Honey Lee Cottrell Diamond Sutra Collage, 1989

34X25" formerly framed multimedia collage diamond and triangle shaped photos in center, all depicting butch femme lesbian sexuality. The background is mid century sample wallpaper. Annotation by Susie: Honey Lee made this piece of art for her and Susie as a couple. It hung in their shared home. She was experimenting with the idea of how you can identify lesbian butch-femme culture at a glance. She was looking at how images of lesbians can portray masculinity while still be recognizable as women and as butch lesbians. Features such as how women touch each other with their hands can flag an image as lesbian. Other signals from clothing include women in uniform, men’s clothing, as well as very femme mid-century burlesque fetish wear. One triangle of the piece features a lesbian cop dressed in uniform; she was one of the role-playing guests Honey Lee arranged to partake in Susie’s 30th birthday party. The triangle photo at the 5 o’clock position on the inset is Honey Lee wearing a tuxedo and evening gloves.