Feminist Art

Why Try Painting

2010-09-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

Painting can offer women gained self-esteem and confidence they did not know they possessed. It can be an excellence source of relaxation and rejuvenation.

Painting will allow a woman to associate creativity with every aspect of her life. Because of painting, many women find pleasure in music, reading, writing, sewing, gardening and much more. Through painting, a greater awareness of the beauty in life is uncovered.

Greater self-development occurs through art. Art is universal; it benefits everybody and every business. It is the most effective way to connect across language and cultural barriers. Painting will rejuvenate your heart and soul as well as refresh your mind.

Winton Oil Studio Set 620

Engaging Our Creativity

2010-09-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

Lots of women have impressive creative ability, weather they are able to perform challenging pieces of music, create captivating paintings or star in a play and hold the limelight in a staged performance.

For many of us somewhere along the way our priorities shifted to afford a particular lifestyle that seems much easier with a traditional job and many times this means we stop holding the limelight on the stage, our paints are put away, we stop playing our favorite musical instrument and our creative writing goes into speeches rather than novels.

It is understandable why some of us stop engaging in playful activities to focus on the practical. After all, it is important for us to do our jobs, take care for our loved ones and pay our mortgages, etcetera. All of this can be exhausting when we do not take time to nurture ourselves. Do you remember a time when you engaged in a creative project that gave you a sense of deep satisfaction?

For some of us it is a matter of giving something up and for others, it’s about never attempting something new. In either case, it is as if part of us doesn’t trust we can have a creative identity and handle the necessary practical things we must attend to in our daily living. We may even think in order for us to get something meaningful out of our creativity we have to be committed to perfection.

Without recommending abandoning your daily commitments to your family to nurture your creativity, there is a way to personally satisfying a level of engagement with your creativity you can introduce into your life. In fact, engaging in creative pursuits, even in some small way can positively feed back into the practical tasks of life. Once we begin thinking creatively, we see new ways of doing things more easily and we can find ways to obtain greater satisfaction from the mundane.

The benefits of creative thinking are amazing. Engaging in your creativity can inspire you to stretch in other areas of your life, personally and professionally. Personal creativity is a very important quality in any business and is necessary to generate new ideas and present them in compelling ways. Creativity in problem solving can lead to more satisfying results than relying on knowledge alone. In addition, developing your own creativity can assist you in seeing that quality in other people.

If you think there isn’t any use in starting something you won’t continue doing, try setting some time aside everyday or once a week just for enjoyment. Although it isn’t necessary, you may want to look into signing up for a class that will feed your creative spirit. Or you may want a coach who will assist you in developing an action plan to ensure your creativity has a place and priority in your schedule. However you decide to engage your creativity, it is important you take action.

What is stopping you from engaging your creativity in your life? Whatever once inspired you or if there is something you have always wanted to try, find the level of engagement that works in your life to see how your life will be nourished by it.

Beginning Hand Drumming:
Beginning Hand Drumming

The Cool Art of Masks

2010-08-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

Masks have been around since ancient times and have been worn for performance, entertainment, to disguise, conceal or protect the wearer. They have been used in ceremony, storytelling and dramatic enactment.

The wearable image of a face created in a mask can be used for it’s expressive potential in enactment and ritual. Masks are a universal art form that generally evokes power, magic and mystery for both the wearer and the viewer.

Crating a mask from scratch or decorating a pre-made mask can lead to exploring one’s persona. Mask making invites the artist to explore the persona they reveal or conceal from the world.

Through the art of mask making we can access our creativity and boost our self-confidence. Masks can bring consciousness to how the we see our self or what we fantasize we would like to be. Since masks have an outside and an inside, we can consider portraying how we really feel on the inside of a mask and how we feel others see us on the out side of the mask we create. Mask making can be a profound, revealing and personally liberating experience.

In closing, masks can be used to tell our personal story or to enact a dramatic global/political tragedy or to heal us spiritually, emotionally and/or physically.

To see Party Masks:
Party Masks (Twenty to Make)

Doll Making - The Art of Empowerment

2010-08-15T16:26:00.000-07:00

Doll making is an ancient art that serves many purposes. Civilizations throughout the ages created figures in their own images because they believed their “dolls” held symbolic meaning and supernatural influence.

The first doll makers believed their lifelike creations linked them to having and controlling life.

Women can have a profound experience when they engage in creating a doll for them self or someone else. Doll making is a potent tool that can be used for self-growth, manifestation and healing.

To venture into this art form the artist can look for doll making supplies in unlikely places such as the kitchen, bathroom, garage or basement. Once the items have been gathered the artist can begin assembling them or she can get together with other women for an afternoon of doll making.

The dolls created could become an encouragement or self-affirming doll or it could bring clarity to something that is going on inside of the individual and provide an opportunity of empowerment.

To see Creative Cloth Doll Making click on image:
Creative Cloth Doll Making: New Approaches for Using Fibers, Beads, Dyes, and Other Exciting Techniques

Milagros Art

2010-08-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

Milagros art is usually made from aluminum sheet metal or recycled aluminum cans, but can be made from a vast variety of materials such as felt, paper, clay, glass, wood, found objects, etc.

Milagros are small metal charms that can depict religious symbols or other symbols found in many areas of Latin America, particularly in Mexico and Peru.These charms can also be found in Europe and are referred to as Exvotos, which means offerings.

The word “Milagro” means “miracle”. Milagros often depict arms, legs, women praying, farm animals and a wide range of other symbols that are typically nailed or pinned to a cross or wooden statues of various saints. Sometimes these charms are hung with ribbon or threads from altars and shrines and they can also be worn or carried for protection or good luck.

Often women create Milagros Art as an expression of love for a loved one or to attract something to themselves, such as money, a new job, a new car, a new home or to complete a task or an endeavor they have embark on. Some women create Milagros to remind them of a loved one or a triumph they have experienced in their life. Milagros can also be used to make unique colorful jewelry.

To see Jewelry and Accessories from Everyday Objects click on image:
Jewelry and Accessories from Everyday Objects: 19 Unique Projects Inspired by Found Objects and Ready-Made Materials

Haute Trash Fashion - The High Fashion Art of Recycling

2010-07-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Trash fashion is created from debris; it is the conversion of trash into useful and fashionable objects.

Haute Trash Fashion Shows are high fashioned events created to bring attention to our landfills, which exceed their capacities thousands of times over and have become virtual cities unto themselves. Haute Trash Fashion events raise awareness for the need to recycle.

Many communities throughout the US hold their version of the Haute Trash Fashion Show to bring attention to and raise money for abused women, children and animals, as well as continuing to raise consciousness for the importance of recycling.

There is 3.5 million tons of toxic and dangerous plastic floating between San Francisco and Hawaii; this is twice the size of Texas. 80% of this toxic stew originated on land and could have easily been prevented.

Trash fashion shows illustrate the ability to reuse and recycle through creative and humorous exhibitions. They reshape societal views on beauty, recycling and ultimately trash.

Outfits are designed from discarded materials such as construction fencing, food packages, beverage containers, inner tubes, aluminum pop-tops and other salvageable materials.

Creative citizens and local artists create their own unique designs from nearby dumpsters, using satire to highlight this unconventional approach to going green. If you are an inclined designer with eco-sensibilities show off your talent at a local or national Haute Trash Fashion Show.

To see The Hip Handbag Book click on image:
The Hip Handbag Book: 25 Easy-to-Make Totes, Purses, and Bags

The Art of Knitting

2010-07-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

The origins of Knitting are hard to trace simply because fibers are biodegradable, however there are several theories. Some assume knitting began in Persia and others believe it started in Israel, Jordan and Syria. While others are convinced knitting started in the mountains of North Africa, Japan or China. Another theory is knitting grew out of the knitting of fishnets.

Women choose to pick up knitting needles for different reasons. Some women long to create while others want to make visual expressions of love for the people they care about.

Knitting can also have a spiritual quality that allows women to feel more in tune with their spiritual self.

Something comforting and magical happens for some women when they knit because knitting is about the hands creating something visual, which gives the brain a brake. This break can assist in solving a problem that is being experienced in another area of life. Knitting can allow the subconscious to be tapped in a way that is normally unavailable to us in our busy lives and knitting can be done almost anywhere and any time, it is socially accepted without appearing to be rude.

Today yarn is created from so many rich and lavish colors, natural and synthetic fibers that permit knitting needles and the hands to create beautiful lively colored sweaters, throws, scarves, hats, etc.

Why not take a break from your busy life by picking up a pair of knitting needles and some yarn to create something rich in color that is soft and silky to make you feel good?

To see the Cha Cha Scarf Knitting Kit click on image:

Cha Cha Scarf Knitting Kit Copper Pennies By The Each

Impressionism Art Movement

2010-07-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

Impressionism is a movement in art developed in France in the late 19th century by a group of artists who rejected traditional principles and practices taught.

Impressionists learned alternative brush-strokes and the use of color to represent an intellectual idea of a subject. Building on the use of more brilliant color, wider tonal range and broke brushwork permitted a more authentic play of natural light on objects. This new role of light and color as organic elements of painting natural scenes was to question academic theories of composition, drawing and the hierarchy of subjects. To capture the momentary and transient aspects of light he Impressionist chooses to paint outdoors rather than in a studio environment.

Mary Cassatt was a woman among a hand full of male Impressionists who were at the forefront of the Impressionism movement. She was and American painter known for her bold compositions and fine detail in scenes of mother and child in day-to-day living. A mix of strong lines and soft palettes characterizes Mary Cassatt’s work. Some of her best-known paintings are The Morning Toilet (1886), The Bath (1891), The Boating Party (1894), and Mother Feeding A Child (1898).

Every woman’s life is an Impressionism painting because of the beauty (brilliant color), trials and tribulations (wide tonal range and broken brush-strokes) she experiences during her lifetime.

To see Ladies of Leisure III by Olivia Maxweller click on image:
Ladies of Leisure III by Olivia Maxweller, 22x30

Art Therapy For Women

2010-07-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

Art therapy is based on the idea that creative activity can be healing and has proven itself to be noteworthy in assisting women with their healing.

Generally speaking women who experience disorders, diseases or disabilities will benefit greatly from art therapy. A wide variety of physical and mental symptoms including, but not limited to pain, anxiety and tension can improve or even completely disappear with art therapy.

It is a known fact that chronic stress is harmful to both the mind and body. To achieve relaxation and relief from stress art therapy can be used alone or with other relaxation exercises to help relieve stress and anxiety.

Women who are experiencing or who have experienced a traumatic incident or illness can come to terms with their feelings and work through anger, resentment and other emotions by participating in art therapy to rejuvenate their spirit.

The creative process of art is what sets art therapy apart from traditional therapy. Every woman can benefit from art therapy even without the aid of an art therapist. Art therapy is something that can be done on your own for self-discovery, empowerment, to express yourself when you find it difficult to do so, etc.

Engaging in a creative activity is very powerful because it can give women a sense of control over her feelings.

The benefits of art therapy are broad and can help improve the quality of living by improving all women’s emotional, physical and mental states. If art therapy can aid you in improving the quality of your life in someway it is well worth considering, especially if it can be a catalyst for your healing.

To see an Art Kit click on image:

Colossal 315-pc. Art Kit

Women and Beads

2010-06-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

Beads have been significant in almost every culture and they have been worn as talismans and amulets to protect the wearer or to bring good fortune and wisdom. In the past beads have also been used as currency. Today beads are still used as amulets to bring wisdom and good luck and as talismans to protect the wearer from ill fate.

The word bead means to pray (bidden) or prayer (bede) and is an Anglo Saxon word. Prayer beads are known worldwide and are used to keep track of the sequence and number of prayers being recited. Worry beads are also common around the world and are used to assist in making decisions and keeping the hands busy during times of uncertainty.

Women from around the world have been crafting beads for centuries and for some cultures beads have been used as a form of communication by utilizing specific colors and shapes to send messages. The Zulu women of Africa have been practicing this form of communication for eons.

In our contemporary times most of the traditional symbols used in beadwork are predominately made for sale rather than personal use. Traditional techniques and designs are still being used in bead craft, but many women throughout the world make beads as a means for survival to support themselves and their families.

Wearing beads is a wonderful way of celebrating yourself or honoring a rite of passage into womanhood, motherhood, or cronehood. Beads can also be worn to acknowledge other life-transforming experiences and for their beauty alone.

To see a Kirra Multi Row Jace Bracelet click on image:

Kirra Multi Row Jace Bracelet - Brown X No Size

Sculptress

2010-06-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Sculpture is three-dimensional art created by shaping and/or combining materials such as: clay, metal, glass, stone, wood, plastic, textiles, polymers and found items. The term sculpture has now been extended to works that are comprised of light, text and sound.

For many women sculpture is a valuable form of art because it permits them to discover who they are and reflect on their life’s journey; the triumphs in a woman’s life and struggles a woman faces with her body image, as a woman in the world, and in the workplace, etcetera, etcetera.

Sculpting is one of many art mediums that is multi-sensory and can be very therapeutic for the sculptress and the viewer. Through sculpting a woman can overcome self-hatred and experience empowerment through acceptance and self-love.

To see creating with polymer clay click on image:
Creating with Polymer Clay Bk & Kit

The Value of Women Artists

2010-06-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Why is it that most women artists do not receive the same pay and are not provided with the same opportunities and recognition as their male counterparts? Women have been creating art since the beginning of time just as men have and the feminist art movement created more opportunities not just for women, but also for men with regards to new and different art mediums.

What is it in our global culture that indoctrinates men and women to believe female artists are not entitled to the same dignity as male artists? In general women are not valued and rewarded for their vital contributions to society, so how can women be held in the same esteem as men?

Maybe the first step is to examine why society is not questioned regarding our value. There are more women in the world, more women in the workplace and more women who are head of their household. How do women arrive at a balanced partnership with men in our society, where women are valued equally as men?

There are more female artists than men who create art from countless mediums and yet most art created by women receives little acknowledgement if any. With this said, I would like to recognize a few of my women artist friends now.

Ruth Barrett who is an incredible musician, Falcon River who is a remarkable artist of many talents, Jane E. Ward who is an amazing painter and multimedia artists, Kerry Krittell an astonishing metal smith, Fern Mary Pinecrone who is an unbelievable film artist, Darcelle Foster who is a great wood worker and Pam Stern who is an awesome sculptor.

To see Viva La Charra by Kathy Sosa click on image:

Viva La Charra by Kathy Sosa, 22x28

Women At The Forefront Of The Baroque Era

2010-05-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

There were just as many Baroque women artists as there were during the Renaissance period. Most Baroque female artists came from artist families, who were trained in their father’s workshops and worked along side their fathers on commissioned pieces.

Women artist of this period changed the way women were depicted in art. Female artists during the Baroque era were not permitted to train form nude models because all nude models were male, but they were very familiar with the female body. Therefore, they created images of women as conscious beings rather than detached muses.

Still Life emerged as an important genre during the Baroque era and women were at the forefront of this painting trend. Since women could not train from nude models, Still Life was particularly suited to them because they could easily access the materials for still life.

The high point of painting during this era was history painting, particularly large-scale compositions with groups of figures depicting historical or mythical situations. To create such paintings, artists studied casts of antique sculptures and drew from male nudes. Women were limited or had no access to academic learning and as such, there are no large-scale history paintings by women from this period.

Some women made their way, as artists through other genres by creating portraits and other women were innovative in their ability to compensate for their lack of training, by painting allegorical scenes they were able to sell.

Women artists of the late 18^th century had made important strides forward by being accepted into academies and being permitted to showcase their work in exhibitions. Once again, women were being accepted as academic students.

To see a Baroque Art Print Poster click on image:

Baroque I by Ahava 24"x24" Art Print Poster

Renaissance Women Were Artists, Poets, Musicians and Scholars

2010-05-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

The rise in women artists during the Renaissance period was due to a major cultural shift. Female artists gained international reputations during this era.

A shift towards humanism, a philosophy affirming dignity for all people, which was central to Renaissance thinking and assisted in raising the status of women.

During the Renaissance there were stories of allegorical cities where independent women lived free from slander of men. Real women artists were included in these stories and some texts led to increased education for women. Popular works stated men and women should be educated in the social arts, which made it acceptable for women to engage in visual, musical and literary arts.

Many female artists depicted themselves in self-portraits not just as painters, but as musicians and scholars, thereby highlighting their well-rounded education.

With the rise of humanism there was a shift from craftsmen to artists. Artists, unlike earlier craftsmen were expected have a viewpoint and be educated in mathematics, ancient art and the human body.

In the late Renaissance the artist’s training began to shift from the master’s workshop to the academy; this began a long struggle for women to continue to have access to education and training as artists until the late 19^th century.

It was essential for an artist’s to study the human body and this required working from male nudes and corpses. Women were usually barred from this training; therefore they were excluded from creating scenes that were required for the large-scale religious compositions, which received the most prestigious commissions.

Usually the few women who experienced small success as artists during the 15^th and 16^th century were nuns or children of painters, which permitted them to gain training from their fathers workshop.

To see the Seated Woman I art print by Lanie Loreth click on image:

Seated Woman I PREMIUM GRADE Rolled CANVAS Art Print Lanie Loreth 12x12

Medieval Period Documented Women Artists

2010-05-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Clearly demonstrated examples of women at work in the arts during the medieval period are documented in the manuscript illuminations, embroideries, jewelry, carved capitals, and other forms of art created during this historical period. Women also worked as brewers, butchers, wool merchants and ironmongers (metal merchants).

Female artist during this era were from a small subset of society, whose status permitted them freedom from more strenuous types of work. These women artists were often from two literate classes, either wealthy aristocrats or nuns. Nuns often created embroideries and textiles.

Women have been creating jewelry from seashells, stones, found items, semi-precious stones, precious stones, metals and other materials for more than 100,000 years.

Isn’t interesting women have been creating art since the beginning of time just as men have and yet most female artist are not acknowledged as professional artists. Why is this???

To see a Norma Jean design click on image:

Festive Bead Necklace with Orange Quartz Diamond Shaped Stone

Women in Art

2010-05-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

Women have been involved in creating art since the beginning of time despite the difficulties experienced in receiving training, trading their work and gaining recognition.

The best period for women artists was during the Middle Ages. It was later introduction of drawing from life models that made it harder for women to obtain specialized training, which became a requirement to be known as a professional artist due to reasons of decorum.

During the latter part of the twentieth century, historians have made an effort to rediscover the artistic accomplishments of women and give female artists their due place in narrative of art history.

There are no records of who the artists of the prehistoric eras were, but studies of many early ethnographers and cultural anthropologists show that women were often the principal artisans in the cultures considered as Neolithic and Paleolithic, creating pottery, textiles, cave paintings, baskets, jewelry and music. Collaboration on large projects by women during these eras was common.

To see a Minoan Snake Goddess click on image:

Minoan Snake Goddess Statue from Knossos Palace

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe, An American Artist

2010-04-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Georgia O’Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) is a prominent artist in American Art; she received recognition for her technical contributions and she challenged the boundaries of modern American artistic style. She is primarily known for paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones and landscapes that are powerful abstract images.

O’Keeffe played a significant role in bringing an American art style to Europe during a time when Europeans dominated art. This accomplishment improved her art-historical importance because she was one of few women to gain entry into this level of professional influence.

Anita Pollitzer took some of Georgia O’Keeffe’s drawings to New York in 1916 and showed them to photographer Alfred Stieglitz at his 291 gallery. Stieglitz said O’Keefee’s drawings were the “purest, finest, sincerest things that had entered 291 in a long while”. As a result, he chose to exhibit ten of O’Keeffe’s drawings in April 1916. O’Keeffe had not been consulted prior to the exhibit and found out about it through an acquaintance; she confronted Stieglitz and agreed to let her drawings hang. This became Georgia O’Keeffe’s first solo show.

In 1924 Alfred Stieglitz began organizing annual exhibits of O’Keeffe’s work and by the mid 1920’s, Georgia O’Keeffe had become one of America’s most important artists. In 1928 six of her calla lily paintings sold for $25,000 US dollars, which was the largest sum ever paid for a group of painting by a living American Artist.

“Black Iris III” (1926) evoked a veiled representation of female genitalia. Georgia O’Keeffe denied painting vaginal imagery, but many well-known art historians have linked her work to the feminist artists of the 1970’s. Judy Chicago gave O’Keeffe a prominent place in her “The Dinner Party”.

To see Red Canna Art Poster by Georgia O'Keeffe click on image:
Red Canna Botanical Art Poster Print by Georgia O'keeffe, 23x34

The Guerrilla Girls, Radical Feminist Artists

2010-04-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

In 1985 a group of women artists attended an exhibit titled, “An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture”, held by the Modern Museum of Art in New York. These women noticed only 13 of the 169 featured artist were women and the ratio of artists of color was even smaller, none of whom were women artists either. The Guerrilla Girls were established following the attendance of this exhibit.

As an anonymous group of radical feminist artists who wear gorilla masks in public and take the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms, the Guerrilla Girls expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture with facts, humor and outrageous visuals. Supporters have circulated their work around the world.

Trained as visual artists, the Guerrilla Girls first work was putting up posters throughout New York City criticizing the gender and racial imbalance of artists represented in galleries and museums.

To continue their use of provocative text, visuals and humor in the service of feminism and social change two founding members of the Guerrilla Girls established the website www.guerrillagirls.com.

The Guerrilla Girls travel the world talking about the issues of sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture and their 25 years as masked avengers, reinventing the “f” word in the 21^st century. They are part of Amnesty International’s Violence Against Women Campaign in the UK and brainstorm with Greenpeace. The Guerrilla Girls could be anywhere and are everywhere.

To learn more about the Guerrilla Girls" click on image:

Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls

Faith Wilding, Feminist Performer

2010-04-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

Faith Wilding is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and educator who immigrated to the United States from Paraguay in 1961. She is a founding member of the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, CA where she received her MFA in 1973. Wilding also holds a BA in Comparative Literature, which she obtained from the University of Iowa.

“By Our Own Hands” (1976) is a chronicle by Faith Wilding of her work and experience within the feminist art movement in Southern California.

SubRosa was co-founded by Wilding and is a cyberfeminist cell of cultural produces who utilize BioArt and tactical performance in the public arena to explore and critique the intersections of information and biotechnologies within women’s bodies, lives and work. Faith wilding continues to work with subRosa.

For more than 30 years Faith Wilding has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the world and is widely recognized for her work. Wilding’s art addresses the recombinant and distributed biotech body in various media including 2-D, video, digital media, installations and performances.

To find out more about Faith Wilding click on image:

A Studio of Their Own: The Legacy of the Fresno Feminist Experiment

Mary Kelly, Conceptual Art and Feminism

2010-04-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

Mary Kelly originally trained as a painter. She studied in Florence, Italy with protégés of Giorgio Morandi where she learned traditional techniques, but her real interest was contemporary art. She relocated to London, England in 1968 to continue her postgraduate study at St. Martin’s School of Art.

Simultaneously Kelly’s art career and her involvement with the Women’s Movement began in the 1970’s in London. She was active in grassroots media organizations and was also a member of a group of politically active women, who developed intellectual feminist theories of sexuality and representation.

In 1971 Mary Kelly went to see Othon at the National Film Theater, where she saw the way directors Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub ran the whole reel on a one shot going into Rome. She knew this was what she wanted to do, not just film, but also with installation as a series of stills.

Her first experience of working on a film was the making of Nightcleaners (1970-1975), an experimental film made by the members of the Berwick Street Collective (Marc Karlin, Mary Kelly, James Scott and Humphry Trevelyan). This film is a documentary that recorded the campaign to unionize the women who worked at night cleaning office blocks and who were being victimized and underpaid.

Kelly exhibited the first of a three part series titled, “Post Partum Document” (1973-1979) at the ICA in London in 1976. This epic series explores the artist’s relationship with her infant son through the combination of text, images and found objects. The installation includes her son’s stained nappy liners, which was considered scandalous at that time by the tabloid press, but in fact was meant to challenge the Conceptual art establishment and was also pivotal to the late twentieth century feminism movement. As a result Mary Kelly became a prominent American woman artist and is among the most influential feminist artists working today.

She is known for her project-based work addressing questions of sexuality and identity in the form of large-scale narrative installations. For more than three decades Kelly has received worldwide attention on her richly textured narratives and images.

To learn more about Mary Kelly click on image:

Post-Partum Document

Dara Birnbaum Reconstructs Television Imagery

2010-04-10T04:22:00.000-07:00

Dara Birnbaum initially studied architecture and town planning. Later she switched to studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute.

In the late 1970’s Birnbaum began her video art career after she returned to New York and continued her education at the New School of Social Research, where she focused on video art.

Primarily Dara Birnbaum’s production consists of video art and installations. Variations of her videos from the late 1970’s and early 1980’s are of the same theme, all reinterpreting the various formats and “language” of television utilizing different techniques.

“Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman” (1978-1979) is a prominent piece of video art by Birnbaum. She utilizes suitable images of Wonder Woman to overturn the ideology and meaning embedded in this television series.

A large three-part video and installation Birnbaum began in the mid 1980’s is based on the myth of Faust. This series is titled, “Damnation of Faust: Evocation” (1983), “Damnation of Faust: Will-O’-the-Wisp” (1985) and “Damnation of Faust: Charming Landscape” (1987). In this series Birnbaum closely examines the myth of femininity through personal and social experiences.

Birnbaum completed a public art wall project commissioned and designed for an Atlanta, GA shopping mall in 1989. This installation is titled “Rio Videowall” and is comprised of 25 monitors; it is a large-scale interactive installation.

The installation titled, “Tiananmen Square: Break-In Transmission” (1990) created by Birnbaum concentrates on the events surrounding the broadcasting of the students and worker uprising in the summer of 1989. One of the installation’s video channels focuses on the moment CBS and CNN were forced to stop broadcast transmission, while another channel broadcasts the ways and means taken up by students to continue to get images out.

“Transmission Tower: Sentinel” (1992) Dara Brinbuam closes in on the excerpts from the famous, “Thousand Points of Light” speech made by George Bush, when he accepted the Republican party’s nomination to run for President in 1988.

The 1977 kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer is the subject of Birnbaum’s 1994 six-channel video installation titled, “Hostage”.

Birnbaum’s video art has been viewed in countless festivals, video art exhibitions and events throughout the world.

To date Dara Birnbaum continues to live and work in New York where she reconstructs television imagery using archetypal formats such as quiz shows, soap operas and sports programs. Her techniques involve repetition of images and interruption of flow with text and music. Birnbaum is also well known for forming part of the feminist art movement.

To know more about Dara Birnbaum click on image:
Dara Birnbaum: Dark Matter of Media Light

June Wayne, Innovative Artist Of The Day

2010-04-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

June Wayne has always had an interested in art and is keenly observant. At the age of 5, she recognized in comic strips the dots of color fused by vision produced secondary hues. At this point she began to make drawings composed entirely of colored dots and was a sort of self-taught French Post-Impressionist in the manner of Seurat and Signac.

By the time she was 9 she began to illustrate the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam at the age of 9, this project occupied her into her late teens. Wayne’s dedication to a single project would inform her work for the rest of her life.

Bored with high school June Wayne dropped out and to prove to her mother she was and educated person, she took and passed the entrance examinations to the University of Chicago, but did not enter school.

At the age of 17 Ms. Wayne had a one-person show exhibiting her paintings at the Boulevard Gallery in Chicago. This resulted in her receiving an invitation by the Mexican Government to paint in Mexico.

In 1936 at the age of 18 June Wayne had achieved legendary status among twentieth-century artist due to her exhibit at the Palacio de Balles Artes in Mexico City.

Today Ms. Wayne is best known for her influence and work in printmaking and fine-art lithography. Founding the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in 1959 is one of her most renowned achievements. This workshop under her direction became one of the most important focal points of a general revival of printmaking in the United States. This revival provided other famous artists such as Willem de Kooning, Louise Nevelson and Ed Ruscha an opportunity to experiment in this format.

The spectacular prints of June Wayne earned her the estimable title “The Incontestable Pioneer of Contemporary Lithography”. Throughout her career she boldly explored a variety of media and aesthetic concepts. Working in painting, tapestry, film and video she was always pushing the limits of the media to develop new techniques.

Ms. Wayne created “Optical Art” long before it was identified and adapted Ben Day dots decades ahead of “Pop Art”. She was exploring new ideas and forms by the time these styles moved into the mainstream.

The feminist movement spurred June Wayne and validated her career. Her art is as varied as her styles and methods, which are informed by a wide range of influences from science, space exploration, literature, personal experience and feminist theory. She has been driven to remains one of the most innovative arts of the day.

To know more about June Wayne click on image:

June Wayne: A Catalog Raisonne, 1936-2006: The Art of Everything

Nancy Spero an Artist's Voice

2010-04-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

Nancy Spero (August 24, 1926 – October 9, 2009) was an artist and activist who continuously engaged in contemporary social, cultural and political concerns. She chronicled wars and apocalyptic violence as well as articulated visions of ecstatic rebirth and the celebratory cycles of life in her art.

As an activist and feminist, Ms. Spero became a member of the Art Workers Coalition, Women Artists in Revolution and in 1972 she was a founding member of the first women’s cooperative gallery, A.I.R. (Artists in Residence) in SoHo, New York.

When Nancy Spero completed her “Artaud Paintings” (1969-1970) she found her artistic voice and developed her signature scroll paintings, “Codex Artaud” (1971-1972).

By utilizing text and image printed on long scrolls of paper glued end-to-end and tacked on the walls of A.I.R., Ms. Spero disregarded formal presentation, choice of valued medium and scale of framed paintings.

The epic-scale paintings and collage on paper, “Torture of Women” (1976), “Notes in Time on Women” (1979) and “The First Language” (1981) are Nancy Spero’s representations of women from historical to current times, such as the torture of women in Nicaragua, the extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust and the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Her artistic expression is executed with raw intensity on paper.

Since 1960 Ms. Spero’s work has been an unapologetic statement against the pervasive abuse of power, Western privilege and male dominance. Her figures are in full command of their bodies, co-existing in nonhierarchical compositions on monumental scrolls, which visually reinforce values of equality and tolerance.

To see Nancy Spero: Codex Spero paperback book click on image:
Nancy Spero: Codex Spero

Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Design Legend

2010-03-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

Sheila Levrant de Bretteville received her B.A. in art history from Barnard College in 1962 and a M.F.A. in 1964 from Yale University. She has honorary degrees from California College of Arts and Crafts and Moore College of Art. In 2006 the American Institute of Graphic Arts chose Ms. De Bretteville “Design Legend”.

In 1971 Ms. de Bretteville created the first women’s design program at the California Institute of the Arts. She co-founded the Woman’s Building and its Women’s Graphic Center in Los Angeles in 1973 and in 1981 the communications design program at Otis College of Art and Design was initiated and chaired by her.

Ms. de Bretteville was named professor and director of graduate studies in graphic design when she joined the Yale School of Art faculty in 1990 to replace Alvin Eisenman. Her appointment was met with great opposition from designer Paul Rand, who left the department and convinced colleague Armin Hofmann to do the same.

As a graphic designer, artists and educator Sheila Levrant de Bretteville’s work reflects her beliefs in the importance of feminist principles and user participation in graphic design.

She has worked extensively in the field of public art, creating art embedded within city neighborhoods. A best known piece of Sheila Levrant de Bretteville titled “Biddy Mason: Time & Place”, an 82-foot concrete wall embedded with objects, which is located in downtown Los Angeles, tells the story of a former slave woman who became a midwife in Los Angeles and who lived near the installation.

Many of her posters and fine press editions are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris and numerous university and public libraries.

To learn more about Sheila Levrant de Bretteville click on image:
The Dinner Party

Kate Millett, Sexual Politics

2010-03-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

Kate Millett is an American feminist activist and writer. She is best known for her 1970 book titled “Sexual Politics”.

In 1956 Kate Millett received her B.A from the University of Minnesota where she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She obtained a first-class degree with honors from St Hilda’s College in Oxford, England in 1958.

Ms. Millett was active in feminist politics in the late 1960’s through the 1970’s. She became a committee member of the National Organization for Women in 1966.

An extremely controversial and important theoretical touchstone for the second feminism wave of the 1970’s was Sexual Politics. Kate Millett criticized patriarchy in Western society and literature. In particular she critiqued the sexism and heterosexism of modern novelists D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller and Norman Mailer.

In 1971 Ms. Millett began purchasing and restoring buildings and fields near Poughkeepsie, New York. This project became the Women’s Art Colony/Tree Farm, a community of female writers and artist supported by the sale of Kate Millet’s silk-screen prints and the selling of Christmas trees hand-sheered by the artists in residence.

To see Kate Millett/Time Cover Art Poster click on image:
Kate Millett, Art Poster by TIME Magazine, size 11" x 14"