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Artist Statement I photograph Venetian laundry and the casalinghe (traditional Venetian housewives) who hang it. I return to the same neighborhoods and islands in the Venetian Lagoon again and again. As I get to know the women who put their families’ clothing on their lines, I realize that for them this practice has complex and deep-rooted meanings: "It’s how I present myself to the world." "What is at stake is a woman’s style; some women have it, some don’t," says my Venetian friend Alberta. "If you think I am good, you should have seen my mother [or grandmother]. But my daughters don’t value this." "I order my corda (laundry line) the way I order my home and my family. If these things don’t hold together, the world falls apart." "Libertà; I hang my laundry when I like and where I like. It’s a question of libertà." Venetian art offers clues to other layers of meaning. Dangling girdles, omega shaped shawls, and protective mantles are ancient symbols which signify the potency of pagan Isises, Aphrodites, Athenas, and Madonnas on interior and exterior walls all over Venice. For me, cloth which dangles or billows in the air is just simply luscious. But for Venetian casalinghe these lines are altars to their Lares & Penates, their household gods and goddesses. Like a bird’s song: they say "This is me. This is who my family is. This is my territory." For
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