A couple of months ago a young student, Sydney Stevens, from the U of M Journalism department contacted me about an interview for a feminism assignment she had on art and on WARM. I’ve been involved with the feminist arts’ organization, Women’s Art Resources of MN (WARM), for the past 20 years and am currently serving on the board as vice president.
Before the interview I thought about my own life as an artist in a way that I have not in the past. Previously, when I considered my career as an artist I often concluded I couldn’t think of any time when I had been discriminated against because I was a woman. Instead, I felt that I had more opportunities, not fewer, because there were organizations like WARM that helped me in my career. I still feel this way, but when I reach further back to earlier events, my “Feminist Narrative” changes.
When I was growing up I always said I wanted to be an artist in one form or another. I had the idea that maybe I would be an art teacher in elementary school because I wanted to make it more fun, so kids wouldn’t groan when they “had to go to art.” Thinking back I realized this was when I had a female art teacher which may have helped me imagine myself in that role.
Then I contemplated being a photographer or a puppeteer or even starting a tourist attraction in the Black Hills with my Smurf village! But as I got closer to high school graduation I decided I would write and illustrate children’s books. About that same time I was exposed to pop and abstract art at the Smithsonian. It's interesting, now, to look back and ask “Why didn’t I decide to be a fine artist after seeing this art?” I was overwhelmingly inspired by this art. In my senior year I was able to have three hours a day of independent study where my fabulous art teacher, Chris Amend, encouraged me to make wildly creative sculptures and dimensional wall pieces. I think of that time as my peak of creativity, which I am always trying to attain again.
Pop art giraffes created in high school. One of the few surviving pieces from this time. It now hangs at my parents house in Colorado.
But back then I never let myself dream of being a fine artist. Now, looking back with a feminist lens, it occurs to me that none of the artists who’s work inspired me in that museum were women. I was enthralled with Red Gooms, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and others. I studied them further and memorized all their names; it seemed obvious that you had to be a man to be in museums.
Robert Rauschenberg, Reservoir, 1961, oil, wood, graphite, fabric, metal, and rubber on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1969.47.70
So I went to art school to become a children’s book illustrator. There were plenty of women in that field AND it looked like something I could make a living at. Well, a funny thing happened: I became a full time, professional artist instead. And how did I decide this was even possible? By going to an art fair to see women making and selling all kinds of creative work! While in art school I attended the Columbus Art Festival the first summer I stayed in Columbus. My mind was blown. Immediately I set the goal of having a tent on the street some day and selling what I created!
A page from “Frances the Fashion Frog”, a book I wrote and illustrated while in art school but never published.
Then the opportunity to sell at the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) student sale came along. I began to allow myself to make a lot more work that was outside of my assignments. I sold the work that I made! I made enough money to pay for 10 months rent. (Rent was cheap in Columbus, back in the 1990s, but still!)
I took my watercolor paintings from class, ripped the up, doodled on them and made “Story Scraps” which I sold at my first art fair and a few years after .
Now, looking back on my career, I realize how important it was for me as a young person to see career possibilities in real life before I plowed ahead. Of course there are always lots of things that complicate who and what a person becomes. Would I have set out to get my work in New York art galleries, at the beginning of my career, if I had seen some female names on the wall of the Smithsonian? Hard to say. But, either way, I am hopeful that the young women who meet me will discover they can actually make a living creating what they want. Possibly these young women will be inspired to head towards lives as a full time artists.
My booth this past summer (2019). This is my 26th year of doing art fairs and I still love it!