Jill Frank's Bio
Jill Frank, co-curator of the Kentucky Girlhood Project, was born in 1978 in Georgia. At some point her family moved to Kentucky, and that is where she began her art career, in the early eighties. Early hand-print paintings and an unusual obsession with a blue plastic Fisher Price camera lead Jill to further investigate her artistic inclinations at Bard College, in upstate New York in 1997. She then lived in Providence, Brooklyn, Chicago and Louisville at for varying amounts of time. After many years of working in New York as a manager of a photo studio, Jill realized she should go back to school and get an MFA. The Art Institute of Chicago seemed like a good choice, so for the last two years Jill has been finishing her degree in Chicago, although still very much a permanent resident of Louisville, Kentucky. Her most recent finished work involves reenactments of pivotal moments in her immediate family history; some of the important memories that might otherwise be forgotten were acted out for the purpose of documentation. The series titled, The Franks focuses on the awkward, embarrassing and universal experience of adolescence. More recent projects are concerning the documentation of other people?s important recollections, please contact Jill if you are interested in re-enacting an important childhood memory.
Laura Parker's Bio
Laura Parker, co-curator of the Kentucky Girlhood Project, was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1979. She started oil painting when she was 11 years old, after being inspired by her older sister, who is also an artist. After high school Laura moved around the country for many years living in several states including Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington and New York. She spent four years living in New York City where she worked for art non-profits including the Art Directors Club and HOWL! Festival. Realizing that office life did not suit her soul she spent her last year in New York holding up welcome signs at airports and selling jewelry in street fairs for her friend's company, Lolabean. In 2005 she moved back to Kentucky to focus on her art career and began an experimental art project called Meet-A-Stranger. In Meet a Stranger, Laura introduces her audience to people doing interesting things based on impromptu interviews she conducts with random strangers.
Meet A Stranger
MEET ALEYDA
Aleyda, a seventeen-year-old recent high school graduate, works at a Mexican restaurant and grocery store in downtown Carrollton, Kentucky.
This week there have been few customers but she expects to be busy tomorrow for the soccer game. Mexico is playing in the World Cup and they have a television.
When Aleyda was six in Veracruz her father moved to Kentucky to make money. Six years later Aleyda and the rest of her family followed the father. Now in Carrollton, Aleyda enjoys watching movies with friends, reading celebrity magazines, and hanging out with her white boyfriend. Aleyda received a scholarship to attend the local two-year community college and plans to become a Chemical Engineer.
Aleyda enjoys the differences in people and has friends from many races and backgrounds. Her Hispanic friends in Kentucky often look at her strange because she has integrated more into the American culture. She explains “The Hispanic people here are always together in a corner at school. My brother and I talk to everyone pretty much. That is why they look at us weird. They are not racist or anything and I am still friends with them but they just like to stick together. I ask them, ‘How come you don’t talk to everyone?’ and they are like, ‘I don’t know.’”
