Sunday Art Chat
January 25, 2009
Maybe you all have heard that there aren’t that many “great female painters”…maybe you were taught this in school or by your parents or by television or by the last museum you visited. I mean, sure, we all know the glory of Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo and (possibly) Mary Cassatt, but is that really all we can excavate from our general art knowledge database in the dusty corner of our brains? Honestly, these are the only women I knew of before I started looking into painters, writers, film-makers, etc. who weren’t just in the regular, standard text-books. And I have been pleasantly surprised. Art, for me, has become something like religion, but I had to start looking outside the box because, unfortunately, Picasso and Matisse and Pollack and Rembrandt just never did it for me. My favorite art captures my imagination, and I can be thinking and dreaming and philosophizing for hours because of one picture or painting or sculpture before I realize it. And that kind of inspiration is close to a spiritual thing for me. I don’t really know how to define “great art”, but I know what’s great to me. And, the more I looked into different types of art and different artists, I realized that it wasn’t knowledge of female artists I was lacking… I was supposed to be missing something, but just knowing more female artists would never fill that hole. I was simply missing art that spoke to me, and I found it just by looking! One of my favorite artists right now is Rachel Bone, and I wanted to share some of her works with you.
The Debaters, 2008.
21″ x 17″ gouache and ink on paper
Fiction, 2007
22″ x 15″ (aprox). gouache on paper
Cookie Factory
48″ x 24″ gouache and ink on canvas
The Race
48″ x 24″ gouache and ink on canvas
The Unicorn, 2008
20″ x 16″ gouache and ink on paper
The Steepers
12″ x 24″ gouache and ink on canvas
The Jellymaker, 2007
22″ x 22″ gouache and ink on paper
The Sleeper
12″ x 9″
I guess I think she’s “great” because she makes me think about human work and play. I think about our effect on each other, our communication with each other, our dependance on other humans yet our solace in solitude, our effect on the environment, how we can make wonderful things out of small things or even things that seem like problems. How clever and simple to picture the mythical, fantastical unicorn as two playful girls and a construction cone! And an old car graveyard as a vineyard supporting plants producing fruits to be picked by a woman who just wants to make some jelly! I could go on and on, but I’ll just end with I hope you enjoy these half as much as I do.
Spring
January 25, 2009 at 8:19 pm
This is really cool. Very unique– I love the free space in the compositions because it creates a way to reflect even amidst the disorder of her subject matter.
January 26, 2009 at 12:10 am
There is something very country girl about her work. I can practically smell the soap grass.
January 26, 2009 at 6:35 am
Just found this and had to share. ManPants and I are pretty enchanted with The Commuters.
January 26, 2009 at 4:35 pm
I love what you choose to talk about in this blog. As you know, I love art!!! And I do think this painter/artist is really interesting. I like the pseudo-urban-gothicism of her work. As far as women artists go, I am totally loving Diane Arbus. When we went to NOLA in the early summer, I found out that NOMA bought three of her photos and then I watched some movies and clips about her. What a great female artist. I also love the stuff by Vanessa Bell (Woolf’s sister) and Dora Carrington a lot too. You should check out some of their stuff on google images. Carrington’s portrait of Lytton Strachey is beautiful. I got the chance to see it in the National Portrait Gallery.
January 26, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Beth-i’m glad you enjoyed, and i love the free space, too. i like the term ‘free space’ also, instead of blank space or empty space. awesome!
okay, i had to google ‘soap grass’ even though i’m a country girl…once again, miz h, you’ve taught me something.
whatif- what a cool collection of photos…i spent a long time looking through her work, her comment, and her process. i loved the butterflies going up (or is it down) the subway stairs! also, i clicked on some of her links to other artist, and i found someone i am dying to talk about…so maybe i’ll make the sunday art chat a regular thing…what dya think?
hi michael love-thanks for all the suggestions. you are like a man-cyclopedia
January 26, 2009 at 8:52 pm
She is amazing! thanks for posting these!
January 26, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Well, we all called it “soap grass” anyhow. Who knows if that’s the real name? It’s that grass that smells like laundry detergent on summer evening. I think it’s actually a tiny lily.
January 27, 2009 at 4:49 am
Yeah, the butterflies were my favorite too. I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked to look through it all… but yes, Sunday art chats would be cool. I need more art in my life. I can only occasionally remember what day it is but I will try to remember.
January 27, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I’m hereby adding your blog to my blogroll. It’s always such a thrill to find another progressive, feminist blog in these parts!
Your newest fan,
Sarah
January 27, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I love this art! I hadn’t heard of Rachel Bone before. Thank you for this!
January 27, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I’m so glad you all are liking Ms. Bone, and I look forward to next Sunday’s Art Chat!
Sarah, thanks so much…you just made my day!
January 31, 2009 at 8:07 am
Hey Spring! Check out this film… http://www.whodoesshethinksheis.net/
~Carley
February 2, 2009 at 5:21 pm
carley, thanks for the link…that movie looks so awesome! maybe we could get a screening at the circle?