Anchorage Daily News (Published: December 7, 2003)
"Heels High" by Tam Johannes and Cindy Shake is part of their "Empress II" exhibit on display through December at Snow City Cafe. The piece is hand-cut galvanized metal fastened with copper and aluminum rivets. (Photo by Chris Arend) "Disappointment," fused glass and found objects on weathered steel wire (26 inches high). (Photo by Chris Arend ) They're the kind of dangerous stilettos Xena Warrior Princess would wear on a first date. Glinda the Good Witch might hide them beneath her frothy ball gown while slyly cackling at Dorothy's plain ruby slippers.

The riveted steel concoctions with vertigo-inducing high heels and toes guaranteed to create bunions also possess dainty ankle straps, peekaboo cutaway sides and brushed metal that echoes ever so subtly of patent leather.

They are, in fact, shoes fit for a queen -- or at the very least an empress. "Heels High'' is one of 15 pieces glass artist Tam Johannes and metal artist Cindy Shake have created for a show they're calling "Empress II," in honor of a card from the tarot fortune-telling deck.

While creating the exhibit, Shake said, she and Johannes had only one requirement for each piece: "Is it powerful or not?''

'NO FEAR'
The longtime friends decided to do the collaborative show -- their first -- last summer but couldn't settle on a theme. Then they realized several coincidences. Both are Virgos. According to numerology, they are both 3s, which Johannes describes as a "very powerful number." And it turned out both also have the Empress as their tarot "soul card,'' determined by a formula involving birth date.

That led to "Empress II," which their artist statement describes as "the goddess in her many forms and manifestations in metal and glass.'' The resulting pieces include three "Mirrors of Reflection'' representing the stages of a woman's life: the maiden, the mother and the crone. Accompanying "Cadillac Pink and Orange Marmalade Bikinis (Size 7)'' is "Liquid Black,'' an all-glass purse.

"The goddess isn't just serious,'' Johannes said. "She likes to wear a polka-dot bikini.''

And the purse?

"We're big into accessories,'' Shake said. A nearly 4-foot-tall "Raven Goddess,'' looking decidedly Egyptian with bejeweled human hands and feet, leans against a wall. Three glass female bodice pieces portray the artists' renditions of "Dreams,'' "Desire'' and "Disappointment.''

While the women collaborated on most of the pieces, they didn't always completely agree. "Dreams" is clearly Shake's vision, with iridescent white glass and downy feathered wings. A key to a sardine can dangles where the heart might be, providing a way to unlock deepest desires.

It's a little too froufrou for Johannes. She originally wanted to name the show "Nudes, Guts and Glass'' and create some decidedly darker pieces. Famed for "Day of the Dead'' exhibits at her Killer Designs gallery that rely heavily on small sugar skulls, Johannes envisioned delving below the bodice, "showing the inner workings of things,'' maybe exposing some artistically rendered body parts.

"Instead of a really sleek pretty body, I wanted to make like it was pregnant,'' Johannes said. "Have like tubes with different colored water and a pump (or something) so things were moving inside the belly. And have it lit!''

Shake voted no, especially since this exhibit's venue happens to be a restaurant.

"I just couldn't imagine having a Snow City scramble and looking up and seeing Tam's guts'' on the wall, Shake said.

"Resistance is futile,'' Johannes jokes about Shake's reluctance to embrace the darker side of her art. "She will accept it.''

"Tam has no fear,'' Shake said.

'YOU CAN'T WAIT'
Overt or not, there are clear vestiges of the women's individual emotions in the pieces.

"Desire'' is cut from a large piece of gorgeous cranberry-colored glass. Copper and welded steel flames flicker all around her.

"Her sweet spot is copper,'' Shake points out. "It's like va-va-voom.''

And while "Desire'' is about sexual desire, it's also about striving, creating, wanting more from life. "It's this hunger, like your stomach's always growling,'' Johannes said.

Women's growth is also evident in "Emerging,'' a coiled steel nautilus shell with a cobalt glass face coming out -- or sinking into -- the opening. It portrays rebirth, Shake said.

Or maybe not. The woman's head is strung with beads and other flotsam, all of which could also be holding her back, the artists said.

The most personal piece, particularly for Johannes, is "Disappointment.''

"My body has forsaken me'' could be the message of that dark purple glass breastplate strung with tangled wire, a watch and a pair of dice, Johannes said. "I've dealt with personal pain -- deaths ... miscarriages.''

"The ultimate female disappointment,'' Shake said, adding that the piece is not all about loss. "It's also about surprise and change.''

While Johannes battles fertility problems -- she and her husband recently had to sell a second home they built in Girdwood to pay for medical procedures -- Shake recently had issues with her own body.

In 2000, Shake's fatigue and intestinal problems were diagnosed as leukemia. Doctors rushed her to a Seattle hospital, giving her only a 50-50 chance of survival. After intense treatment, Shake went into remission. She's now happy and healthy and aware of her blessings.

For her, the clock on "Disappointment'' speaks to the realization that we need to live every minute. "You can't wait to live,'' she said. "You can't wait to get better.''

'IT'S NOT OVER'
"Three" has been an unspoken theme for the "Empress II" show: three mirrors, three breastplates, the three stages of women. And now there are three artists.

Professional photographer Chris Arend, asked to shoot some of the pieces for Johannes and Shake before the show, found himself drawn to the work. "

(The pieces) were playful, colorful, sensual, quirky,'' he said. "These were pieces I enjoyed spending time with.'' He not only loved how they looked but also what they meant. So he and the women started talking about yet another show, a bigger exhibit, perhaps using his large black-and-white photographs to augment the works. The more they talked, the more ideas they came up with.

"It was like a gospel meeting,'' Arend said of their lively discussion. "Like call and response.''

Johannes promptly figured out Arend's tarot soul card: He's the High Priestess, another extremely powerful female figure.

"We thought it might be too much with three empresses,''Johannes said. "We needed a little yang.''

Arend proposed bringing more of a "human element'' to the exhibit to "force the viewer to see deeper into the piece.'' When he showed the women slides of nude-figure studies he made 10 years ago and suggested hanging large prints behind some of the glass breastplates or in conjunction with other pieces, they were struck by how the mediums meshed.

If a breastplate slightly twisted one way, for example, it turned out the figure in Arend's photo did too.

"OK,'' Arend said. "It's meant to be. It works. It just fell into place.''

The women can't wait to see what comes of this new collaboration. They've already made a proposal to one gallery for their next show. And Johannes senses Arend might be on her side when it comes to some of her darker ideas.

"He was like a kindred spirit to me,'' Johannes said. "He's totally into that aspect of it. He's like, 'Can we have a broken body?' I'm like, 'Yeah!' Cindy was like speechless.''

Johannes hopes these shows prove she can work outside of her artistic box. She worries sometimes about being a "shopgirl,'' an artist producing with an audience in mind. This work is definitely different.The women don't even care if the pieces sell.

"I'd like people to see me in a different way,'' Johannes said, "look at me in a larger sense.''

For Shake, the show represents the start of something big and new. And waiting -- for anything -- isn't even a option.

"We're just giddy about it. It just keeps snowballing,'' Shake said. "It's growing. It's not over.''

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