Deep Thoughts from Deep Students

Hello my name is :::::: and I am taking your online art class this Fall. I am a Junior, and an English major. I would qualify as a cool book nerd who is very eccentric and a little crazy, in a good way. I love art and kinda wish, after seeing who you are, that I would have taken your class on campus. But, hey, online classes tend to be even better in communication because you have no other choice but to openly communicate or it will not work. I really enjoyed your blog. I just love the idea of a blog because its the perfect forum for artists to be free and express themselves however they desire. Your blog is eclectic, creative, and very open and free. I enjoyed it. You seem like someone who belongs in a city that is bigger than Joplin. I don't know, like St.Louis or Chicago. Somewhere a bit bigger. I did not know we had non-stuffy and pretty funky art professors on campus. Or at least one on campus.

An Art Theory student: You remind me of myself, you said in class you won't ever talk over our heads, because your vocabulary is limited, your writing says otherwise. You know how after meeting anyone you've ever met there's always that short time period afterward, that time of contemplation, trying to decide whether or not they are someone you would want to see or talk to again? More directly; when you meet your teachers for the first time and most of them are just... whatever. Well, I like you, what I've read about you, your deep, caring, and just genuinely down to earth. The "common object" piece you wrote is especially interesting to me, you think about things, as many "artists" do, things that to an average human being, mean absolutely nothing. I really enjoy your outlook and open-mindedness towards life and things and people. I can't wait to learn more :)

August at the Leedy-Voulkos in KC

A shot of my work at the Leedy-Voulkos. I haven't even seen it up yet! Holly, it looks great. You are so good at what you do. Can't wait to see it in person. Special thanks for artist Jenn Jarnot for going to the show and sending me the photos! It takes a village, ladies.

The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist

From the Guerrilla Girls, The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist:

Working without the pressure of success.
Not having to be in shows with men.
Having an escape from the art world in your 4 free-lance jobs.
Knowing your career might pick up after you're eighty.
Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labeled feminine.
Not being stuck in a tenured teaching position.
Seeing your ideas live on in the work of others.
Having the opportunity to choose between career and motherhood.
Not having to choke on those big cigars or paint in Italian suits.
Having more time to work after your mate dumps you for someone younger.
Being included in revised versions of art history.
Not having to undergo the embarrassment of being called a genius.
Getting your picture in the art magazines wearing a gorilla suit.

The Studio in NYC 2005

A Room of My Own

I love my studio. It feels timeless and placeless. I need that right now. I make things and think about things there. I plan and prepare there. I am reminded of Virginia Woolf:

A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf, is a mighty proposition for women's independence in creative endeavors. While the innovation and courage found in the writing may be lost on today's readers, the profundity of her work is best seen through the cultural and historical lens of 1929. At that time, women were not allowed into particular universities and libraries--let alone given the opportunity to express themselves creatively.

"Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others."

"No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself."

A Room of One's Own is a classic text of the feminist movement. It is an expanded treatment of issues that Woolf presented in two essays she read to audiences at women's colleges in 1928. While the book is focused on women and fiction, its ideas and discussions overlap with larger questions pertinent to women's history.

At the center of the book is its famous thesis, which is echoed in the book's title. In asserting that a woman needs a room of her own to write, Woolf addresses both a historical and a contemporary question regarding women's art and their social status. The historical question is why there have been few great women writers. The contemporary question is how the number of women writers can increase. Woolf's answer—this matter of a room of one's own—is known as a "materialist" answer. That is, Woolf says that there have been few great women in history because material circumstances limited women's lives and achievements. Because women were not educated and were not allowed to control wealth, they necessarily led lives that were less publicly significant than those of men. Until these material limitations are overcome, women will continue to achieve, publicly, less than men. Woolf's materialist thesis implicitly contests notions that women's inferior social status is a natural outcome of biological inferiority. While most people now accept the materialist position, in Woolf's time, such arguments still had to be put forward with conviction and force.