Phyllis Yes collection, 1976-2003

Phyllis Yes is an Oregon-based artist and playwright known for challenging gender roles by "feminizing" stereotypically masculine objects such as paint cans, hand guns, ladders, hammers, and cars. Among Yes's best known works are "Por She," a 1967 Porsche Yes painted over with lace rosettes and exhibited at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in New York City in 1984, "Paint Can with Brush," and her epaulette jewlery series.

Yes was born Phyllis Richardson in Red Wing, Minnesota, in 1941. She earned her B.A. in art from Luther College, her M.A. in art from the University of Minnesota, and her Ph.D. in art from the University of Oregon in 1978. Yes went on to teach art at the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil, Western Oregon University, Oregon State University, and Lewis and Clark College. At Lewis and Clark Yes served as Chair of the Art Department, Dean of Arts and Humanities, and became a professor emerita of art, painting, and drawing in 1998. Yes's work has appeared in over 130 exhibitions over the span of her career. She has exhibited her work in galleries including the Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in New York City, the Nishiazabu Asa Cloth Gallery in Tokyo, Japan, and the Sandra Walters Gallery in Hong Kong, China. Yes has been honored with awards including an Oregon Arts Commission Grant in 1986, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1987, and a People's Choice Award, 2013 Legends of the Autobahn, in Monterey, California. Yes currently resides in Portland, Oregon.