Octobre 2006
Disparition d’une Artiste Lesbienne
Tee A. Corinne, de son vrai nom Linda Tee Cutchin, est morte le 27 août en Oregon, à 66 ans. Surtout connue pour son oeuvre érotique, Tee Corinne aimait varier les representation de son talent: poésie, peinture ou photographie, elle ne s’est jamais contentée d’une seule discipline. Une de ses oeuvres les plus connues est le livre Cunt Coloring Book, paru en 1975. Tee Corinne a dû faire face de nombreuses fois à la censure, comme avec Yantras of Womanlove, un des premiers livres lesbiens erotiques, sorti en 1985 et à présent reconnu comme une oeuvre queer essentielle.
Nicolas Jan Photo Susanne Petermann

Passing of a Lesbian Artist
Tee A. Corinne, real name Linda Tee Cutchin, died on August 27 in Oregon, at 66 years. Especially known for her erotic works, Tee Corinne loved to work in different media: poetry, painting or photography, she was never satisfied with only one discipline. One of her most known works is the book Cunt Coloring Book, published in 1975. Tee Corinne had to face censorship many times, as happened with Yantras of Womanlove, one of the first books of lesbian erotica, which appeared in 1985 and is now recognized as one of the essential queer works.

The Sower

Yes, her art threw out lines
You wanted to follow
Did your best, tracing with your eyes
Your fingers
Your heart
Her poems told of tales
You knew
And never tired of
And others you never knew
Your eyes widening in wonder
She made you blush
More often with pride
Than any broken taboo
She made you flush
With gratitude
We know her for her best work
As the sower of seeds
As one who could pick a thread
From your tattered garment
And draw it out until you sang
We will be singing her tunes
For all our days

For Tee Corrine

c 3/4/06 P. C. DuVall

Here is part of a poem I especially like, Birches, by Robert Frost:

“…I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
…I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”

I hope the birch tree will set me down near Tee again, the next time around.

Bon voyage to my loyal friend with the loving heart;
the generous,
the compassionate,
the intelligent,
the ethical,
the witty,
the beautiful,
the graceful,
the passionate, dedicated teacher,
the writer,
the reader,
the seeker,
and a true amazing luminous fountain artist:
Tee.
Till we meet again.

Carol Plaia
October, 2006

that just seems appropriate. so if you have any stories or tributes or, i don’t know, eulogies, send them to me, or post them in comments.

this blog will then be archived in its entirety by the university of oregon special collections.

fair warning.

tee corinne was an american original. she was pretty, she was gracious, and she was an irresistible force. she had style, she had talent, she had impact. the only thing that could stop her was a direct meteor strike. cancer couldn’t do it. she’s still going.

the greatest regret of her life (aside from not living to see her show at the museum of modern art) was that she wasn’t an american lesbian in paris in the 1920s. to a large extent, she patterned her life on that milieu, and she did her damnedest to make wherever she was, as much as possible, paris in the twenties.

in paris, all the interesting people knew one another. tee was a world champion introducer, collaborator, and instigator of collaborations. she did big things, and she encouraged everyone around her to do big things as well. she wasn’t interested in being famous alone. what she really wanted was to be famous with all her friends.

and so she taught art as well as made it, and she wrote, and she nagged. everybody has to write an autobiography. tee thought history was important, and she wanted the historians to have plenty to work with when this southern oregon community was finally recognized as this century’s “paris in the twenties.”

so: get going. you’ve got your marching orders. write. paint. sculpt. draw. make movies. get famous.

if you don’t, tee will certainly haunt you.