Where we begin: Women Redefining art & boundaries.

Women have been creating art and breaking boundaries in the world since the beginning of civilization. They created cave paintings, clothing, textiles, home goods, décor & carved tools.

In eastern culture women are still creating many of these goods by hand. In the west women started painting on canvas as early as the 17^th century.

Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian Baroque painter who you have probably never heard of was one of the first female to attend the Academy of Design, Florence, Italy. She spent her entire life as a painter in shadow of her father and husband, both painters.

After 400 years, why are women more likely to be the model than the author of a canvas hanging on the wall of a museum? 

In 2022 I was fortunate enough to experience an art history course with Rebecca Smith, MA, Ph.D.,Assistant Professor, Art History at Wake Technical Community College in North Carolina. Her lectures inspired me to dive into my concept of the Glass Canvas.

My concept of the glass canvas echoes with the 1978 phrase “invisible glass ceiling” invented by Marilyn Loden. She spoke about the barriers & hoops women have to break and jump through to be successful. I see the glass canvas as it’s artist equivalent.

These lessons on women in art history sparked my curiosity and I started to ask questions like: Does gender bias in art still hold true? Why did it exist in the first place; and how can I create change for our future female artists?

As I researched, fact checked, and investigated further on my travels and museum visits I’ve contemplated these questions further, and I hope to answer them in more depth here. 

A fellow female artist said to me in 1997, “make sure you don’t use your full name when you submit art to galleries.  Use your initials or Mel, this will help you get more shows.

There have been shifts, ebbs & flows since I began entering and showing my work in the late 90’s but there is still insufficient recognition or awareness of this discrepancy. 

The implication was that by exposing that I was a women artist I would not get chosen for gallery shows. 

Stubbornly I didn’t listen to her and continued to present my artwork under my full name as I wanted to represent myself and be proud of being a female artist.

My intent in this blog is to provide history, facts, and highlight the art climate for female artists, in art culture then and now. This is both a personal outlet and an opportunity build on a dialogue that will encourage all artists to push through the Glass Canvas, find community, and break further barriers.

What this blog isn’t is an attack on or bashing of artists who are not female; all are welcome and encouraged to learn, love, support, & make art accessible and equal.

What is needed to create equality in the number of female artists whose works are hung in galleries? 

Many artworks remain from 400 years of western female art history ago, yes. Fewer than for their male counterparts, often because they were less prolific and had to fight against familial and societal norms to express themselves or exhibit their work.

Some topics that I plan on exploring, emphasizing the Glass Canvas and female art are~

• Where have all the paintings gone? From the basement to walls of museums
  • Facts and Figures – male to female artwork disparity in museums.
  • Famous Couples in Art – where the female was overshadowed by her male counterpart.
    • Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe, Annie Albers, and Lee Krasner to name a few
    • North Carolina – Women Making an impact in the art scene
      • Erin Ives
      • Dalla Bretman
      • Allison Coleman

 Until we meet again here are some related articles.

• Female Artist in History
  •  Renaissance Women

• Contemporary Female Artist’s
  •  Contemporary Women