Karen LeCocq is an American artist. She is a nationally-known sculptor whose work combines organic materials and found objects.

Biography

LeCocq was born in 1949 in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...

. She attended

Fresno State College California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

and was a student of

Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...

, visiting artist. In 1970, Chicago, along with 15 female students (LeCocq included) started the first

feminist art Feminist art is a category of art associated with the late 1960s and 1970s feminist movement. Feminist art highlights the societal and political differences women experience within their lives. The hopeful gain from this form of art is to bri ...

program in the United States. LeCocq received a BA degree from Fresno State College in 1971. She attended California Institute of the Arts (

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bot ...

) in Valencia, CA in 1972 where she participated in the Feminist Art Program developed by Judy Chicago and

Miriam Schapiro Miriam Schapiro (also known as Mimi) (November 15, 1923 – June 20, 2015) was a Canadian-born artist based in the United States. She was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and a pioneer of feminist art. She was also considered a leader of the Pat ...

. The first class project of this program was a group project called

Womanhouse ''Womanhouse'' (January 30 – February 28, 1972) was a feminist art installation and performance space organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, co-founders of the California Institute of the Arts ( CalArts) Feminist Art Program and was ...

, an installation and performance piece. LeCocq and

Nancy Youdelman Nancy Youdelman (born 1948, New York City) is a mixed media sculptor who lives and works in Clovis, California. She also taught art at California State University, Fresno from 1999 until her retirement in 2013. "Since the early 1970s Youdelman h ...

created a room in Womanhouse they called “Leah’s Room” from

Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...

’s '' Chéri''. They borrowed an antique dressing table and rug, made lace curtains and covered the bed with satin and lace to create the effect of a boudoir. They filled the closet with old-looking clothes and veiled hats, and wallpapered the walls to add a feeling of nostalgia. LeCocq sat at the dressing table dressed in a nineteenth-century-style costume as Cheri, studiously applying make-up over and over and then removing it replicating the character’s attempts to save her fading beauty. LeCocq returned to Fresno State College where she received an MA degree in 1976. LeCocq is a sculptor and a lecturer at the

University of California, Merced The University of California, Merced (UC Merced) is a public land-grant research university and Hispanic-serving institution located in Merced, California, and is the tenth and newest of the University of California (UC) campuses. Established ...

in Merced, California.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:LeCocq, Karen 1949 births Living people American artists American women artists California State University faculty Feminist artists California State University, Fresno alumni People from Santa Rosa, California American women academics 21st-century American women