Memories flooded over me as I prepared to participate in a panel discussion about the movie “Who Does She Think She Is?” shown at the Boulder Valley art educators’ conference last week. If you would like to see the trailer, go to:
http://www.whodoesshethinksheis.net/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5lqg81eXo8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5lqg81eXo8

The movie is about the forces from within that compel some women (men have it too, but the movie is about women) to become artists and the forces from without that attempt to keep women from such self expression.  It is a topic that I have given much thought to during decades in the art world.  The pressures against professional women artists have lessened enormously during this time – but only because of those who did it anyway, even if it did rock the boat.  They suffered but they didn’t drown; they got in the boat and sailed into a storm of prejudice due to inner necessity.
They knew that their spirits would die if they stayed tied to the dock of conventional gender roles.

Men as well as women are confined by the status quo.  The force of these negative pressures often capsizes my little boat, but eventually I get it back upright, climb in, and go out again. I now have the strength to say, “If you want to get on the boat, get on; but if you choose to stay on the dock, it’s ridiculous to get mad at me for not staying there with you.”

When alone in the studio and unsure of what I’m feeling, if I just start singing the truth comes out.   Spontaneous song making seems to open a clear channel to the heart.   As I worked on this painting, I had trouble with the person in the boat.  What was the meaning of the figure?  This was my song that day:

You sail away - I stand and stare.
Who you are; I don’t care.
I only know
I want to be
Just like you are - Sailing Free.

What are your thoughts?  To leave a comment, click on Comments below the title at the top of this post.