March: Book One (Common Text 2015-2016): Art

Fast tracks for human emotional responses precede cognitive processes, according to the neuroscientific investigation of emotions such as anger and empathy1 and the psychology of "mind-reading," via fast, unconscious recognition of facial expressions.2 Even simplified line drawings of facial expressions3 activate the "quick and dirty"4 subcortical bases of emotions that are followed by slightly slower cognitive responses routed through the neocortex. In comics and graphic narratives, illustrations of faces and bodily postures may capitalize on the availability of visual coding for human emotions, eliciting readers' feelings before they even read the accompanying text.5 Little is known, however, about the relationship between the emotional responses evoked by visual artists' strategies of anthropomorphizing animal faces or dehumanizing people's faces and bodies, on the one hand, and the invitations to narrative empathy proffered by graphic storytelling, on the other hand.

Enemies of women's liberation in the art world must be met with a more coherent front. A group that is locally effective can be doubly powerful if it synchronizes its actions with those of other groups across the country. We can gain from each other's experiences and make more headway together if we are aware of each other's activities in time to echo or support them.
With that call to arms West East Bag (WEB), an International Liaison Network for Women Artists, began in September of 1971. One contemporaneous description of the women's liberation movement in the United States described it as "linked only by the numerous journals, newsletters and cross country travelers." WEB, a "bicoastal national organizing tool and newsletter that networked women artists nationally, encouraging the creation of registries and protests in other cities," created those connections for feminist artists outside the art world centers of New York and Los Angeles.