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LABOR OF LOVE

The idea was to celebrate, with nine specially commissioned posters, this year’s 75th anniversary of the creation of the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. In truth, viewed on the eve of America’s 114th Labor Day, the posters celebrate not so much the bureau as working women themselves.

The artworks stylistically have little in common. They are realist, they are abstract. They are fashioned from oil, acrylic, watercolor, cut paper.

“Mine,” said Becky Heavner, “was done digitally on a computer.”

But . . .

“There’s something in common with all of them,” said Mary Louise Lopez, whose “Mother and Child” — in oil — depicts an indigenous woman carrying a young child on her back.

“They are connected in that the woman works, and her work is valuable. That’s the theme that connects everything.”

Others in the series, introduced in May at a White House ceremony: “Lunch at the Grill,” by Varnette P. Honeywood; “A Day in the Life,” by Marty Anderson; “Health Professional and Child,” by Susan Foster; “Tribal Shirt,” by Jaune Quick-To-See Smith; “Home Sweet Home,” by Mary Porter; “Working Women,” by Faith Ringgold; “Utensils of Women at Work,” by Lonnie Sue Johnson; and “Women of Blue, Pink and White Collars,” by Heavner.

Each artist — all are American women — was asked to evoke the woman’s workforce experience. Diversity was inevitable.

“One is, like, a housewife from Georgia,” Heavner said. “Her perspective is she sees dishes all day. I hire someone to do that.”

Heavner’s figures and colors are bold, direct.

“A lot of time, women are shown weak,” she said. “I wanted to show power, and sometimes you can do that with color.”

At the other extreme is Lopez’s work, no less strong but carried out in the more traditional style of her subject matter — Native American women.

“I just have great admiration for these people,” said Lopez, who has lived most of her 65 years in San Antonio. “It takes so much to live and survive.”

Which is the other common theme: It’s tough out there, always has been. That comes through in the art. So does the diversity, in every sense, and in every sense a positive.

“I look at my mom’s generation,” said Heavner, 32, of Alexandria, Va., “and I know she wouldn’t have been able to do what I’m doing as easily. Their roles were clearly defined: Stay home and raise a family.”

There’s a poster for that too.

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To order the nine posters, $24 for the set, call the Government Printing Office at 202-512-1800 or write to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15250-7954.