In general.
Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but the issue of women in art not talked about completely honestly or transparently.
After years of engaging in debates and writing papers about multi-faceted complicated topics in school (P.L.O vs. Israel on the cultural and religious ownership and/or rights to land...), and years of peering into the mystical depths of the soul to wrestle with human nature and need, I've been lately surprised by the lack of honest thoughts considering women in the fine and performing arts.
Sure, I have attended forums about women not receiving their dues as artists, I was in college at a time when the feminist movement of women voices such as Judy Chicago composed a bone fide section in the curriculum, but that isn't the part that intrigues me so much as the practical facts and concerns that face specifically women in this field: To actualize all your potential as an art maker takes an enormous amount of time, focused. Must you be so compelled and completed by your work that you never fall in love? marry? have kids? Does this demand a certain kind of person innately? Can it be accomplished through sheer force of will? And what are the stories of these women?
As I find myself teaching younger women about my craft, and talking with them about their wonder at the wide world of life ahead of them, I'm often curious how many of them will be lit with such a fire that they will continue to be persistent art makers in the future.
The truth is, Art is a jealous mistress. Creation is all consuming when it has you in it's grips, to the neglect of food, friends, family, sleep. The artists (character animators, painters, illustrators, sculptors I watch) who make the most inspiring work ALL talk about the incessant hours of drawing they continually and habitually fill sketchbooks with. Bobby Chiu even has a late night live-streaming webcast where he invites (with a great sense of humor) other computer draftsmen to join him in real time to sharpen their skills and improve themselves while other artists sleep and fall behind.
How many women face decisions and opportunities in life and choose to be art makers? What have they had to give up? What aspects of life (consider marriage, kids) can male artists have that women cannot? And of the women who do continue to pursue their craft, how many of them are of that same strong, independent stock that produces women CEOs, etc...
It is a culturally, psychologically, sociologically, emotionally complex issue worthy of a doctoral thesis.
Painting vs. Family
I've been considering closely for the first time the incredible choices facing women in the career of visual arts, particularly in the field of original "fine art." These thoughts had not been as informed as they are at this particular moment in time -- having now just enough personal experience, vicarious experience, keenly observed and processed experience to get a handle on being (and surviving) as an artist.
What these women's lives have in common is: they did not marry, or married late in life, and never had children.
Out of respect, I would mention the countless women artists who are my friends that I admire and love for who they are, but for the purposes of these particular thoughts, are not the type of artmakers I'm specifically thinking about.
Also, I know a fair number of women illustrators, commercial artists, and impressionists who have families. One of my other queries is: are these types of painting/artmaking more compatible with the fractured work schedule that comes with raising children? There are wonderfully creative women contributing beauty and imagination to their communities and greater audiences, and even more that channel that creative energy into hospitality and what I consider to be the daily performance art of life, but that is, again, a digression from the particular thought of this post. (lauren, chime on in.)
Being this kind of artist requires enormous amounts of time. Surviving as this type of artist requires a combination of personal traits that are unique to each, but collectively amount to obsession, guts, proactive practices, determination, and luck. Much like Malcom Gladwell's explanation of
David and Goliath. A career in art is not for the faint of heart.
And it doesn't seem to be a field for the romantic at heart, either. Unless that romance involves the canvas. Due in part to the times she lived in, Cecilia Beaux refused marriage proposals in pursuit of her craft. Due to what I consider ruthless enjoyment of her craft, Bettina Steinke required dates to sit for a charcoal portrait before taking her out.
I recently had an immensely lucky opportunity to speak with a few of the most respected women painters in the country as they were part of a teaching faculty for a national event. Full of years, deeply committed and joyful in their work, they spoke to me honestly in hushed tones about being women artists, out of the eyes of the retirees who had come to the event to pick up a long lost love. One prefaced her comment, saying that she hardly speaks about this side of her life much.
"It was a choice for me. I chose this life because I love it. Those 20 years when women are having and raising children are the 20 most crucial years in your development. You can't replace them. There the years of most of your best training, and honing of your voice."
"No, I don't have children. God made that decision for me. He thought I was more fit to hold a paint brush than a child. I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams through my journey."
The crux of the matter is: to become a fully developed art maker, a woman needs time. And the time that is crucial to the type of painting pursuit I am looking specifically at, is in direct opposition to a woman's child bearing years. So, a choice must be made. Or must it? Especially if the woman is young and in the arts.
A young woman will face this more so if she deeply enjoyed her family growing up, and has any leanings towards being a nurturing, other-centered, socially just, humanitarian soul, and these qualities tend to be strong in women.
An artist who deeply cares about the creation of good, mature, work, knows how desperately far away they are from their vision, but is patient and persistent enough to make steps towards that distant promise. It takes years of dedicated labor to hone skills towards the thing you wish to express clearly. Years of repeated trial and error, chipping away at the hundreds of paintings it takes to score a good work.
The earlier a person starts working on these skills, the better chances they have at reaching this stage in their development because they have (as we all assume of our lives) more time than those who waited until retirement to pick up the tools and begin.
This is why young obsessive draftsmen wind up being phenomenal illustrators. And, obsessive type personalities are great in the creative field. I had a friend who was a touch OCD in undergrad and she made excellent uniform porcelain wear. It was beautiful, and she worked slavishly at it. Her work at the wheel was not only her business, it was her therapy. The work fed her.
So what about the compassionate side of their persons? What if what feeds your soul is not paint but people, yet you still have an irrational need to paint? This is where I have become sickly jealous of men in fine arts. They can continue to pursue their craft AND enjoy the comfort and community, joys and connection that come with having a wife that raises kids they enjoy after work.
As the comment from creative women (and career women) goes, "I wish I could have a wife."
How can these disparate interests be reconciled? Must sacrifices be made? Who is an example of this?
This article did such a great job at scratching the surface of the issue of art vs. family, as well as addressing some of the facets of women's nature that must be faced when pursuing a career in art. I agree with the author-- that for women, there is a remarkably difficult choice. It is deeply personal and complicated.
This documentary has been produced following the stories of several creative women in the midst of this balance of creative venture and family...
But these are only two efforts considering the issue. Surely someone has thought well and hard about art vs. family for women. Surely someone has found the secret? Just as
Art and Fear so plainly addresses the ordinary hurdles to all creatives continuing to make art, hasn't someone grappled with and come to plainspoken advice about the ordinary hurdles that face women in the arts?
And after all these thoughts, the words of Bettina Steinke fly in my face:
If a woman has to think, “I’m a Woman Artist”, then she has no business being an artist.
