist working in the center of contemporary abstraction and simultaneously as a feminist being challenged to represent women's "consciousness" through imagery. She often used icons that are associated with women, such as hearts, floral decorations, geometric patterns, and the color pink. In the 1970s she made the hand fan, a typically small woman's object, heroic by painting it six feet by twelve feet. "The fan-shaped canvas, a powerful icon, gave Schapiro the opportunity to experiment … Out of this emerged a surface of textured coloristic complexity and opulence that formed the basis of her new personal style. The kimono, fans, houses, and hearts were the form into which she repeatedly poured her feelings and desires, her anxieties, and hopes".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Mills</span> Governor of Maine since 2019

Janet Trafton Mills is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 75th governor of Maine since January 2019. She previously served as the Maine Attorney General on two occasions.

Charlotte Agell is a Swedish-born American author for young adults and children who currently lives in Maine. Her second novel, Shift, was featured on the front cover of the Brunswick Times Record in October 2008. In addition to working on novels and children's books, Charlotte Agell also teaches in Maine.

Garrett Paul Mason is an American politician from Maine. A Republican, Mason formerly served in the Maine State Senate from the 22nd District, representing part of Androscoggin County, including his residence in Lisbon Falls. In 2003, he graduated from Calvary Christian Academy in Turner. In 2006, Mason graduated from Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola, Florida with a B.A. in marketing. He also completed graduate work at Southern New Hampshire University and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. After college, Mason worked for the AA baseball team Portland Sea Dogs and as director of administration for the QJMHL hockey team Lewiston Maineiacs. He also received at honorary doctorate in Humanities from Pensacola Christian College in 2018.

<i>They Waz Nice White Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another)</i> Installation by Kara Walker

They Waz Nice White Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another) is a 2001 installation artwork by American artist Kara Walker, located at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It consists of paper cutouts forming a strange tableau with the projected image of a steamboat.

Anne M. Rand is an American politician from Maine. She served in the Maine House of Representatives and the Maine State Senate for 10 terms between 1986 and 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allyson Mitchell</span>

Allyson Mitchell is a Toronto-based maximalist artist, working predominantly in sculpture, installation and film. Her practice melds feminism and pop culture to trouble contemporary representations of women, sexuality and the body largely through the use of reclaimed textile and abandoned craft. Throughout her career, Mitchell has critiqued socio-historical phobias of femininity, feminine bodies and colonial histories, as well as ventured into topics of consumption under capitalism, queer feelings, queer love, fat being, fatphobia, genital fears and cultural practices. Her work is rooted in a Deep Lez methodology, which merges lesbian feminism with contemporary queer politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexis Smith (artist)</span> American artist (1949–2024)

Patricia Anne Smith, known professionally as Alexis Smith, was an American visual artist. She worked in collage and installation.

Gertrude Tiemer Wille was an American painter, photographer, and poet. Tiemer achieved her greatest notoriety for inter-dimensional, multi-exposure photography. Her paintings of landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and other pieces adopted both the realist and abstract styles of art. Tiemer exhibited her work at galleries in Maine, New York City, and other venues throughout the U.S. and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Bates College</span>

The history of Bates College began shortly before Bates College's founding on March 16, 1855, in Lewiston, Maine. The college was founded by Oren Burbank Cheney and Benjamin Bates. Originating as a Free Will Baptist institution, it has since secularized and established a liberal arts curriculum. After the mysterious 1853 burning of Parsonsfield Seminary, Cheney wanted to create another seminary in a more central part of Maine: Lewiston, a then-booming industrial economy. He met with religious and political leaders in Topsham, to discuss the formation of such a school, recruiting much of the college's first trustees, most notably Ebenezer Knowlton. After a well-received speech by Cheney, the group successfully petitioned the Maine State Legislature to establish the Maine State Seminary. At its founding it was the first coeducational college in New England. Soon after it was established, donors stepped forward to finance the seminary, developing the school in an affluent residential district of Lewiston. The college struggled to finance its operations after the financial crisis of 1857, requiring extra capital to remain afloat. Cheney's political activities attracted Benjamin Bates, who was interested in fostering his business interests in Maine. Bates donated installments of tens of thousands of dollars to the college to bring it out of the crisis.

Lyn Mikel Brown is an American academic, author, feminist, and community activist. She is Professor of Education Emerit at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Her research interests include girls' development, youth activism, and the impact of media and marketing on youth. She is a co-founder of the research-driven nonprofit, Hardy Girls Healthy Women, and SPARK, a girl-fueled anti-racist gender justice movement. She has authored seven books, many peer-reviewed articles, general media essays, and book chapters. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2013.

Rose Josephine Corbett, later Rose Josephine Frank, was a Native American artist of the Nez Perce Tribe, known for her cornhusk weaving. Frank used her art as a way to preserve her tribe's craft, traditions, and rituals by creating artwork and instructing others.

Anne Carney is an American Democratic politician and attorney from Maine. She currently serves in the Maine Senate representing District 29, which consists of Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, and part of Scarborough. Carney was born in Baltimore, Maryland and attended Haverford College where she received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.). She completed a Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S) from Harvard University in 1987 and moved to Maine in 1988. Carney completed a Juris Doctor at the University of Maine School of Law in 1990 and practiced employment, civil rights and municipal law for 16 years. She was a pro bono In-House Volunteer Attorney at Pine Tree Legal Assistance for eight years before running for Maine House of Representatives District 30 in 2018. In 2020, Carney was elected to her first term in the Maine Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Lumbard</span>

Nina Evangeline Lumbard was an American ceramic painter, illustrator, and teacher who worked in Fremont and Omaha, Nebraska, during the late nineteenth century. During her brief career, she exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair and Trans-Mississippi Exposition, taught at the Omaha Art Institute, and illustrated a multitude of local publications.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Profile - Anne Taintor". The Maine Mag.
  2. 1 2 Kessler, Media (2010). "The Queen of Cut And Paste". 360 West Magazine (January 2010).
  3. 1 2 3 Garfield, Henry. "MOGUL-Anne Taintor". Archived from the original on 2013-01-28.
  4. 1 2 3 Burnham, Emily (11 December 2009). "The Not Quite Perfect Housewife". The Bangor Daily News.
  5. Roberts, Kathaleen. "Making Funny Captions Turns Into a Business". Albuquerque Journal.
  6. Skelton, Kathryn. "Anne Taintor: Retro Wit, Lewiston Roots". Sun Journal.