Speak up

Allison Roberts, features editor at The MV Times, doesn’t shy away from creating provocative art for the edgy times we live in. While she often uses miniatures that might be used with dolls or in dollhouses, there is nothing childish about her poignant artworks, which carry weighty statements. “Discomfort Isn’t a Flaw,” on view at the Schule Chapel Gallery at Featherstone Center for the Arts, August 10 through Sept. 6, explores socioeconomic status, war, race, gender, love, empathy, and other relevant themes.

Roberts immediately captures our attention in her mixed-media 3D collages. What, for instance, does the multiarmed figure, with a torso made from an old-fashioned mustard-yellow toy oven and a baby perched atop it, convey in “Second Shift”? As with all the work, her titles hint at their meaning, and explanatory labels accompany each piece. The outstretched arms in “Second Shift” hold many items women use every day, speaking to the unacknowledged debt we owe for the exhausting time, work, and energy they spend caring for the family.

Each of the 80 or so pieces surges with thought. In “Be a Lady,” honoring the poem by Camille Rainville, “Be a Lady, They Said,” a skeleton, bedecked in bright red lipstick and a large necklace sits inside a clear plastic vitrine stuffed with all the pretty accoutrements deemed necessary to be an attractive woman. “Be a Lady” nods to the contradictory messages about what women should or shouldn’t be doing. An excerpt from the poem: “Be a lady they said. Your skirt is too short. Your shirt is too low. Your pants are too tight. Don’t show so much skin. Don’t show your thighs. Don’t show your breasts. Don’t show your midriff. Don’t show your cleavage. Don’t show your underwear. Don’t show your shoulders. Cover up. Leave something to the imagination. Dress modestly. Don’t be a temptress. Men can’t control themselves. Men have needs. You look frumpy. Loosen up. Show some skin. Look sexy. Look hot. Don’t be so provocative,” reflects the mixed messages women get on a daily basis. 

Although constructed from many small objects Roberts makes, buys, or finds, some of the works strike home at a glance. In “Welcome to the Library,” a lone book, the Holy Bible, sits on the book cart, while other tomes, including “The Mis-Education of the Negro,” “What Truth Sounds Like,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and “The Fire Next Time,” are stuffed in a trash can. While this piece tackles censorship, in “We’re Trashing Her,” the trash can, filled to the brim with globes and sitting on a scale, is a powerful statement about how we treat Mother Earth. Two tiny shopping carts stand side by side in “The Haves and Have Nots.” One holds a few scant items, and the other is piled with expensive, delectable delicacies. Roberts supplies sobering statistics: 52 percent of Americans say they’re spending more on food than they were in 2025, and 49 percent say it’s somewhat difficult to afford food right now.

Roberts’ acerbic, funny essays, many of which have run in The Times, reflect her incisive wit. A raging Hulk doll stands in a tub full of ice cubes to try to cool down in “Menopause,” a nod to wicked mood swings, hot flashes, and cravings represented by the Hershey bar, Starbucks coffee, and other items often called upon during a woman’s change of life. There is a great little vending machine in “The Elixir of Life” that dispenses small bottles of liquid to satisfy our cravings for courage, love, or empathy. The latter also brings a smile to our lips with its emblazoned slogan: “A friend is like a good bra: Hard to find, supportive, uplifting, and always close to your heart.”

Roberts offers further respite in her tender piece, “In Case of Emergency Break Glass,” in which a bright red heart sits in the ready. Roberts says, “The heart is what you really need, so in case of emergency, it’s right there for you to get love.”

Roberts, who works across many media, has been an artist her whole life, starting in her highchair, filling reams of paper with pencil drawings. Her miniature social commentaries emerged during COVID, when she and her husband were stuck at home. “We challenged ourselves to make art from things we had in the house. We created clowns and robots from odds and ends. I was having all this fun, and then suddenly the works morphed into statement pieces reflecting social justice issues that have been on my mind since I was a kid. I think it’s because my mom was always socially and politically involved, and said to me numerous times, ‘Always speak up.’ I went to my first picket line when I was 7.’”

“Discomfort Isn’t a Flaw” carries on this legacy. Ultimately, Roberts wants to make art that moves us: “If you don’t feel anything, you’re not going to be invested. I hope the work gets you talking about your own experiences, or somebody else’s.” And in so doing, Roberts’ art becomes a powerful force of awakening.

“Discomfort Isn’t a Flaw” is on display daily from noon to 4 pm at the Schule Chapel Gallery at Featherstone Center for the Arts, August 10 through Sept. 6. Opening reception Saturday, August 15, from 4 to 6 pm, with music provided by Sarah Shaw Dawson.