Hi everyone! I invite you to look at my blog for the project portion of the class.
This is the final version! Thank you so much! It has been a joy and a privilege to get to know and work with you in this class! Happy Thanksgiving!
http://www.thegaildentler.com/2015/10/stitching-into-backdrop-of-feminist.html
This is a very thoughtful approach to the course material. I am glad you had such a personal connection with the material. That was obviously a bit harder for me to achieve as I could only evaluate it based on the experiences of the women in my life. I like that you were able to process the class through artistic means.
ReplyDeleteReading your blog makes me want to hug you and sit down with a warm cup of tea and just talk about how we live as woman in art. I wish more woman thought that way instead of competing for as you said popularity and just helping boost each other up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Justin and Candice! Its always so "weird and nerve wracking" to put this out there - I appreciate your words!
ReplyDeleteYour art journaling reminded me of the first book we read Live Through This how brave it is to put down ones feelings and then sharing them with people.
DeleteI like how you made your blog a very personal space, including journal entries and thoughts as you read certain course materials. I would love to see some of your drawings expanded on to large pieces (I lean toward paintings, but that's just my thing!) or quilts!
ReplyDeleteCourtney - I was planning a quilt with these designs.
DeleteIt was valuing each other's experience or helping each other embrace their own strengths or weaknesses. We would sit together, laughing, crying and talking. Embracing each other's strengths and helping each other get up when that broken dream has surfaced is to me, the heart of feminism.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely think you hit the nail on the head of this as the overarching definitions of feminism, Gail. It seems like all the other stuff we get bogged down in corresponds with sub groupings under the umbrella and are less applicable across the board...ie pro - choice, life camps...of course i think that many are have a foot in each camp...rights to make decisions in regards to one's body and rights for the unborn. touchy topic...no need to delineate camps here, just my point is that I bet pro or pro even if only one camp still would and could agree to your definition. :) WIN.
Thank you Kathy!
DeleteI love how you are exploring these ideas through a "feminine" medium. the only way a woman could her express herself artistically back in the day was through fashion, china painting, and embroidery. This is awesome how you have reclaimed the medium and made it work for you.
ReplyDeleteBTW I need a lesson.
ReplyDeletethis project in particular reminds me of the Live Through this. Exploring womanhood through your desired medium.
ReplyDeleteHi Gail,
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff! I love when you talked about how we are defined/confined/etc. by our emotions. My sister didn't tell me (or rather waited to tell me) about my grandfather going to the hospital (he is in heart failure) because she didn't want me to cry on the phone. Why do we do this? Why are emotional reactions deemed weak? Some interesting thoughts indeed.
Gail,
ReplyDeleteyour summation is very profound.Unfortunately most people are defined by media imagery.Age eventually catches up with all of us in this youth oriented culture which defines itself through the beauty lens.This goes for both men and women.Aesthetics can also be defined as the search for truth which transcends the physical realm.Great ideas transcend time and people. These can be transferred gene- rationally which is what you graciously indicated in your summation.My Camille Paglia blog has a statement made by her in the late 1980's: " Feminism has exceeded its proper mission of seeking political equality for women and has ended by rejecting contingency,that is,human limitation by nature or fate.Sexual freedom ,sexual liberation.a modern delusion".This course has bolstered my awareness of the subject which I believe has begun to settle down in our culture,to a basic set of fairness to the individual no matter what sex they happen to be!
Gail, this is wonderful! It moved me for several reasons, as I am constantly contemplating differences and similarities between our grandmothers' eras and our daughters' eras, and the ways in which moments like "the holiday table" continue to connect and ground us. It is the reason so much of my own work involves domestic underpinnings. Your work is extraordinary, and I appreciate your contributions throughout the course. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe culture's standard of "no crying" as a sign of weakness, often people having any kind of emotion is weak, weird and crazy or however they choose to label it. Have women been restrained by trying to please the culture?
I am so excited that you explored this issue of “trying to please the culture” through your art and your journaling. I feel as though this has been the theme of my life over the past year as I sought understanding in why I worked so hard in the past to people-please the people in my life as I tried to live up to a cultural ideal of what a “real woman” is. I put that statement in the past tense because I am trying to convince myself that I’ve matured and I’m over living up to anyone’s standards but my own, but honestly there are still days and situations that make me feel very much like the woman-rock in your Rolling Trends. Why do we consider feelings a weakness? This is something I have always struggled with, and I have yet to find an answer that satisfies me.
Overall, I would like to say that while your art is exploring dense and confusing issues, just looking at the sketches and the colors gives me a sense of calm. I get that grounded feeling that you discussed earlier in your blog that came from generational strength and support. Thank you for a wonderful semester!