I’ve been looking at some reproductions of Carol Flueckiger’s “Blue Prints.” This collection of artworks is unlike anything I’ve seen. I’m not an art aficionado by any means, but these images are drawing me in.

She’s made them in layers, and at first glance they’re interesting … but then I notice another element in the piece I’m looking at. Then another. My eyes travel around the work, taking in one feature after another, wanting to absorb every bit I can. The longer I look, the more meaning I see, the more I feel.

The scanned image above does NOT do justice to the reproductions I’ve seen – and those are just on a brocure. I can imagine how powerful the real pieces are when seen in person.

Tricia Earl, coordinator of Texas Tech’s Women Studies Program, told me about Flueckiger as I interviewed Tricia about the All-University Conference on the Advancement of Women in Higher Education. Flueckiger’s work will be highlighted during the opening presentation of the conference, 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Mesa Room of the Student Union Building, 15th Street and Akron Ave.

Jennifer Snead, an assistant professor of English and a faculty affiliate in the Women’s Studies program, wrote in a brochure about Flueckiger’s “Blue Prints,” explaining the artist digitally photographed letters written by heroes and heroines of the anti-slavery and women’s suffrage movements. Flueckiger later worked with 19th-century paper dolls. Then she brought those two things together, adding much more. Snead writes:

In “Blue Prints,” Flueckiger juxtaposes lines from the reformers’ letters with these mass-produced images of the culture they attempted to reform and with personal objects: a dress, a bra, a coffee mug. Using transparencies, traditional painting and drawing techniques, and the photographic process of cyanotype, Flueckiger renders these gleanings from the archives and from her daily life onto large wood panes, creating composite images rich in layers of association.

Lucky Mama

I believe in getting off the couch and living life in a way that helps others. I'll speak up for women before you can blink, and I believe we need to do all we can for childre...