Women in Art

This week was going to be an adventure with ‘umph’ to it. You know, something like bungee jumping, without actually dealing with heights. However, something sad and unfortunate happened in the unexpected death of my nephews’ grandmother. So this week is instead a time of travel and reflection. I have become much more aware of human mortality lately, and it sucks. But knowing it is coming, whether now or later, has meant I now have a more profound sense of being, and an awareness of today. It sounds cliche, but it is so very true. And these posts are a result of this awareness.

So this post is dedicated to Christine, the mother of my nephews, who just had the rug pulled out from under her. Christine loves art, and I hope that after the funeral this weekend, she’ll have a chance to once again admire it.

I have never been to the National Museum of Women in Arts; partly because it was always there to go to – so convenient, and partly because it requires an admission fee (when none of the Smithsonian museums do). It was a very interesting, eclectic experience, but primary in two paths: Renaissance art and post 1900-modern.

The type of room in which I usually did not stay long.

These rooms had more appeal.

Here are my favorites of the museum, of those visitors were allowed to take pictures of.

The first piece I gravitated to. I love this oil painting by Andrea Higgins, called Hillary, 2002.

Next up, a fantastic wax construct, which I then applied filters to in my own art attempt.

Petah Coyne, Untitled, 1994.

Blue

Negative of Petah Coyne’s Untitled, 1994.

Solarized

Cute.

Joana Vasconcelos, Viriato, 2005

and cartooned.

A.O., Adaptation of Viriato, 2014

This interesting wood sculpture below is from an artist whose name I forgot to capture. But I like the end result of the ‘cartoon’ filter of my old android phone. (I wish I had had my high resolution camera with me, but such is life. And I never would have found the cartoon effect otherwise.)