On being a woman artist:
“We believe that feminism is a transformative philosophy that
embraces the amelioration of life on earth for all life-forms, for all natural
entities. We believe that all oppressions are interconnected: no one creature will be free until all are
free—from abuse, degradation, exploitation, pollution, and commercialization.” --Josephine Donovan & Carol J. Adams in Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical
Explorations
As a professional woman and artist, I am thankful for all
the women that came before me and worked to bring the issues of women into the
national dialogue. That being said, I am
not interested in being known as a “woman artist” and I have only the ladies
who fought for feminism to thank for that.
I wish for my work to be viewed as good art, nothing more or less. I feel privileged that gender does not need
to be considered in the evaluation of my work, nor should it be for any other
artist working day to day. I believe
that Feminism stretches far beyond women in general. Feminism needs to fight for all creatures
that are oppressed, as the highlighted quote from Josephine Donovan and Carol
Adams expresses.
There is still a bitch or two left in the fight for the
rights of women and I am happy to be one of them. Though we have been gaining ground, there is
no time for rest. The level of power our
birth right affords us is dangerous. I
think this same danger is posed to women of my generation: what will we do with
the power and comfort we did not earn? I believe we need to continue to work
for the rights of all creatures, regardless of gender or species.
And with that: a few lines of the poem “Song” by Edward
Hirsch: “Listen, this song is for you even if you can’t listen to it or join
in, even if you don’t have lungs, even if you don’t know what a song is or want
to know. This song is for everyone who
is not listening tonight and refuses to sing.
Not singing is also an act of devotion.
Those who have no voices have one tongue.”
