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Dear Ms. Mueller,
The following statement is my answer to your inquiry regarding the Feminist Art Program.
It is a rather rambling stream of consciousness thing, but I hope it answers your
questions.
After my time at CalArts, I moved back to Fresno and recieved
my Masters in sculpture from Cal State University. I then worked a series of odd
jobs from waitressing to topless dancing (a very strange job for a feminist, but
I looked on it as a performance piece like the ones we did in the program).
I remained an artist. I always had a studio of sorts. One
was a warehouse with no heating, cooling or hot water. I showered at the YWCA, three
blocks away. I stayed in that warehouse/loft for five years, then a fire destroyed
it along with many of my possessions. I moved to Merced and worked as a bartender
and subsititute teacher until I was hired at my present job as a deputy public conservator,
handeling the affairs of people who are mentally ill. I applied for the job knowing
what it entailed because someone had tried to put me on a conservatorship when I
was in my twenties. Being a manic-depressive, before lithium, my twenties were spent
going in and out of mental hospitals. I did art at that time, but most of it was
pretty crazy. It was only in my "normal" periods that I created anything
significant. |
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In
my thirties and fourties, I feel I have done my best work to date. I have a wonderful
studio space, again in a warehouse/loft, but this time its heated, cooled and with
hot water. It has a real kitchen, bedroom, living area, office, all the comforts
of a house, and a great work space. I have a stable, loving relationship with a man
I have been with for the last ten years. We were married last year. My job of fifteen
years is steady money even though I don't like the work, it gives me the money to
do my art. |
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I
have done art in all the years since I left the program. I did art before the program.
I am an artist. I can't see being anything else. I don't make a living off my work.
I am not a household name in art. A part of me thinks I've done al lot, another part
thinks I've done very little and I have much to do. |
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The
group experience in the Feminist Art Program made me conscious of the unfairness
against women in the art world and in the world in general. Sometimes it made me
very resentful. Looking back on the program, I can see we tread on grounds not yet
explored. We opened the doors for a lot of things to happen. However, with only a
couple of exceptions, we did not become known for what we did. It was too far ahead
of its time, and way too unacceptable.I feel anger. When I read about Mike Kelly
making a big name for himself, doing a performance piece |
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I was strong in my early
twenties, but I was no longer in a group, I was out there alone. I put the program
back into my resume about ten years ago. |
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I
don't know about the status of women artists today. I'd like to think that perhaps
it is a little easier for them because of what we did back in the seventies. I feel
that the show at MOMA two years ago was put together in a hurry as an afterthought,
a bone tossed to women artists as if to say, "You've had your little show, now
shut up". The show at the Armand Hammer was good, but it didn't seem to generate
any critical attention, only the usual pans of Judy's work. "The Power of Feminist
Art" was a lovely book, but they seemed to purge all the personal comment that
made the experiences real. It was a sanitized intellectual version of the way it
was, an acceptable one, another bone thrown to make us shut up. |
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I
really thought that in 1997 women artists would have come further. The ratio of women
to men in galleries and musuems is still appallingly small. What does it take, another
twenty to fifty years perhaps?
Sincerely,
Karen LeCocq
Norma Broude and
Mary D. Garrand (ed): The Power of Feminist Art. The American Movement of the 1970s,
History and Impact. New York, 1994 |
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