Tee A. Corinne (November 3, 1943 – August 27, 2006) was an American photographer, author, and editor notable for the portrayal of sexuality in her artwork. According to ''Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia'', "Corinne is one of the most visible and accessible lesbian artists in the world."

Early life and education

Linda Tee Athelston Cutchin was born in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

to Thomas Barnes Cutchin and Marjorie Isabelle Meares. She grew up in Florida and North Carolina. In 1945, when Corinne was two years old, her parents got divorced. One year later, her mother remarried William T. McClellan. The two were alcoholics, which would later influence Corinne's mixed media show "Family: Growing Up in an Alcoholic Family." At age three-and-a-half, Corinne was diagnosed with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. She spent three months recovering in a nursing home and nineteen months with her grandparents in

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, where she grew to love country living. She was not permitted to resume normal activity until age eight. Corinne's mother was also an artist. She introduced Corinne to the basic principles and techniques for making visual art. According to Corinne, "I have seldom succeeded in keeping a diary, but I have almost always carried a drawing pad, and since my eighth year, I have also had a camera." As a teenager, Corinne became aware that she was attracted to both men and women. At boarding school in

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

, she discovered that she thrived in an academically and artistically rigorous environment. At graduation, she won the school’s art award and a National Journalism award for work on the school newspaper. Corinne spent her first year of college (1962–63) studying art at

Newcomb College H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, or Newcomb College, was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter. ...

New Orleans, LA New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Ida Kohlmeyer Ida Rittenberg Kohlmeyer (3 November 1912 – 24 January 1997) was an American painter and sculptor who lived and worked in Louisiana. Kohlmeyer took up painting in her 30s and achieved wide recognition for her work in art museums and galleries ...

. She then transferred back to Florida, where she earned a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in printmaking and painting (with minors in English and history) from

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

. She graduated in 1965. In 1966, she married Robert Kamen who she says was her "best friend." Corinne went on to get an M.F.A. in drawing and sculpture at Pratt Institute in 1968. After a few years of teaching and backpacking in Europe, she became attracted to the back-to-the-land movement and communal living. She was also, in her words, sliding into suicidal depression. She stopped making art when she and Kamen moved to San Francisco in 1972. She changed her life, writing, "I found therapy, separated from my husband, became involved with women, and joined with the Women’s Movement. I felt better". She publicly came out as a lesbian in 1975 with her then-partner,

Honey Lee Cottrell Honey Lee Cottrell (January 16, 1946 – September 21, 2015) was a lesbian photographer and filmmaker who lived most of her life in San Francisco, California. Her papers are part of the Human Sexuality Collection at Cornell University Library. E ...

. They remained together until 1977.

Career

Corinne began exhibiting and publishing art and writing in the mid-1960s. Her first notable work was in 1975, and is still in print today. Aged 27, she realised that although her art education had enabled her to depict male genitals, she had not observed her own since she was a child. "I knew that the things we don't have names for, or images of, are the ones we label crazy or bad. I believed that reclaiming labial imagery was a route to claiming personal power for women." She decided to produce artistic images of vulvas, and self-published the ''Cunt Coloring Book'',

reclaiming In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i.e. ...

the word " cunt"; it was later issued by a publisher as ''Labiaflowers''. She was a co-facilitator of the Feminist Photography Ovulars (1979–1981) and a co-founder of ''The Blatant Image, A Magazine of Feminist Photography'' (1981–1983). She was the author of one novel, three collections of short stories, four books of poetry and numerous artists books and small edition publications. In 1980, she was one of the ten invited artists whose work was exhibited in the

Great American Lesbian Art Show The Great American Lesbian Art Show (GALAS) was an art exhibition at the Woman's Building (a feminist art center) in Los Angeles, California with associated events in other locations. It ran from 3–31 May 1980. The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Comm ...

. She became adept at representing lesbian sexuality in ways that would elude the

male gaze In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heteros ...

. In 1982, she produced a series of photographs called ''Yantras of Womanlove''. Concerned with protecting the privacy of her models, she used techniques involving multiple prints, solarization, images printed in negative, and multiple exposures. Tee consistently and conscientiously included women of color, large women, older women, and women with disabilities as her subjects. Sometimes printers would refuse to print her works and art galleries would refuse to show it. Corinne was also an author, writing many fiction novels with lesbian themes. Corinne wrote about art for a variety of publications and, from 1987, was the art books columnist for ''

Feminist Bookstore News ''Feminist Bookstore News'' (''FBN'') was a trade publication for feminist bookstores. It was active from 1976 until 2000, and issues were published sometimes bimonthly and sometimes quarterly. The publication was described by Tee Corinne as "th ...

''. A co-founder and past co-chair of the Gay & Lesbian Caucus (an affiliated society of the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their underst ...

), she also co-founded the

Women's Caucus for Art The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA), founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization based in New York City, which supports women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The WCA holds exhibitions and conferences to promo ...

Lesbian & Bisexual Caucus. In 1989, Corinne received a

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

in the lesbian anthology category for her editing of ''Intricate Passions'' (published by Banned Books). In 1991, she was chosen by Lambda Book Report as one of the fifty most influential lesbians and gay men of the decade, and in 1997 she received the Women's Caucus for Art President's Award for service to women in the arts. One of her other best known works is the cover of the 1993 self-titled debut album of the English

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band

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. In 1998, her photographs appeared on the cover and sleeve of the timmi-kat ReCoRDS' release, "Milkshake: A CD to Benefit The

Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in ...

Institute".

Personal life

In the early 1980s, Tee Corinne moved to southern Oregon after she developed strong personal and artistic connections to the state. She lived in the many women's communities springing up in the area. As she notes in one of her manuscripts, "Slowly, in Oregon, I reconnected with the deep levels of creativity that run in me and began producing work which pleased me." In the early 1980s, Corinne was in an on-and-off relationship with Caroline Overman. Corinne says this of the relationship and the art she made during it: "The relationship was wildly sexual and, at least to me, the pictures I made of us together, nude in hotel and motel rooms, convey this quality." In the mid 1980s, she dated lesbian literary author, Lee Lynch. From the years 1989 to 2005, she was in a relationship with Beverly Anne Brown. In 2003, Brown was diagnosed with cancer, which led to Corinne's series "Cancer in our Lives" (2003–05) in which she photographed Brown before and after surgeries in order to demystify the results. Brown died in 2005.

Death and legacy

Corinne died in Sunny Valley, Oregon on August 27, 2006 after a struggle with liver cancer. She was 62 years old. Corinne donated her papers to the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives, where they are now available for research. The collection includes correspondence, literary manuscripts, artwork, photographs, artifacts, and other documents that reflect Corinne's life and work. Moonforce Media created the ''Tee A. Corinne Prize for Lesbian Media Artists'' in 2006 to annually honor Corinne as an artist with bold vision and a fierce dedication to encouraging and preserving lesbian art. The award is an unrestricted grant of up to $1,000 annually. The prize is dedicated to artists working in photography, film, video, digital media, new media, or any fusions of these forms and in any genre including documentary, narrative, experimental, or any other styles or combination of genres. The award furthers Corinne's wish that individual lesbian artists be financially supported to work independently and without censorship. In 2014, Corinne was included prominently in a 45-year retrospective on

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

photography on the website of news station KQED. In 2015 the

Golden Crown Literary Society The Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) is an American non-profit organization established in February 2004 as a literary and educational organization for the study, discussion, enjoyment, and enhancement of Lesbian literature. In 2020, in order ...

awarded the first Tee Corinne Outstanding Cover Design award to Ann McMan for her work on the book ''Everything''. In 2016, ''Lesbian News'' published a laudatory editorial retrospective on Corinne's life.

Bibliography

Books

*"Bodies: A Collage", in ''woman in power'' (Issue 18, 70-72) *''Courting Pleasure'' (Austin, TX: Banned Books, 1994.) *''The Cunt Coloring Book''. San Francisco: Pearlchild, 1975; San Francisco:

Last Gasp Last Gasp or The Last Gasp may refer to * Last Gasp (publisher) * ''Last Gasp'' (''Inside No. 9''), a TV episode * '' The Last Gasp'', a 2007 album by Impaled * ''The Last Gasp'' (novel) * "Last Gasp" (song) {{dab ...

, 1988. Also published as ''Labiaflowers''. Tallahassee, FL:

Naiad Press Naiad Press (1973–2003) was an American publishing company, one of the first dedicated to lesbian literature. At its closing it was the oldest and largest lesbian/feminist publisher in the world. History Naiad Press was founded by partners Barb ...

, 1981. *''Drawing as a Problem-Solving Activity'' (2002) *''Dreams of the Woman Who Loved Sex'' (Austin, TX: Banned Books, 1987) *''Family: About Growing Up in an Alcoholic Family''. North Vancouver, BC: Gallerie, 1990. *''Lesbian Muse: The Women Behind the Words''. Portland, OR: Chance Publications, 1989. *''The Little Houses on Women's Land'' (2002) *''Lovers: Love and Sex Stories'' (Austin, TX: Banned Books, 1989) *''The Sex Lives of Daffodils: Growing Up as an Artist Who Also Writes''. Wolf Creek, OR: Pearlchild 1994, 1997. *''The Sparkling Lavender Dust of Lust, A Novel'' (Austin, TX: Banned Books, 1991) *''Twenty-Two Years, 1970–1992''. Wolf Creek, OR: Pearlchild, 1992. *''Wild Lesbian Roses: Essays on Art, Rural Living, and Creativity, 1986-1995'', Wolf Creek, OR, Pearlchild, 1997. *''Women Who Loved Women''. (Philadelphia, PA: Giovanni's Room, 1984) *''Yantras of Womanlove''. Tallahassee, FL:

, 1982.

Chapbooks

*''At Six'' (1990) *''Joy Unfolds'' (1984) *''Visiting the Yarrow'' (1993)

Editor

*''The Body of Love''. (Austin, TX: Banned Books, 1993) *''Intricate Passions: A Collection of Erotic Short Fiction''. (Austin, Texas: Banned Books, 1989) *''Lesbian Muse: The Women Behind the Words atebook''. (Austin, TX: Banned Books, 1990) *''Lesbian Photography on the U.S. West Coast 1972-1997'' (1998) *''The Poetry of Sex: Lesbians Write the Erotic''. (Austin, TX: Banned Books, 1992) *''Riding Desire: An Anthology of Erotic Writing''. (Austin, TX: Banned Books, 1991)