(Virginia)
(Virginia’s) original collection in the Archive spans 10 years, 1974-1984, ages 4 years and 6 months to 14 years. The full collection contains 2,185 items, which are reproduced on microfiche in the Reference Edition. (Virginia’s) work is notable for its high-intensity, high-detail depictions of homes and other settings filled with light, and for the lavish, intricate, and colorful detail with which she adorns her figures and settings, both interior and exterior. Home and family figure largely and so do courts and royalty, fairy tale and myth. Relationships between people are expressed through varied body postures and facial expressions. Her writing is often bound up with her visual work, telling dramatic stories of home relationships, adventures, royalty and myth, lively with conversation. Works call to mind illuminated manuscripts, in their close connection between visual art and written expression. She was a prolific drawer, often with marker. The characterizations of her figures and the explicitness of the settings generally imply the telling of a story. Valuing of competence, in part conveyed by knowledgeable depiction of tools and in part by the artist’s own skill with various mediums, toughens the emphasis on drama and relationship, and humor heightens the spirit of the work. Decorative and functional detail grow during the first six years of the collection. The visual work becomes simpler thereafter, with more instances of a single girl in a setting in year 7 (age 11) and more variety of relationships and emotions around age 12. By age 13, there is overall simplification of content and design and work with a widening range of mediums. Fantasy decreases in the later writing, with more probing of deep feelings and big ideas, more personal reflection. Narrative increases in complexity, further extending richness of detail.