SUBSTACK!
Working Late
Working late is the latest in my series of conversations with the past. The original photograph was taken by Angelo Ruizzuto in 1954 and is a part of the collection held at the Library of Congress.
“The Anthony Angel Collection” contains ca. 60,000 black-and-white photographs of New York City, chiefly Manhattan, taken between 1949 and 1967 by Angelo A. Rizzuto (1906-1967). The images emphasize the vast scale of the Manhattan cityscape and the complex interrelationships between people and their physical environment.” Description from the Library of Congress
Title: Woman smoking a cigarette Rizzuto, Angelo, 1906-1967, photographer 1954 Library of Congress Control Number 2020636137 Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
I have been fascinated with photography since college and that fascination increased after a course in graduate school on the “History of Women in Photography”. It was the only Art History course I ever saw in a college catalog focusing exclusively on the work of women. Of course there had been a few “classes” on feminist art. Occasionally during lectures Georgia O’Keefe, Mary Cassette, or Berthe Morisot were mentioned, but never a deep dive into women as artists in any field.
Gdansk
Gdansk
“As I write, I hope to share with the reader the voice in my head that drives my creative process.”
That is the last line in my first post describing what I would be writing about on my Substack. Today I am going to be writing about a place as a character in my life.
I live in a beautiful city not far from several National Parks where plein-air landscape painters are abundant. It’s a place people visit or choose to live because of the copious amount of hiking and biking trails. A painting which celebrates this beauty connects with buyers as a memento of their visit or addition to their home. Although I admire fellow artists working out in the elements to document local scenery…… it’s not my thing.
For me art is a process driven by the need to understand my world and the larger world in which I live. Gdansk, although not a portrait, falls into this category. It was not just a memento from a pretty place. It’s a story of survival.
My husband and I visited the Polish port city on a cruise of the Baltic just prior to the pandemic. We did not have any expectations about this city, like we did visiting St Petersburg. It was a stop on a journey. Today the memory of that city hangs in the front hall where I pass it everyday. It has become a kind of touchstone in my life.
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Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is a portrait of my paternal grandfather I made in 2015. It was my first year working full time in my studio. This portrait created a minor buzz in the art quilt world. It was displayed in an exhibition at the Smithsonian Textile Museum at Georgetown University.
My submission did not directly address the theme of the exhibition, since my grandfather’s family migrated from Scotland prior to the American Revolution. In my artist statement, I argued that everyone has a connection with migration. My grandfather moved from West Virginia to Colorado in the last decade of the 19th century. From Colorado to San Francisco after WWI. From San Francisco to Los Angeles after the influenza epidemic. His reasons for moving were no different than refugees from Mexico, Syria, or Africa. Like these people he moved for reasons of safety and security for himself and his family.
Almost ten years later, I still love this portrait, despite hating it when I began working with it in my studio. I thought the static mugshot orientation of the figure in grayscale was a huge mistake when the printed fabric arrived in my studio. In hindsight I realize the composition was a great learning experience which helped me grow as an artist. To rescue this portrait I had to fix the problem of the deadweight of the figure and find a way to make it grab the attention of a viewer.
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Nan
Nan
The story behind the portrait of my mom
My mother was the first born in an upper class Irish Catholic family in Chicago. She was born into a culture with expectations from both her family's religion and their social standing. Of course this is true whether you were a boy or a girl, but somehow women have an obligation to be good, while there is an attitude for men that boys will be boys.
- The phrase comes from a Latin proverb “sunt pueri pueri, pueri puerilia tractant” which translates roughly to boys are boys, and boys will act like boys. Western societies have been saying some form of “boys will be boys” for at least 2,500 years.
After graduation from an all girls catholic high school, my mother was sent to secretarial school in 1938 knowing her younger brothers would be sent to Catholic Universities. The family had lost much of their wealth during the depression. I believe she took on the role of staying home and contributing her salary to pay househols expenses. Unlike her sisters who got married, she remained single into her 30’s.
Although she was technically a secretary, Nan ended up working for the President of Maybelline and later with the one of three founders of a large consulting firm Booze Allen and Hamilton. By 1950 she made more money than her brothers. She was successful and highly valued in her role, but an opportunity to move up into management would be an impossibility. She was trapped.
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