Exhibit spotlights unusual medium for ‘risque’ topic

Kimberley McGee

Friday, Feb. 9, 2001 | 9:54 a.m.

Fast Facts

What: "Perfect Trim."

When: 12-4 p.m. Friday through Sunday, through March 3.

Where: Contemporary Arts Collective at 103 E. Charleston Blvd., Suite 102.

Admission: Free.

Information: 382-3886.

From across the room the delicate needlepoint artwork seems quaint.

Up close, it's a different picture, which is just what the artist intended.

"It's a surprise and everyone's reaction is different, especially the men," Jeanne Voltura, an artist, said of her needlepoint art depicting nude men and phallic symbols.

Voltura is one of three artists featured in the "Perfect Trim" exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Collective gallery. The exhibit runs through March 3.

Texas artists Deirdre Pope and Susan Whitmer joined Voltura, a friend from their college days at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, to create an exhibition of art that explores the role of men and women's sexuality and how women identify themselves by society's standards.

"Our work is similar, in the way it centers around women and the issues we face," Pope said in a recent telephone interview from Dallas. "We each looked at 'Perfect Trim' and what it said to us."

Each artist drew on her life experience as a woman in modern-American culture.

Whitmer's stark paintings, of lone female forms without faces in panels, contrast Voltura's intricate designs in small frames. Pope's sweetly inspired series, of perfectly trim women painted amid swirling chocolates in large, thick, resin-filled cake pans, loom on the wall opposite Voltura's petite works.

The work is personal to each woman. Pope used copies of her grandmother's handwritten recipe cards, mistakes and all, mixed with images of women happily bicycling or in some way obsessing about their weight.

"This is a consumer culture and we become a product to meet the social criteria, to be a good product," Pope said.

Each artist approached "Perfect Trim's" subject with humor, deep feelings and dedication.

"Basically it is about women -- either their weight or their (sexuality) or the way they see themselves," Voltura said.

Voltura's delicate needlepoint is meant to soften the stark reality of her subject.

"We don't usually look at men nude, it's unsettling, especially to men," she said. "But women, we are all used to seeing women in all forms of undress in magazines, on billboards."

First-time viewers are usually shocked, Voltura said, to see such intimate depictions of the male anatomy in minute detail.

An average piece, such as the ones titled "Sweet Warm Buns" and "Cucumber Surprise," takes approximately nine hours to complete in one inspired sitting.

"It's a conservative, feminine medium, and the idea is that women don't always think cute, pretty thoughts," Voltura said. "I wanted to show that it's OK to think about men the way they think about us."

David Curtis, president of the CAC, said that "Perfect Trim" was a perfect fit for the 11-year-old gallery.

The nonprofit CAC receives more than 200 proposals for shows each year from around the country. Only seven proposals are chosen, a year in advance.

"We prefer to have three artists because it uses the space well, and our efforts," Curtis said. "You're getting three or more voices instead of one to experience."

The three women pitched a solid proposal for a show that was artistic and interesting, he said, if not a little bit risque.

"They had it together and the work is really compelling," Curtis said.

Although Voltura is on the board of the CAC, the trio of artists were considered for the quality of their work and the strength of the exhibit to fill a niche in the growing local art scene.

"There is a percentage of Las Vegas that is hungry for it," Curtis said. "A growing percentage."

Kimberley McGee

is an Accent feature writer. Reach her at 259-4096 or mcgee@lasvegassun.com.