What a great article about the creative process. And what a #BadassWoman!
When Judy Chicago’s piece, The Dinner Party, was first shown 40 years ago. It was maligned by most art critics. Revolutionary art usually is. But Judy simply kept following her vision, kept creating. And the rest of the world eventually caught up to her.
Now in her 70’s, Judy Chicago is still a take no prisoners kind of artist. I’m in awe.
I believe in art that is connected to real human feeling, that extends itself beyond the limits of the art world to embrace all people who are striving for alternatives in an increasingly dehumanized world. I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of human kind and I believe that, at this moment of history, feminism is humanism.
“… She wants everyone to see her art and to understand it, so that it might change them and the world.
And it has. Once your eye is trained to see Chicago’s imprint, it is everywhere, and unmistakable. It’s in Petra Collins’s menstruation-positive T-shirts; in the forthcoming installation on Sunset Boulevard in L.A. by Zoe Buckman of a huge uterus drawn in neon tubing crowned with boxing gloves; in the pink “pussy hats” that are worn in opposition to Trump’s election. Images like these — symbolically overt, politically and anatomically in-your-face, forcing a public confrontation with sexism — are all descended from Chicago’s imagination…” ~Sasha Weiss, NY Times
Think Like a Tree Soak up the sun Affirm life’s magic Be graceful in the wind Stand tall after a storm Feel refreshed after it rains Grow strong without notice Be prepared for each season Provide shelter to strangers Hang tough through a cold spell Emerge renewed at the first signs of spring Stay deeply rooted while reaching for the sky Be still long enough to hear your own leaves rustling.
Mothers, I am here to remind you of your crown. You have literally been initiated into the creative source of the Universe. So often, I have seen mothers uproot themselves from their own superpower when trying to act in the world, as if the big boys in suits know the rules of the game of creation better than they do. Mothers, you know how creation works, more than anyone. Stay close to that knowing. The knowing is not in your cranial brain; it is in your womb brain. You do the impossible; you have superpowers. You have been through receiving life, growing life, gestation, holding, sustaining. You know how to wait; you’ve been through all the different changes that happen in order for new life to come. You know and have experienced exactly when the time is right to move in full action. And you have learned this symbiosis, this total merging with another being— the complete, utter commitment and surrender required of you. We need you more than ever. Your Shakti, in my view, is what’s going to save us. And it is saving us every single day. Without you, none of this would be here. Mothers, take your seat. Straighten that crown, and hold your head high. Own what you’ve been through and what you’re going through. The world needs you.
