Ivy Bottini (born August 15, 1926)

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Ivy Bottini was born in August 1926. She is an artist, a mother and a legendary activist, devoting over 40 years to the feminist & LGBT’s struggle for civil & human rights.

She was married for 16 years, the mother of two daughters, Laura and Lisa and has a grandson, Jason. Ivy and her husband at the time bought a house in Levittown, Long Island, NY in 1954. They owned and operated three art galleries on Long Island between 1960 and 1965. The galleries concentrated on presenting new artists’ work. Ivy chose to not exhibit her own art in their galleries. She did, however, exhibit in other galleries on Long Island.

She spent her early school years illustrating book reports, creating maps for geography class that were works of art, designing posters for school activities and painting for her own enjoyment. She went on to study at Pratt Institute School of Art in Brooklyn, NY under full scholarship from 1944 to 1947, where she obtained a certificate in advertising graphic design and illustration. After graduation she worked in several art & advertising agencies in New York City and then completed a 16 year career at Newsday, a major east coast daily newspaper, where she was art director and illustrator. She left Newsday in 1971 when she moved to California.

After leaving Newsday and moving to Los Angeles in 1971, she studied acting at Lee Strasberg Institute and spent several years performing her one woman show, “The Many Faces of Women” thorough out the Nation. She is the recipient of the Drama-Logue “Best Performance” award for her role in the play “Against the Rising Sea.”























She is a founder of the first chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) formed in 1966 as well as designing their national logo. As she fought for women's rights in New York City, she conceived and led the takeover of the Statue of Liberty in 1970 when Ivy’s New York Chapter of NOW, hung a large banner over the top of Statue’s pedestal which read, “Women of the Word Unite.”

She introduced the struggle for lesbian rights into the women’s movement in 1969. She created feminist consciousness raising within her New York chapter of NOW, which was later adapted for all chapters to participate in. In 1970 she was forced out of NOW due to her desire for equality and inclusion of lesbians in the struggle for women’s rights.

She was the Southern California deputy director of the 1978 campaign which spearheaded the defeat of the Briggs Initiative, (No on 6) which would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in California's public schools. She went on to chair the No on LaRouche and No on 64 Initiative victories.

She has organized numerous gay-rights marches, protests and "die-ins" in the 1980s. She has fought to get funding and services for the sick and dying during the AIDS epidemic. She founded the first AIDS organization in Los Angeles, AIDS Network LA, which served as a clearing house for early disease information and in 1983 she co-founded AIDS Project L.A.

She was a founder the Los Angeles Lesbian/Gay Police Advisory Board. She has been co-chair of the Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board for the city of West Hollywood from 1999 to 2010, spearheading work on partner abuse in the LGBT community, Crystal Meth addiction, the annual dyke march, and affordable housing for LGBT seniors. Ivy originally conceived the idea of providing affordable housing for Gay & Lesbian Seniors.

Many years of hard work culminated with the founding of the non-profit Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing, Inc. in 1993. Long before she became a founder and signer on the non-profit, Ivy laid the groundwork by organizing the community. She made the phone calls, held the meetings and provided the leadership that resulted in obtaining the grant of the State to move forward. The group’s first project, Triangle Square contains 103 units in an affordable income apartment complex which opened in late April 2007 in Hollywood CA. It is the first in the Nation.

She is now working on creating a fitting AIDS Memorial for West Hollywood and a LGBT Museum. She has begun work on her ‘long sought after’ autobiography and expects to be finished by the end of 2012.

This famous and respected activist has, for all her life been painting, drawing and interpreting the human form. She explores the human form and its relationship to itself, to space and to its surroundings. In addition she interprets numerous other subjects in a variety of media. Many of her early works are included in collections of followers on the east coast, where she began her art career. However her prolific creativity has produced a large collection of works, both original & giclee prints that are available for purchase to those who would like to become part of this amazing history. All available art work can viewed in the gallery section of this site.

Source: http://www.ivybottini.com/2010/bio.html

Further Readings:

Gay L. A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, And Lipstick Lesbians by Lillian Faderman
Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (August 3, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520260619
ISBN-13: 978-0520260610
Amazon: Gay L. A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, And Lipstick Lesbians

The exhortation to "Go West!" has always sparked the American imagination. But for gays, lesbians, and transgendered people, the City of Angels provided a special home and gave rise to one of the most influential gay cultures in the world. Drawing on rare archives and photographs as well as more than three hundred interviews, Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons chart L.A.'s unique gay history, from the first missionary encounters with Native American cross-gendered "two spirits" to cross-dressing frontier women in search of their fortunes; from the bohemian freedom of early Hollywood to the explosion of gay life during World War II to the underground radicalism set off by the 1950s blacklist; and from the 1960s gay liberation movement to the creation of gay marketing in the 1990s.

More Artists at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art