Anne Taintor (born August 16, 1953) is an artist whose themes deal with domestic stereotypes, as viewed through the lens of mid-century advertisements typically found in publications such as ''

Ladies Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In ...

'' and ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

''. Juxtaposing these images with tongue-in-cheek captions, her work serves as a commentary on the stereotypes of women popularized in the 1940s and 1950s. She has been credited by some as being a pioneer in the pairing of mid-century imagery with modern slogans.

Biography and work

Taintor was born in 1953 in Lewiston, Maine to Frederick G. and Jane S. Taintor. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a law school graduate turned housewife. She is the second of five children and lives in Portland, Maine, having returned to her home state after spending 11 years in New Mexico. After graduating from Lewiston High School in 1971, Taintor attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, from which she graduated in 1977 with a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies. As a student she enrolled in a class on collage animation, which would become her technique of choice. Upon leaving Harvard, she eventually moved back to Maine working, among other things, as a cartographer drawing maps for state atlases. She continued to collage, selling her works at local craft fairs. In the early 1980s, Taintor bounced around in different jobs, including as a waitress and a seamstress, while also working her way through a divorce. At that time, she began focusing more on creating and selling her collages as a way to support herself and her daughter. Her first products were handmade wooden lapel pins and earrings with collage artwork, which she created by cutting and pasting artwork from 1940s and 1950s advertisements.

Anne Taintor, Inc.

In 1985, while at a garage sale in South Portland, Maine, Taintor came across an old ''

'', which prompted her to begin creating what would become her signature work. Her first piece of this kind, ''Intellectuals Gone Bad'', was sold at the Maine Festival, an annual performance and crafts fair held in Portland, Maine, and featured an image of a woman and a man mixed with the caption "intellectuals gone bad". It was well received and, soon after, she starte
Anne Taintor, Inc.
ref name="Maine Mag"/> Celebrating her 25th anniversary in 2010, Taintor's work is available on her personal website and in thousands of retail locations across 25 countries.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taintor, Anne 1953 births Living people People from Lewiston, Maine Harvard College alumni American collage artists Women collage artists Artists from Maine 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists