(L) Artist Jamie Hicks, (R) Writer Marlayna Slaughterbeck
“Kitchen Windows: Private Interiors, Public Change, and the Making of the Modern Era”
Kitchen Windows is a collaboration between artist Jamie Hicks and writer Marlayna Slaughterbeck that seeks to reframe the midcentury American home as both a sanctuary and a frontline.
Through a series of intimate paintings and historically grounded essays, this work captures the private moments and quiet resistance of women navigating postwar domesticity, civil rights, and second-wave feminism. It is simultaneously a window inward—to the rhythms of daily life—and outward, onto a world in political, social, and cultural upheaval.
The exhibition serves as a preview of the artist and writer’s forthcoming book which explores how women’s roles were shaped and reshaped within domestic spaces too often overlooked by history.
Set between 1945 and the early 1980s, the series examines the tension between personal identity and public expectation, between domestic ritual and political transformation.
The paintings depict women in moments of labor, solitude, resilience, and reflection—quietly confronting or absorbing the changes unfolding beyond the frame, while accompanying essays provide deeper historical context, tracing the policy shifts, cultural conflicts, and legislative battles that influenced women’s daily lives.
Kitchen Windows invites viewers to reconsider the domestic interior, not as a passive or decorative backdrop, but as a charged space of agency, constraint, and quiet strength, where even the most ordinary rooms hold extraordinary truths that reflect the broader story of identity, agency, and the often-unseen role of domestic life in the making of public change.
Writer’s Bio:
Marlayna Slaughterbeck is a California-based writer and editor with a background in journalism, religious and cultural history, and feminist theory. Her work spans news reportage, academic writing and editing, and research-driven creative non-fiction. She has written for newspapers, academic institutions, and digital publications, and is particularly drawn to stories that explore the intersection of private life and public policy. She is currently collaborating with artist Jamie Hicks to expand their Kitchen Windows series into a book.
Artist’s Bio:
Jamie Hicks is an oil painter based in Monticello, Indiana. Inspired by vintage photographs, her work explores themes of memory, nostalgia, and the quiet moments of everyday life. She studied fine art at Purdue University and has exhibited in various juried art shows throughout the Midwest. Jamie is also an active member of the Chapel Gallery, an artist co-op in Carroll County, where she contributes to a vibrant local arts community.
