Now that it’s September, we can look back and see that August was a full and exciting month.

We put up the Barbie altar at the very end of July, and it was on display in San Francisco, as part of the 50+ artist Altered Barbie exhibit, until the beginning of this week. It’s a little poignant to see it go down, but Jill Lee, Chatterbox Gallery curator, is already planning other exhibits, and Laurie is thinking about different foci for new altars.

We also presented at NAAFA’s Big Summer Fun! (NAAFA = National Association for the Advancement of Fat Americans). Two special things that came from that were:

1) We got to spend time with Professor Rebecca Jennison, one of our close friends, staunch supporters, and core advisors. She also modeled for Women in Japan. Becky lives in Japan and teaches women’s studies at Kyoto Seika University, so we don’t see her anywhere near often enough, and this was the first time we ever got to present with her in the United States. Laurie spent the afternoon with her and we had dinner afterwards. It wasn’t enough, and it was wonderful.

2) Carol Squires, another good friend, staunch supporter and core advisor, who presented with us, came out of the afternoon with questions she’s never asked us before, and that was a fun surprise.

And Zenya, a the Tokyo-based non-profit organization (NPO) with a Japanese-only website, asked for some of Laurie’s photographs. They are dedicated to opposing “any form of colonialism, war, racism and sexism in Japanese society.” They’re publishing an essay by Hwangbo Kangja, a Korean rights activist in Japan, about Laurie’s project, and want to illustrate it with photographs. Very cool!