Women, Art & Society

A great find from a charity shop in Hampstead, London:



by Whitney Chadwick (publisher: Thames & Hudson NY, 1990)

Cover: Detail of Reflection, by Gabriele Munter (1917)

Chapters include:

Renaissance Florence and Women Artist

Amateurs and Academics: A New Ideology of Femininity in France and England

Separate but Unequal: Women's Sphere and The New Art


If we would like to change History, it is a great start to try and understand it.

Waving Goddbye to Eve

Eve Arnold (April 21st 1912 - Feb 4th 2012):



100 years on this planet:



Photographer:

Waving Goodbye to Dorothea

Dorothea Tanning (Aug 25th 1910 - Jan 31st 2012):



102 years on this planet:



Painter, Poet, Artist:

Thank you Universe!

Thirty Six reasons to be grateful:

1. An 8am phone call from an 80 year old lady to tell you Happy Birthday.

2. The three Birthday / Valnetine cards you got from the most delicious man in the world.

3. To be alive

4. To be loved.

5. An 8 30am phone call from your parents on the other side of the Atlantic.

6. If no one called it would be okay too. Love is what you do when you don't have to. And love accepts people for whoever they are. Everything else is b***shit.

7. We are getting married.

8. Bergman week in Faro in April.

9. The taste of butter melted on toast.

10. Cup of Brazilian coffee with Japanese soya milk.

11. The street you live in and the people who live and work in it.

12. London.

13. Aeroplanes - those fantastic machines that take you to places you dream of.

14. The ocean in between lands - never a barrier but the soft, temperamental, liquid link between continents.

15. Music, always music.

16. Love

17. Love

18. Love

19. To have your Birthday on St. Valentin day when you wished you were a troubadour at the age of 13

20. Patti Smith on Vinyl

21. To finally learn how to spell vinyl correctly.

22. Solitude in the day and Love Date in the evening.

23. Weekdays off as paid holiday.

24. To work hard for something and see the tree bare fruit.

25. Fearlessness

26. Selflessness

27. Grace

28. Story telling

29. What you don't tell but feel.

30. Our pet spider (RIP)

31. Our plants happy to get all the moisture from the bathroom.

32. Cakes at Cakey Muto

33. Books about the Sea, Science, Poetry.

34. The Moon and its phases

35. Charity

36. The Universe for allowing us to experience of such wonderful things.

Patti by Joan - Happy New Year!

Patti Smith playing live at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on her 65th birthday (Dec 30th). Photo by Joan Wasser.

Happy New Year!

"Soon We'll Be Found" - song by Sia

from the album Some People Have Real Problems (2008)

Bjork's Moon, Sylvia Plath's shoes and Kate Bush's snow

"So rememeber, if you wander the desert, and its near sundown, and you are perhaps a little bit lost, and certainly tired, that you are lucky, for La Loba may take a liking to you and show you something - something of the soul." (Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With The Wolves, p.24)

Bjork, Moon, from the new album Biophilia


Bell Jar, drawing by Sylvia Plath, part of the exhibition of unseen drawings by the poetess now being exhibited at the Mayor Gallery in London until December 17th 2011.


Kate Bush on a rare interview for BBC Radio 4's Front Row, 2011 (please click on the link that is this post's title for the full interview with Kate).

Worshipping at the Altar of Dance

"Dance, dance...otherwise we are lost."



Whether you love dance as a practice in itself, or possess a latent desire to express yourself, I could not reccomend this film enough.

But is it a film, is it a documentary? I can tell you what PINA is not: It is not a chronological nor literally biographical depiction of Pina Bausch's life and carrer.

PINA is in fact a fitting, moving and inspirational tribute to one of the major figures in (contemporary) dance in the world. A woman who has broken the boundaries and influenced the worlds of dance and theatre - and will continue to do so on the years to come.

This film was originally intended to be a joint effort between film maker Wim Wenders and Pina Bausch herself. Her unsuspected passing charges the documentary, especially through the genuine grief on many of her dancers' commentaries. And yet, even under the palpable longing for Pina' strength and presence, the film succeeds at being alternatively light hearted and passionate in equal measure.

It's said no one was really aware of Pina's health condition until the time of her death. It can be said then that whatever is visible from Pina inner world it is so through her art alone.

Her dancers enable the external manifestation of her inner landscape; a snapshot from a distant but colourful land perhaps. A land paved at times with water, sand or lunar surfaces; populated with chairs, arms outstretched, embraces, whispers and fall from grace. Tight dresses, suits, torsos, legs, arms, blood. Nakedness, expansion and restraint. For me persnally, these are enough reasons to encourage the witnessing of Pina Bausch's fortitude.

And if after watching it you don't feel like dancing, you might at least feel like you should be living your life more fully.


PINA by Wim Wenders is out now on DVD. For more information, interviews and clips, visit the movie's official website by clicking on this post's title.

One Voice - Patti Smith

In the garden of consciousness
In fertile mind there lies the dormant seed
When blooming as charity
Conscience breathes a sigh of relief
The confessions of sleep
The awakening seed
Moved by love to serve
We celebrate all
Merit in life
Ah, the confessions of sleep
Unfolding peace
As we extend
According to need
And you will hear the call
All action great and small
Received joyfully
Heaven abounds
Let love resound
If he be mute
Give him a bell
If he be blind, an eye
It he be down, a hand
Lift up your voice
Lift up your voice
Lift up your voice
Give of your mind one mind
Give of your heart one heartGive of your voice
One voice

song by Patti Smith and Jay Dee Daugherty.

from Patti Smith's album Gung Ho (2000)

Nobel Peace Prize 2011

A post long overdue.

The Nobel pecae prize of 2011 was awarded to

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Prseident of Liberia),




Leymah Gbowee (from Liberia) and




Tawakkul Karman (from Yemen)




"for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work".


The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 is to be divided in three equal parts between Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work. We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.

In October 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325. The resolution for the first time made violence against women in armed conflict an international security issue. It underlined the need for women to become participants on an equal footing with men in peace processes and in peace work in general.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is Africa’s first democratically elected female president. Since her inauguration in 2006, she has contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women. Leymah Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections. She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war. In the most trying circumstances, both before and during the “Arab spring”, Tawakkul Karman has played a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen.

It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s hope that the prize to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent.

Oslo, October 7, 2011

find out more about their work and about the Nine Nobel Women by clicking on the links on this post's tile.

text and images source: www.nobelprize.org