"Wonder Woman Wondering if the Doves at the Concert are Okay"
from the Groupie Feminism Art Series
Attributions
Free Kitten’s 45 vinyl and jacket, Special Groupie (1993).
Groupie’s 45 vinyl and jacket. “All My Friends Are Pets” (1997).
Led Zeppelin’s singer, Robert Plant, onstage at San Francisco, CA’s Kezar Stadium on June 2, 1973. Photograph by Neal Preston.
Octopus image from a candle lid I purchased at Auntie Em’s restaurant in Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA, @ 2011. Skeem Candles, “Midnight Orchid.” Auntie Em’s was owned by one of the co-founders of the all-female all-punk band, the Red Aunts.
Wonder Woman 790
October, 2022
Variant cover by W. Scott Forbes
Blue paper
2025
Artist Statement
I made this artwork because the photo of Robert Plant and the art of Wonder Woman are so gorgeous! And because over the years I kept remembering the doves at the Led Zeppelin concert - were they ok? When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s I’d heard they’d released doves or pigeons at one of their concerts and I’d seen the photos. What happened to the birds?
When I found the Wonder Woman comic many years later, I fell in love with the gentleness of the comic book cover’s artwork; the seagulls seemed happy and Wonder Woman among them seemed like she could be trusted with them. Wonder Woman looks like a strong protector of the birds, too.
“Birds” is slang for females. I’ve learned that many terms that refer to females are also references to critters. I think this is because patriarchy and its language creates a hierarchy of domination and exploitation.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about the females with the band, girlfriends and wives and groupies sometimes called birds. I’ve done a lot of writing and art about groupies. So the title of this artwork, “Wonder Woman Wondering if the Doves at the Concert are OK,” is also about them.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about how humans handle critters. And about veganism, and vegetarian ecofeminism.
Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge fished from the balcony of the Edgewater hotel in Seattle, WA, in the late 1960s, hanging the fish like coats in the hotel room closets. They raped a groupie with one of the fish as some of the bandmates, their entourage, and a wife or two watched and filmed. I wrote an as yet unpublished short story about it.
Led Zeppelim guitarist, Jimmy Page, reportedly kept octopi in his hotel bathroom for sex. I wrote an as yet unpublished short story about a groupie rescuing the octopus, escaping from the hotel with her, and setting her free in the ocean.
Led Zeppelin cheered as a fan had sex with a dog.
Black Sabbath singer, Ozzy Osbourne, married for about forty-three years to Sharon and known for biting off the head of a bat at a concert and the heads off two doves during a record label meeting, also killed Sharon’s seventeen cats. He reportedly snorted ants, shot chicken and birds, and threw raw animal organs into the audience. Fans threw cats, frogs, snakes, and chickens onto the stage and several of the critters died.
Alice Cooper threw a live chicken into the audience and the audience tore the chicken apart. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were in the audience at that 1969 concert, and thought that the killing was art because it was chaos.
A music journalist told me she knew a sports star who raped a chicken, tearing the chicken apart in the process, then threw the chicken into a fire.
Musicians (and their fans, and their lovers) have harmed animals, sea life, and the people - and critters - who love them. So this artwork was made with that in mind. I wish it to be an antidote.
The first recording on a phonograph with actual playback was a nursery rhyme about two friends: a girl and a lamb. “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was recorded around 1877, with Thomas Edison’s recitation. The rhyme was based on a true story, and written around 1829 by Sara Josepha Hale and/or John Roulstone. The poem is about being kind to animals.
The first recorded jazz song, 1917’s “Livery Stable Blues,” included instrumental sounds that mimicked the language of barnyard animals.
Country, with its poetic rollicking and lullaby rocking, and jazz, with its collaborative individuality and heartthrob icons, are the basis of the rock ‘n roll music I refer to in this artwork.
I made the art by making color copies of the vinyl and their jackets and the candle lid, and by making a color copy of the comic book cover, and by printing out from the computer the black and white concert image. I cut out the shapes of the doves from the comic book cover copies and placed them amidst the comic book cover copy and the concert print. Some of the doves are in color and some are in black and white. I didn’t paste them onto the blue background because I want them to be free to fly.
Bibliography
The Birthplace of Country Music. “Thomas Edison: From “Mary Had a Little Lamb” to Recorded Music.” December 22, 2020.
https://birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/thomas-edison-from-mary-had-a-little-lamb-to-recorded-music/ Digital link. Accessed 9.8.25.
Davis, Stephen. Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga. United States of America: !t Books, 1985.
DeRiso, Nick. “How a Chicken Got Torn to Shreds at an Alice Cooper Show.” Ultimate Classic Rock. June 26, 2024. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/alice-cooper-chicken-killed-concert/ Digital link. Accessed 8.28.25.
Fordham, John. “50 Great Moments in Jazz:The Original Dixieland Jazz Band Release Livery Stable Blues.” The Guardian. January 26, 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/jan/26/original-dixieland-jazz-band Digital link. Accessed 9.8.25.
Forgotten Chapters of Boston’s Literary History. “Chapter One.” https://www.bostonliteraryhistory.com/chapter-4/sarah-josepha-hale-1788%e2%80%931879-%e2%80%9cmary%e2%80%99s-lamb%e2%80%9d-poems-our-children-designed-families-sabbath.html Digital link. Accessed 9.8.25.
Free Kitten. Special Groupie. 1993.
Groupie. “All My Friends Are Pets”. 1997.
Hale, Sarah Josepha. “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Poetry Foundation.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46954/mary-had-a-little-lamb Digital link. Accessed 9.8.25.
Jonze, Tim. “Neal Preston’s Best Photograph: Robert Plant Catches a Dove.” The Guardian. October 4, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/04/neal-preston-best-photograph-robert-plant-led-zeppelin-dove Digital link. Accessed 8.28.25.
Led Zeppelin’s singer, Robert Plant, onstage at San Francisco, CA’s Kezar Stadium on June 2, 1973. Photograph by Neal Preston.
Mzimba, Lizo. “Did Ozzy Osbourne Really Bite the Head Off a Live Bat?”
BBC News. July 23, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72ppzwek90o Digital link. Accessed 8.28.25.
Octopus image from a candle lid I purchased at Auntie Em’s restaurant in Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA, 2011. Skeem Candles, “Midnight Orchid.” Auntie Em’s was owned by one of the co-founders of the all-female all-punk band, the Red Aunts.
Spitz, Bob. Led Zeppelin: The Biography. United States of America: Penguin Books, 2021.
TOI Entertainment Desk. “When Ozzy Osbourne Revealed He Killed 17 Cats Under the Influence of Drugs, Described it as a Turning Point in his Life.” The Times of India. MSN.com. July, 2025.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/english/music/when-ozzy-osbourne-revealed-he-killed-17-cats-under-the-influence-of-drugs-described-it-as-a-turning-point-in-his-life/articleshow/122857061.cms Digital link. Accessed 8.28.25.
Wonder Woman 790
October, 2022.
Variant cover by W. Scott Forbes.
