More Women's History and poetry

from your email account go here for an educational quiz...

"National Women's History Project (NWHP)" <nwhp@aol.com>

Take the full Women's History Knowledge Challenge

 I started with the 20 questions version, as Women's History Project posted today...then wanted to see what the "full challenge" would hold.  Golly gee!

I thought I knew a lot about Women's History...nah.  I got about 3 or 4 of the 20 questions right.  No comment on the 50.  How about you?

Flat Creek, Montreat, NC

and to give you something for your efforts (everything is about an energy exchange isn't it?) here's a favorite poem of mine by Mary Oliver...the last line of which always makes me walk around in another space for a while...

Summer Day

So what am I doing with my one wild and precious life?  Sitting here writing a blog that I doubt that anyone reads, just musing, or assembling a body of work by women artists, or avoiding doing something great?

Like buttons.  I've got some interest in having some for sale on consignment at a new cloth and weaving shop in town.  There are certainly other potters already making buttons, but I'll give it a try.  The only thing is, then I also have to work out the logistics of making all the parts, as well as the display and marketing of them as a consignment.  Not my favorite pastime.  Yesterday I realized I didn't need to reem out the holes by hand, but could use a drill bit on my Dremyl tool.  Ha.  So I brought home what I'd done so far, to work on when?  Not sure.  Now would be one possibility.

 Oh here's a picture, I hate when blogs don't have them, don't you?

Feb 26, 2011 First Daffodil

Mary Cassatt

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (pronounced /kəˈsæt/; May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.

Wikepedia begins thus, with an extensive biography.  I'll just cut/paste few of the facts, and her paintings here.

... born in Pittsburgh, PA, ^]distant cousin of artist Robert Henri.^[2] ...began schooling at age 6 in Philadelphia.

Cassatt grew up in an environment that viewed travel as integral to education; she spent 5 years in Europe and visited many of the capitals, including London, Paris, and Berlin. While abroad she learned German and French and had her first lessons in drawing and music.^[3] Her first exposure to French artists Ingres, Delacroix, Corot, and Courbet was likely at the Paris World’s Fair of 1855. Also exhibited at the exhibition were Degas and Pissarro, both of whom would be her future colleagues and mentors.^[4]

Even though her family objected to her becoming a professional artist, Cassatt began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, at the early age of 15.^[5] Part of her parents' concern may have been Cassatt’s exposure to feminist ideas and the bohemian behavior of some of the male students. Although about 20 percent of the students were female, most viewed art as a socially valuable skill; few of them were determined, as Cassatt was, to make art their career.^[6] She continued her studies during the years of the American Civil War. Among her fellow students was Thomas Eakins, later the controversial director of the Academy.

Cassatt decided to end her studies (at that time, no degree was granted). After overcoming her father’s objections she moved to Paris in 1866, with her mother and family friends acting as chaperones.^[8] Since women could not yet attend the École des Beaux-Arts, she applied to study privately with masters from the school^[9] and was accepted to study with Jean-Léon Gérôme, a highly regarded teacher known for his hyper-realistic technique and his depiction of exotic subjects.

Cassatt augmented her artistic training with daily copying in the Louvre (she obtained the required permit, which was necessary to control the “copyists”, usually low-paid women, who daily filled the museum to paint copies for sale).

 The French art scene was in a process of change, as radical artists such as Courbet and Manet tried to break away from accepted Academic tradition and the Impressionists were in their formative years.

Returning to the United States in the late summer of 1870—as the Franco-Prussian War was starting—Cassatt lived with her family in Altoona. ... returned to Europe in the autumn of 1871, Cassatt’s prospects had brightened. Her painting Two Women Throwing Flowers During Carnival was well received in the Salon of 1872, and was purchased.  

In 1874, she made the decision to take up residence in France. She was joined by her sister Lydia who shared an apartment with her. Cassatt continued to express criticism of the politics of the Salon and the conventional taste that prevailed there.  Cassatt saw that works by female artists were often dismissed with contempt unless the artist had a friend or protector on the jury, and she would not flirt with jurors to curry favor.^[20]

Edgar Degas, Portrait of Miss Cassatt, Seated, Holding Cards, c. 1876–1878, oil on canvas

In 1877, ...she was invited by Edgar Degas to show her works with the Impressionists, a group that had begun their own series of independent exhibitions in 1874 with much attendant notoriety. She felt comfortable with the Impressionists and joined their cause enthusiastically, declaring: “we are carrying on a despairing fight & need all our forces”.^[25]

Cassatt, self portrait

In 1877, Cassatt was joined in Paris by her father and mother, who returned with her sister Lydia. Mary valued their companionship, as neither she nor Lydia had married. Mary had decided early in life that marriage would be incompatible with her career. Lydia, who was frequently painted by her sister, suffered from recurrent bouts of illness, and her death in 1882 left Cassatt temporarily unable to work.^[27]

Cassatt’s father insisted that her studio and supplies be covered by her sales, which were still meager. Afraid of having to paint “potboilers” to make ends meet, Cassatt applied herself to produce some quality paintings for the next Impressionist exhibition. 

Degas had considerable influence on Cassatt. She became extremely proficient in the use of pastels, eventually creating many of her most important works in this medium. Degas also introduced her to etching, of which he was a recognized master. The two worked side-by-side for a while, and her draftsmanship gained considerable strength under his tutelage. He depicted her in a series of etchings recording their trips to the Louvre.  The sophisticated and well-dressed Degas, then forty-five, was a welcome dinner guest at the Cassatt residence.^[28]

The Impressionist exhibit of 1879 was the most successful to date, despite the absence of Renoir, Sisley, Manet and Cézanne, ... she remained an active member of the Impressionist circle until 1886. In 1886, Cassatt provided two paintings for the first Impressionist exhibition in the United States, organized by art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel.  Cassatt’s style then evolved, and she moved away from Impressionism to a simpler, more straightforward approach.

 

The Child's Bath (The Bath) by Mary Cassatt, 1893, oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

Cassatt's popular reputation is based on an extensive series of rigorously drawn, tenderly observed, yet largely unsentimental paintings and prints on the theme of the mother and child.  After 1900, she concentrated almost exclusively on mother-and-child subjects.^[33]

In 1891, she exhibited a series of highly original colored drypoint and aquatint prints, including Woman Bathing and The Coiffure, inspired by the Japanese masters shown in Paris the year before.  In her interpretation, she used primarily light, delicate pastel colors and avoided black (a “forbidden” color among the Impressionists).

Also in 1891, Chicago businesswoman Bertha Palmer approached Cassatt to paint a 54' × 12' mural about "Modern Woman" for the Women's Building for the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1893. Cassatt completed the project over the next two years while living in France with her mother. The mural was designed as a triptych. The central theme was titled Young Women Plucking the Fruits of Knowledge or Science. The left panel was Young Girls Pursuing Fame and the right panel Arts, Music, Dancing. The mural displays a community of women apart from their relation to men, as accomplished persons in their own right. Palmer considered Cassatt to be an American treasure and could think of no one better to paint a mural at an exposition that was to do so much to focus the world's attention on the status of women.^[36] Unfortunately the mural was lost when the building was torn down after the exhibit. Cassatt made several studies and paintings on themes similar to those in the mural around that time, however, so it is possible to see her development of those ideas and images.^[37] Cassatt also exhibited other paintings in the Exposition.

As the new century arrived, Cassatt served as an advisor to several major art collectors and stipulated that they eventually donate their purchases to American art museums. In recognition of her contributions to the arts, France awarded her the Légion d'honneur in 1904. Although instrumental in advising American collectors, recognition of her art came more slowly in the United States. Even among her family members back in America, she received little recognition ...

... An increasing sentimentality is apparent in her work of the 1900s; her work was popular with the public and the critics, but she was no longer breaking new ground, and her Impressionist colleagues who once provided stimulation and criticism were dying off. She was hostile to such new developments in art as post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism.^[40]

Diagnosed with diabetes, rheumatism, neuralgia, and cataracts in 1911, she did not slow down, but after 1914 she was forced to stop painting as she became almost blind. Nonetheless, she took up the cause of women's suffrage, and in 1915, she showed eighteen works in an exhibition supporting the movement.

She died on June 14, 1926 at Château de Beaufresne, near Paris, and was buried in the family vault at Le Mesnil-Théribus, France.

Much of this Wikepedia article came from Nancy Mowll Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, Villard Books, New York, 1994

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 “O how wild I am to get to work, my fingers farely itch & my eyes water to see a fine picture again”.    Mary Cassatt

Your fav woman artist?

WHo is your favorite woman artist?

I guess there's no secret that mine is Georgia O'Keefe, then Judy Chicago, Mary Cassatt, Adelaid Alsop Robineau, M.C. Richards, Maria Martinez (Black on Black pots)...and a few more who do fabulous work today.


Now, I would also like to share some of my more recent pots.  That's what this blog was designed for originally...as well as a place to journal whatever I think is important enough to share.  Please forgive me when that sometimes becomes trivial.

Large fruitbowl on stand, thrown, pierced, assembled



Fruitbowl on stand, thrown and altered, Bellas Blend, porcelaneous cone 6



Thrown goblets, assembled

Thrown pierced and altered bowl



Thrown bowl, altered and pierced

Medium bowl, thrown



Medium bowl

Owl mugs...just for the fun of it!

OK, besides me, who's your favorite woman artist?  (Yes, of course you get points for chosing me, but they won't buy you nuttin')

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I often lay on that bench looking up into the tree, past the trunk and up into the branches. It was particularly fine at night with the stars above the tree. Georgia O'Keeffe

links to Women's pottery blogs

Here are some of the women's blogs which I check (almost daily, if I have time).

This is a great thing to read over morning coffee, and much more inspiring than the news or anything on TV these days.  I check these 'cause the authors tend to regularly post something.  Many blogs are bookmarked but not checked any more, because they just don't post frequently.



Amy Sanders

shambhala pottery

/jennifer mecca

Tracey Broome

Flat Creek in Montreat, Feb. 2011.  Beginning of warming..

Jose goes to Pot

art biz blog

musingaboutmud.

Covered in Mud

joytannerpottery

http://mountainhousestudios.blogspot.com/

http://lapellaart.blogspot.com/

There are probably more, because if I notice something interesting on one of their "blogs they follow" I sometimes go off on tangents and look at them too.  Of course, I'm leaving off all the men potters today...and believe me there are a few who do great blogs.  Next month perhaps.  See, there doesn't have to be a Men's History Month.  They've kind of written the book, as the feminists say.

The Village Witch

There's a gifted witch hereabouts, who shared at our UU church in Black Mountain last Sun...

She spoke of her mountain Celtic roots, the agricultural turn of the year, and chocolate Ostara bunnies.  Byron has given much to the communities of Asheville and Black Mountain, teaching workshops, writing frequent blogs for the local newspaper, the Citizen Times, and sponsoring many acitivites.  Her blog is here...

The Village Witch

This is her web site

Byron Ballard

I met Byron within a few months of moving here from Florida.  In Florida, and I imagine over much of the earth, it is considered proper etiquette (which I know very little about, the proper kind, or even the way to spell it, let alone the ways to follow it) to not tell other people if you know someone is a witch.  It is their identity, and probably a safety measure to let them decide whether to be "out" about it or not.

So whenever a witch has told you that they are one, usually, at least if you've been around pagans very much, you just introduce them as "one who follows the old religion" or "a follower of earth based traditions."  That is, if it's really important in the discussion at all.

Byron is definitely out there.  Not only in being public, but also in being a public leader.  She also has her own traditions, which have as much root as those of others who practice the art.  They are Hoodoo, to her tradition.  I especially like that Byron is active in interfaith efforts in her community...to bring together the differences so there is communication.

Byron helped teach the class "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" with me a few years ago for women at the UU church here.  (You've probably heard me talk about the class as well as the book before).  She also volunteered to co-teach the sequel class, "Rise Up and Call Her Name," with a couple of other brave and entertaining women.  These curriculae were adapted from the ones the UUA puts out, to represent the interests of the leaders and the students.  So, though the classes cover topics, the actual activities are much different than what the written texts might offer. 

I celebrate a dear friend, Bryron Ballard...and wish her many more enchanting ventures and friends.

Judy Chicago, feminist, artist

JUDY CHICAGO, b. 1939

In 1971 Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro jointly founded the CalArts Feminist Art Program for the California Institute of the Arts. Together they organized one of the first-ever feminist art exhibitions - Womanhouse - January 30-February 28, 1972. In 1973, Chicago co-founded the Feminist Studio Workshop, located inside the Los Angeles Women's Building, a seminal feminist art teaching and exhibition space.

Currently, Chicago is married to photographer Donald Woodman and serves as the Artistic Director of Through the Flower, a non-profit arts organization created in 1978 to support her work. The U.S. copyright representative for Judy Chicago and Through the Flower is the Artists Rights Society.^[4] A biography, Becoming Judy Chicago; A Biography of the Artist, by Dr. Gail Levin, was released in February, 2007.

Judy Chicago is an advisory board member of the organization Feminists For Animal Rights.

(Source: Wikepedia)
Judy Chicago, born Judy Cohen, went to auto body school, boat building school and apprenticed as a pyrotechnician, to prove her abilities in the very macho based pop art world of Los Angeles of the early 1960’s.

Judy began producing metal and fiberglass sculptures, displaying explicit sexual and feminist imagery. She began teaching at the California Institute for the Arts becoming a leader in the Feminist Art Program. Judy was determined to bring female themes and images to the art world that was dominated by male artists and male historians.  She continued to paint, sculpt, produce craftwork and write; most of her themes continue to revolve around Feminism.





The Dinner Party Installation, first exhibited 1979 Brooklyn Museum





The Dinner Party, an important icon of 1970s feminist art and a milestone in twentieth-century art, is presented as the centerpiece around which the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art is organized, at The Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party comprises a massive ceremonial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of thirty-nine place settings, each commemorating an important woman from history.

The settings consist of embroidered runners, gold chalices and utensils, and china-painted porcelain plates with raised central motifs that are based on vulvar and butterfly forms and rendered in styles appropriate to the individual women being honored.



Susan B. Anthony plate, Judy Chicago



Georgia O'Keefe plate, Judy Chicago



Emily Dickenson plate, Judy Chicago



Margaret Sanger plate (early birth control activist)

The names of another 999 women are inscribed in gold on the white tile floor below the triangular table. This permanent installation is enhanced by rotating Herstory Gallery exhibitions relating to the 1,038 women honored at the table.



Sojourner Truth plate, Judy Chicago



Virginia Wolfe plate, Judy Chicago



(Source, Brooklyn Museum)


 Her own web site is...
http://www.judychicago.com/

The Rookwood Pottery and Maria Longworth Nichols Storer (1849-1932)

The Aladdin Vase, 1882, Maria Longworth Nichols Storer

The Aladdin Vase of 1882 was one in a series of Aladdin Vases first created in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer in response to another work of art. She had learned that her artistic rival in the city, Mary Louise McLaughlin (1847–1939), had successfully created the largest ceramic vase decorated "under the glaze" in America. McLaughlin was the first person in America to discover and master the technique of decorating pottery using this glazing technique (See "Alchemyofclay" post March 14, 2011). 

Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, (to be called Storer for the rest of this article) who was extremely strong willed and never happy in second place, was determined to outdo McLaughlin’s creation. Her response was the Aladdin Vase. Although this vessel is not quite as tall as the Ali Baba Vase, it is wider, and thus technically more difficult to produce.

Around the shoulder of the vase is a modeled dragon that is raised from the surface of the vessel. The dragon, complete with snarling face and sharp fangs, holds itself up with a thin craggy arm that grasps the neck of the vase. The work also has two catfish in relief with bulging eyes and areas of raised white swirls of clay. The dragon and catfish are motifs found in Japanese folklore. Following the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, Storer was fascinated with Japanese art and culture. 

The first of the Cincinnati Museum’s Dueling Divas, Mary Louise McLaughlin, (to be called McLaughlin for the rest of this article) was born on September 29, 1847. She was the youngest of three children and the only girl. Her father, a prominent and wealthy dry goods merchant, supported his daughter’s artistic endeavors as she showed great talent from a very early age. She took art courses at Miss Appleton’s Private School for Girls (1871-1872).

Maria Longworth Nichols Storer

Storer was born two years later in 1849. Like McLaughlin, she was the youngest of three children and the only girl. Storer grew up in an extremely comfortable household; her grandfather was Nicholas Longworth, a great philanthropist and patron of the arts, as well as the city’s first millionaire, and the nation’s second richest citizen. As a child she was surrounded by her family’s art collection, and she had her early education in art and music in a schoolroom at Rookwood, her family estate. Later, she also attended Miss Appleton’s Private School for Girls (1862-1865).

Storer was tutored privately at home. McLaughlin studied at the University of Cincinnati School of Design, later the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

MLN Rookwood vase


The first important event that showcased the china painting work of the two divas and their colleagues was The Centennial Tea Party, held in 1875. The mission of the Tea Party was to raise funds for the Cincinnati display at the American Centennial Exhibition that was to be mounted in Philadelphia for the 1876 centennial celebration.


MLN Rookwood Vase



Storer's enthusiasm reached such a fever pitch in 1880 that she asked her father to import an entire Japanese pottery to Cincinnati, including all the workmen and supplies. He refused, instead offering her an old schoolhouse he had purchased that she could convert to a pottery, which she would open by the end of the year.

In late September 1877, McLaughlin had published her book on china painting titled China Painting: A Practical Manual for the Use of Amateurs in the Decoration of Hard Porcelain. This was the first manual on the subject in the United States written by a woman for women. . The manual was so popular among women that it was published in at least ten editions and sold over twenty thousand copies.

details, Rookwood vases

Published shortly after in 1878 was George Nichols’s (Storer’s husband) book on pottery in which she did all the illustrations in the Japanese style. As each woman contributed to the field, the other followed with a trump, cementing their rivalry.

To promote women’s work in ceramics, in 1879 McLaughlin created the Cincinnati Pottery Club, the first women’s ceramic club in the United States. Thirteen ladies were invited to join the club, however, one individual, Storer, did not respond.

While McLaughlin did in fact invite her to join, Storer claimed she did not receive the invitation, reacted with indignation and refused to join. (There are still conflicting accounts of this perceived snub in internet sources).   Storer's biographer, Anita Ellis, says she would take a back seat to no one, and joining the Club would mean that she would become a follower to McLaughlin, the club’s president. Her refusal to join ultimately led her to begin her own company, which she called Rookwood Pottery in 1880.

Rookwood Pottery

From the beginning, Rookwood faced several obstacles. Located on the river, in her father’s schoolhouse, the pottery was victim to annual flooding. Also, in the first years, the Pottery made very little money and Storer pulled from her own purse and that of her father’s to support her interest. In late 1883, Storer’s father helped her select a reliable, experienced manager for Rookwood. William Watts Taylor would be the saving grace for the struggling pottery. By 1889, Rookwood was a national and international success and truly considered the center of art pottery in Cincinnati.

McLaughlin published her second book Pottery Decoration under the Glaze in August of 1880. This manual discusses all steps of the underglaze technique. Since her discovery, underglaze decoration had become so popular that she felt she needed to create a manual in her own words that detailed the process.

McLaughlin’s ceramic career and that of the Cincinnati Pottery Club took a huge blow one year later in 1881. The Dallas Pottery, where they were located, closed when it's founder passed away.  In 1882 the Pottery Club moved to Rookwood Pottery and rented a room from Storer.

This situation served Storer well; she could support her fledgling pottery with the Club’s rent and could keep an eye on the Pottery Club’s work.  So just two years after the club was founded, it became a tennant of the rival Rookwood Pottery belonging to Storer.

The club finally came to an end shortly after their tenth reception, held on May 27, 1890. Their final exhibition together was at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Between 1888 and 1889, Rookwood won several awards in competition, including two first prizes at the Pottery and Porcelain Exhibition in Philadelphia and a gold medal at the Paris Exposition. Worldwide acclaim brought financial success, and Storer transferred ownership of Rookwood to William Watts Taylor. That same year, Storer moved to Washington, D.C. with her new husband, Bellamy Storer, who was in public office.  The pottery remained open another 75 years.

The chapter of her life that included her rivalry with Louise and her creative ventures in art pottery had come to a close. From 1897 to her death in 1932 Storer lived almost exclusively in Europe.

(source: Ellis, Anita J. The Ceramic Career of M. Louise McLaughlin. Athens , OH)

Whether from the rivalry of two talented women, or just the community which supported their creative development, the early women ceramic artists of Cincinnati provided a great impetus for American pottery.  Next we will take a look at some individuals who are alive and contributing to this movement today.

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To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage. - Georgia O'Keeffe

Linda Metzner's poetry

Please check the poetry at this site...

Isn't It All of Us?
poetry by Annelinda Metzner

The Sahara Peace Choir

The women come to sing.
In the cold and icy dark we gather
to rehearse the songs of peace.

"Annelinde Metzner is a poet and composer whose work reflects her deep connection to the Divine Feminine. She has self-published two chapbooks, "In Love with the Rooted Earth" and "Isn't It All of Us?", available at AnnelindesAnthems.com. Annelinde produces concerts of her music and poetry with mixed media including dance, spoken word, chorus, strings, percussion and puppetry.   Her productions include "The Mountain Moving Day" in 2002 (see wnc-woman.com/metzner), "The Abundance of Mary" in 2006, and "In the Mother Grove" in August of 2009, all in Asheville NC. She directs the Sahara Peace Choir and offers a workshop, "Bring Forth Your Soul's Voice".  (source: her profile)


Another of her chapbooks may be found here...
http://therootedearth.blogspot.com/
 


The photographs are also evocative of the moods of the poems.

The lovely park which is all river, all Her,
Her power and majesty manifest,
just some grass and a sidewalk
plus Her, the River, magnificent.

I was a member of the Sahara Peace Choir last year.  I may return, if my voice returns soon.  They just gave a great performance for International Women's Day at the Ten Thousand Villages shop in Montreat, NC.


Annelinda Metzner teaches music around Asheville, NC.  She is also the choir leader of the UU church here in Black Mountain.  Her concert to raise funds for The Mother Grove temple in 2009 has been made into a DVD.  Fabulous entertainment, original music, and dance!

Kudos to Annelinda!

March is Women's History Month...why?

Poster for International Women's Day, March 8

(Doesn't that poster look like ceramic tile?  I wonder...)

100th International Women's Day Anniversary (1911 - 2011)

March Highlights in U.S. Women's History 

• March 1, 1978 - Women's History Week is first observed in Sonoma County , California
• March 1, 1987 - A Congressional resolution designating March as Women's History Month is passed
• March 4, 1917 - Jeannette Rankin (R-MT) took her seat as the first female member of Congress
• March 8 - International Women's Day; its origins trace back to protests in US and Europe to honor and fight for the political rights for working women 
• March 10, 2011 was the 98th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s death in 1913. The date was designated as national Harriet Tubman Day in 1990. 
• March 11, 1993 - Janet Reno is confirmed as the first woman U.S. Attorney General
• March 12, 1912 - Juliette Gordon Low assembled 18 girls together in Savannah , Georgia for the first-ever Girl Scout meeting
• March 13, 1986 - Susan Butcher won the first of 3 straight and 4 total Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Races in Alaska
• March 17, 1910 - Camp Fire Girls is established as the first American interracial, non-sectarian organization for girls
• March 20, 1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," is published and becomes the best-selling book of the 19th century
• March 21, 1986 - Debi Thomas becomes first African American woman to win the World Figure Skating Championship
• March 23, 1917 - Virginia Woolf establishes the Hogarth Press with her husband, Leonard Woolf
• March 31, 1888 - The National Council of Women of the U.S. is organized by Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, and Sojourner Truth, among others; it is the oldest non-sectarian women's organization in U.S.
• March 31, 1776 - Abigail Adams writes to her husband John who is helping to frame the Declaration of Independence: "Remember the ladies..."

(source:

"National Women's History Project (NWHP)" <nwhp@aol.com> from which I've received periodic newsletters for about 10 years!)

Do you have any other dates to add?


 I just noticed March 6 was the date of Georgia O'Keeffe's death.  I'd rather remember her on her birthday however.  This week another talented woman artist died, as you can see on my post yesterday.  I've been told (by my then 94 year old friend) that we need to embrace younger friends as the net of people our age (whatever it may be!) becomes fewer and fewer.



a great site to find many links...
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/misc/bl_sitemap.htm

I must stop now, because I've got another 3 weeks of women artists to blog here...
--------------------------------------------


When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.
Georgia O'Keeffe  

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don't miss looking at the book to download, at this link

http://www.scribd.com/full/47687595?access_key=key-j5szeajerj0f7nbgukp

American Art Potteries



AMERICAN ART POTTERIES

The age of the American Art Potteries flourished at a time when not only was our country experiencing a surge in manufacturing, but also an ecliptic escalation in artistic creativity. The flowery, yet somewhat decadent motifs of European Art Nouveau brought about a diverse amalgamation into the sleek clean lines of Modernism and Art Deco.

The American Art Potteries acclaimed worldwide attention to ceramic wares that were being produced in our country. Suddenly, individual artists were becoming as well known as the industriously producing potteries. In the latter part of the 19th century, men would throw master vessels and molds would be created for mass production of their work. Then, women were hired as decorators, painting artistic masterpieces on the ceramic forms. These art potteries gained notoriety primarily for their decorators.

Rookwood Vase

There was also a high interest in china painting by the ladies who wanted something to divert their art pursuits from watercoloures and still remain categorized as "ladies."  I learned early in my childhood that the cleaning lady was not a proper use of the term "lady".  My mother, born in 1917, must have learned that from her grandmother, who raised her.  However, when I was supporting my son and myself in art school, (in the 1980s) I gladly was a cleaning lady!

Rookwood Vase

Being a decorator was one of the few areas of employment that was considered respectable for a woman in the male dominated American clay industry. Many women became decorators just to be able to have a chance to work outside the home. Rookwood Pottery developed into one of the finest art potteries in the world that employed mostly women.



An interesting and successful American Art Pottery was the extraordinary Arequipa Sanatorium, which functioned from 1911-1918. This unique pottery functioned predominately  by the work of female tuberculosis patients.

After the 1906 earthquake and fires of San Francisco, the dust and ash filled air created a tuberculosis epidemic. Dr. Philip King Brown founded the Arequipa Sanatorium as a country retreat for women to recuperate from tuberculosis.

Besides bed rest, handcrafting pottery was seen as a therapeutic activity that provided work for these women, thus diminishing the stigma of charity. This philosophy complemented the bourgeoning ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America. This movement, which originated in England, supported the production of hand made objects over those mass-produced by industry. 

By the late 1850’s there were a great many art potteries; the work became very decorative rather than utilitarian and ultimately became a leading collectible. The Art Potteries became the foundation for women’s re-emergence into the ceramic scene. Several women were able to evolve beyond solely being decorators; they began producing the ceramic forms as well as decorating them. These women became the earliest studio potters.  (source, Jayne Shatz)

Unfortunately for those of us interested in following an artist's style, there are seldom any names designated for the Art Pottery decorators on their wares.  Some of these potters have been identified in museums by consistent styles however.  The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC has a good collection of these wares.

Rookwood Pottery

We have already looked at Adelaide Alsop Robineau, who became much more than a "decorator" and advanced clay art immensely.  Soon I'll share some pictures and details about several other women clay artists from the early 20th century.

Arequipa ware, 1911-1918

TOSHIKO TAKAEZU

TOSHIKO TAKAEZU, b. 1929

Toshiko Takaezu was born in Hawaii of Japanese decent, and has been working in clay for over forty years. She moved from producing functional vessels to abstract sculptural forms. Over the years she has merged the aesthetics of the East and the West, as well as her love of the natural world.

Throughout her career, Toshiko has focused on the enclosed vessel, which has become a symbol of her work. Her earlier pieces were almost exclusively wheel-thrown, but she began envisioning larger forms. With these forms she incorporated hand-building techniques that allowed her to build larger vessels and stray from the restrictions of the wheel. The  simple structures are united by form but gain individual character through her painterly surface decoration. Toshiko’s spontaneous approach to glazing occurs as she walks around the vessel freely applying glaze through pouring and painting.

Gaea Moon Pots, 1979, 30"-33" d.

Uariramba, 1970.

Toshiko says, “In my life I see no difference between making pots, cooking, and growing vegetables.They are all so related.However there is a need for me to work in clay.It is so gratifying and I get so much joy from it, and it gives me many answers in my life.”

Light,  36" h. 1970 

Toshiko ‘s love of teaching has been a great contribution to the ceramic field. Her passion for clay is infectious, and she has continually shared this enthusiasm. While teaching at Princeton University for 23 years and presenting workshops throughout the world, she always had time for generations of apprentices. Among the many awards she has achieved, her greatest achievements were the Hawaii Living Treasure Award and an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Princeton. She has been an inspiration to many through her work and life’s contributions.

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I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at - not copy it. Georgia O'Keeffe