Juggle or Choose

“Juggle or Choose” is a diptych comparing the options for women after World War II with the juggling of today’s women. During WWII women had been doing valued jobs while the men were at war. But when the war ended they were expected to relinquish their independence and crawl back into the kitchen. Most women conformed, married had children and became invisible once again but some fought against this stereotype and forged careers. Today women are expected to ‘Juggle', most work but are still expected to rear children and keep house so are they any more free or independent or just exhausted? The process to achieve the final pieces is a long journey from the original idea searching through 1950's magazines to find the source material to build a collage of words and images. The collages are then hand painted with wash and paint pens to add colour and detail imitating the original feel of printed magazines. The finished collages are scanned, enlarged and produced as digital Giclée prints on fine art paper in editions of only 25.