Women Artist
Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia January 2024
May this 2024 continue to be a year where I provide more visibility for women artists in bigger and better ways. This applies to women in history as well as to contemporary artists. So much I have learnt over the past year especially is providing me so much encouragement to continue on this path.
I am completely disillusioned with art museums (with a few exceptions), I cannot longer just attend these places and support what they continue to perpetuate, the glorification of a history that does not include women and that makes not greater efforts to rectify this. Every time I visit a museum, I cannot help but wonder who the people are at the very top taking the decisions for their collections. What they choose to be what is on display permanently as well as their current exhibitions. How are they making (or not) space to rewrite a history to include more of the stories behind the art, the stories as to why there isn’t more art by women in museum walls is worth telling, it is relevant, it matters.
My whole life, I grew up conditioned by my gender, from my culture, my religion, and my race. All of it combined added up to expectations of me, I was to be a woman that was gentle, kind, who serviced others and who was soft spoken. Kindness came to me naturally but being soft-spoken did not. I grew up loved and respected in many ways, but not valued and this had nothing to do with my parents or my immediate family, it was so much bigger than them. They did not know any better, my brother (and all males in our family) had a different a status, a higher one, he (they) could achieve everything they set their minds to. Shedding that off me over the decades has not been an easy thing, I am still doing the deep work and I am being gentle with myself, I am advocating for myself and I am changing that for my children. I firmly believe that so many of these things that don’t serve me have to stop with me.
What a beautiful gift it has been to be born a woman, what a beautiful gift it has been to feel mighty and unstoppable when it comes to loving myself fiercely and wholeheartedly and simultaneously how amazing it is to believe in myself and my art with so much conviction. Sometimes, a while back, I wished I could have undergone a traditional training (I had been taught that, that was the only way to be a “real” artist). I know differently now, I know my destiny is what it was meant to be. Traditional training has so much great things to offer, but the history of art as it stands is still not one that I want to be the one guiding my art practice. There is so much richness in all the research and discoveries I am making about women artists, their practices and their artworks.
Walking around the National Museum of Women in the Arts nearly brought tears to my eyes, I was mesmerised by this place. This was a place that represented me in so many ways and what I want to have more of in my life. Since the 80s this museum has been championing women artists. What a beautiful memory I created with my youngest child as I walk that museum and I explained how much we have accomplished for equality, and what the road is like ahead I could not help but feel hopeful and encouraged.
