Understand and Support a Feminist Artist

All over the world mature women are exploring the meaning & practice of feminist art. Here's a point-of-departure for joining them. This is a place to answer questions; Can you name one feminist artist? How about five? Where do you fit into the world of feminist art? Could you be a collector, a champion, a historian? Are you an artist? Are the most-mentioned female artists just famous, feminist, or both?

What is Feminist Art?

There is not a universally accepted definition of feminist. However, a group I trust, The Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW) “…recognizes feminism as a dynamic force for social change that varies across age, ethnicity, economic class, geography, sexuality, and other differences. For this reason, KFW does not promote a single definition of feminism but encourages grant applicants to describe their own understanding and practice of feminism.”

As for a definition of art, I like artist June Wayne's,  “The arts are the rain forests of society. They produce the oxygen of freedom, and they are the early warning system when freedom is in danger.”

So, when adding individual artists to the roll call and when composing biographies I’ll first follow KFW's self-definition rule and look for evidence that an artist considers herself to be a feminist artist AND then I'll look for evidence of oxygenation in her artwork.

What's a mature woman to do with feminist art?

Being female has a lot to do with the creation and enjoyment of certain types of art. We'll debate the merits of community and public art. There'll be opportunities for all us mature women to discuss and ruminate about body and gender issues and their place in art. In short, this part will be a self-portrait of our collective thoughts about feminist art.

This is a place to investigate the function of art in our everyday lives. You can read and help write biographies, book reviews, art action activities.

Use the 17 tips for exploring feminist art (in the right column of this page) to jumpstart your exploration of contemporary and feminist art.

On a personal note:

I'll talk about local Louisville, Ky art happenings. There'll be mentions and photos of my artwork in progress, requests for local artists to chime in about their work, and whatever other feminist art related content bubbles forth.