What a heartbreaking and heartwarming piece. All I can say is, you got this sis! You’ve got the chops, brain and brawn to do the things - any of them you choose. Love the art history and her-story. Keep it coming!
I am always struck by how thoughtful and well- crafted your essays are, describing so many issues, experiences, generations and emotions that we enjoy and learn from. I hope to meet you in person one day. Went to elementary school with your mom.
Ruth, thank you. I can’t tell you how much that means coming from you! I’m so humbled and honored that you enjoy the essays. I’m looking forward to reading your work as well...
You kept me mesmerized in this piece-maybe any woman with a history would be mesmerized by this topic but you pulled me in real good. Also - because I salivate over "The Slave" every time I visit the Cantor - have salivated over it since I was a teenager. Learning that a woman sculpted it blew my mind! So - that's why it's so -languorously sexy - haha! What a tragic (and political and all that) story though. And so true, the support it takes, to free a person up to focus on art, or whatever passion. Thanks for this, and for all your posts. Your writing is wonderful.
This was my favorite posts of yours and that's saying a lot. Honest, open, real, and fascinating about the role of women and wives and moms and our relationship to art and to work. Fabulous!
Thank you Belle! So much to say, you stir so many responses. Well done. As a houseguy/creative married to a wildly successful breadwinner with a sort of more traditional career, a million of my layers are flipped or inverted from yours (im totally a dude!), yet what you say lands directly on deep nerves. Sigh. My mom was one of 4 sisters born in the 30s , all super creative, music, furniture, crafts, animal husbandry (pun intended back atchew) who lived great lives, but all secondary to the primacy of their husbands. When the last of them died my sister was like, just imagine what the 4 of them would have done in a world that supported women and creativity, where they were free to make their own way. Ooof. Just imagine.
Keep fighting/collaborating/negotiating/relating for that room of your own! That room is the best bulwark against the Airbnb living death aesthetic and all that represents in our culture. As Lazlo Toth told Nixon, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! xo Pete
You are totally a dude! And I love that our roles are inverted, or flipped, or same but different. Hoping you’ll all be in Portland this summer so you can tell me more about your mom and her sisters.
Great piece!! This infuriating classification of women as supporting and or tragic figures in contrast to men would make a good documentary style film challenging this narrative framing.
I was just reading about Delia Derbyshire who was a pioneer electronic music artist and one narrative about her is that she tragically ceased her creative output and died of alcoholism having never achieved “success”. There’s now an archive of her work.
Oh Belle. You are so good at what you do. Painting in your yard, showing you my art, and drawing on camping trips has nourished the secret artist in me so deeply. Thanks for keeping her around, you inspire me to make more. This is the part where you plug your creative workshop for adults. GUYS! Did you know Belle is doing a creative workshop for adults? We are SO lucky!
What a heartbreaking and heartwarming piece. All I can say is, you got this sis! You’ve got the chops, brain and brawn to do the things - any of them you choose. Love the art history and her-story. Keep it coming!
Thanks, sis. Love you.
I am always struck by how thoughtful and well- crafted your essays are, describing so many issues, experiences, generations and emotions that we enjoy and learn from. I hope to meet you in person one day. Went to elementary school with your mom.
Ruth, thank you. I can’t tell you how much that means coming from you! I’m so humbled and honored that you enjoy the essays. I’m looking forward to reading your work as well...
You kept me mesmerized in this piece-maybe any woman with a history would be mesmerized by this topic but you pulled me in real good. Also - because I salivate over "The Slave" every time I visit the Cantor - have salivated over it since I was a teenager. Learning that a woman sculpted it blew my mind! So - that's why it's so -languorously sexy - haha! What a tragic (and political and all that) story though. And so true, the support it takes, to free a person up to focus on art, or whatever passion. Thanks for this, and for all your posts. Your writing is wonderful.
Languorously sexy! I love it!
Beautifully expressed as always.
Thank you, Patty.
This was my favorite posts of yours and that's saying a lot. Honest, open, real, and fascinating about the role of women and wives and moms and our relationship to art and to work. Fabulous!
Thank you, Maggi.
Thank you Belle! So much to say, you stir so many responses. Well done. As a houseguy/creative married to a wildly successful breadwinner with a sort of more traditional career, a million of my layers are flipped or inverted from yours (im totally a dude!), yet what you say lands directly on deep nerves. Sigh. My mom was one of 4 sisters born in the 30s , all super creative, music, furniture, crafts, animal husbandry (pun intended back atchew) who lived great lives, but all secondary to the primacy of their husbands. When the last of them died my sister was like, just imagine what the 4 of them would have done in a world that supported women and creativity, where they were free to make their own way. Ooof. Just imagine.
Keep fighting/collaborating/negotiating/relating for that room of your own! That room is the best bulwark against the Airbnb living death aesthetic and all that represents in our culture. As Lazlo Toth told Nixon, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! xo Pete
You are totally a dude! And I love that our roles are inverted, or flipped, or same but different. Hoping you’ll all be in Portland this summer so you can tell me more about your mom and her sisters.
Great piece!! This infuriating classification of women as supporting and or tragic figures in contrast to men would make a good documentary style film challenging this narrative framing.
I was just reading about Delia Derbyshire who was a pioneer electronic music artist and one narrative about her is that she tragically ceased her creative output and died of alcoholism having never achieved “success”. There’s now an archive of her work.
I’ve never heard of her but I will absolutely look her up. I feel like anywhere you dig you find these stories. Sigh.
Oh Belle. You are so good at what you do. Painting in your yard, showing you my art, and drawing on camping trips has nourished the secret artist in me so deeply. Thanks for keeping her around, you inspire me to make more. This is the part where you plug your creative workshop for adults. GUYS! Did you know Belle is doing a creative workshop for adults? We are SO lucky!