Women at the Helm

Harriet Powers, a slave from Georgia, transformed the traditional communal art of quilting into a free and creative expression. Journey with me through one of two surviving works, "Pictorial Quilt." . Image credit: Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Resources for this episode include: Boston MFA, Smithsonian American Art Museum, writings by Whitney Chadwick ("Women, Art and Society") Samantha Moreno, Mic...

American sculptor Augusta Savage defied racial stereotypes in the representations of black people. Her vivid and expressive figural sculptures are resonant in both their beauty and humanity. Journey with me through these works and help me amplify the voice of this black, female artist who pushed beyond the limits of her gender and race. . . You can see all the works discussed on my website: www.be...

Journey with me through the evocative compositions by Black figurative artist, printmaker, and weaver Emma Amos. She explores explore identity and tackles, head-on, racial, and gender inequality. Resources for this episode include the writings of art historian Lisa Farrington, Phoebe Wolfskill, Art News and ArtForum International magazines, and the Birmingham Museum of Art. If you have an Instagra...

Feminist artist Louise Lawler takes pictures of other artist's works. She is a "spy" at auction previews, in museum storerooms, corporate boardrooms, private residences with her camera. Journey with me in a new-looking experience of the display of works of art after they leave the artist's studio. . . Resources for this podcast episode include Wadsworth Atheneum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum...

Welcome to my monthly episode about women and the visual arts in 19th century Hartford, Connecticut. Today we will journey beneath the wings of a protecting angel in the Memorial Window in the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Hartford's South Meadows. Plus a celebration of author Melina Rudman and her new book, "Sacred Soil: A Gardener's Book of Reflection." . . Resources for this podcast episode i...

Experience the awe and remarkable beauty of sculpture, its methods rooted and passed on by Renaissance masters, through the hands of the stone carver, and female artist Barbara Segal. . . Resources for this podcast episode include Tedx Talk, "Technique to Concept: How Learning Renaissance Methods Drives Creativity," July, 2019, Barbara Segal website, writers J. H. Plumb, John T. Paoletti, and Gary...

Journey with me to a desolate, remote desert in the Great Basin of Utah to experience Land Artist, Nancy Holt, "SunTunnels," 1973-1976. . . Visit beyondthepaint.net to view all the works discussed in this podcast episode. Resources for this podcast include Holt/Smithson Foundation, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, "Nancy Holt," interviewed by Micky Donnelly (Circa Magazine, July/August, 1983) Image Credi...

Welcome to my monthly, bonus episode, "Elizabeth Colt Series," focused on my writing process and research for my upcoming book of the 19th-century art patron. In this episode, journey through the Sampler; creative expressions by everyday women-compositions constructed with fibers and needle. . . Resources for this episode include Susan P. Schoelwer, “Connecticut Needlework: Women, Art and Family,...

Performance artists artist Martha Wilson, using her body as a canvas, investigates "multiple gendered identities" of women, exploring in her later works the universal effects of aging. She engages, embracing all aspects of herself with humor, sass and that trademark fiery red hair. . This podcast episode also highlights "100women100years" project, spearheaded by artists Liz Rae Dalton and Kathy Pi...

19th-century photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston forged a new identity in self-portraiture, turning on its head artistic conventions popular in portraiture of the genteel Victorian woman. . . Visit my website at www.beyondthepaint.net to see all the images discussed including resources I used for this podcast episode notably the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Library of Congress.

Beyond the Paint podcast will now include monthly episodes on my passion project; crafting a book on the 19th century, art patron, Elizabeth Colt, wife of gun manufacturer Samuel Colt. The inaugural episode journeys you through her wedding present from Sam, "Armsmear," an opulent, Italianate style mansion located in South Meadows, Hartford, Connecticut. Resources used for this podcast include Will...

Twentieth-century, American, feminist artist fearlessly breaks with artistic traditions of the female figure, compellingly experiments the narrative of women's lives, their pain, both visible and invisible in installations and formats outside of the flat, framed rectangle or square hooked on the wall. View all the images discussed on my website www.beyondthepaint.net . References used for this epi...

The painter Ellen Altfest engulfs her canvases with hyperreal, cropped intimate objects, a house plant and the male, nude figure. We will be taking a close look at her work, "The Back." Go to my website at www.beyondthepaint.net to see all the images discussed. Resources for this episode include the Saatchi Gallery ( www.saatchigallery.com ) Metropolitan Museum of Art ( www.metmuseum.org ), writer...

Indigenous artist Marie Watt, in collaboration with sewing circles, embroiders objects in flight, both man-made and from nature, onto a canvas of reclaimed, woolen blankets. Highlighted in this podcast episode is the work "First Teachers Balance the Universe: Part I: Things that Fly" now on view at Yale Art Gallery ( www.yaleartgallery.edu ). Learn more about the prolific work of Marie Watt at www...

19th century artist Harriet Hosmer in her sculpture "Queen Zenobia in Chains" captures the defeated Queen in the moments of her captivity, weighed down by chains as her tormenters paraded her in the streets of ancient Rome. Hosmer conveys through the austerity of marble and Neoclassical style, Zenobia's strength, grace and fortitude of the humiliated captive. Visit www.thewadsworth.org to view the...

Beginning January 15, Beyond the Paint podcast will ROAR into 2020 devoting every episode to the artistic expression and contributions by women artists in the United States. In this short podcast episode, I share what inspired what will be my year-long, deep-dive into the artistic production by women. Image Credit: Time & Life Pictures, via Getty Images.

Engage in visual compositions by 19th century Miranda Robinson and contemporary Elaine Reichek, who employ polychrome fibers and a needle, an assemblage of color, line and iconography in the embroidered work, Sampler. Visit Connecticut Historical Society to view the well-preserved Sampler by Miranda Robinson at www.chs.org and view the prolific work of contemporary artist Elaine Reichek at www.ela...

Enter into Liza Lou's "Kitchen," an installation of a "seemingly" ordinary kitchen, every surface is encrusted in glass beads; a dialogue about materials and the "feminine" domain. Please learn more at www.thewhitney.org ; www.lizalou.com You can also see an image @beyondthepaint on Instagram and www.beyondthepaint.net

Enter into the silent, visual world of 18th century American, itinerant portrait artist John Brewster, Jr and his painting, "Portrait of a Girl with a Bird;" his subject little Mary Ann Patten Monson. You can view the image at New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) https://nbmaa.org/ . Learn more about the American School for the Deaf at https://www.asd-1817.org/

We will dive into the overtly feminine style of early American modernist painter Florine Stettheimer. and her fantastical portrait of her mother and sisters in the 1919 work, oil on canvas, "Heat." Please visit the Brooklyn Museum to learn more about Stettheimer at www.brooklynmuseum.org . I want to acknowledge writer and art historian Barbara J. Bloemink, whose seminal writings on Stettheimer pro...

19th century photographer Julia Margaret Cameron; through the lens of her camera and cumbersome wet collodion process, Cameron reveals the beauty, intelligence and spirit of her sitters. We will look closely at the image "Cassiopeia," from 1864. I also highlight the contemporary photographer Zach Rubin from Z Rubin Photo. Follow links below to learn more. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: www.themet...

The art of expatriate American painter Romaine Brooks cannot be separated from her life as woman and a lesbian. Come into her world through her painting White Azaleas. You can see the images @beyondthepaintpodcast on Instagram or at my website beyondthepaint.net Image Credits: Smithsonian Museum https://americanart.si.edu

Suzanne Valadon, an early modernist painter, reflects her experience as a sitter for artists like the Impressionist Renoir, turning the convention of the ideal female form on its head. She presents us with a "modern" woman who has little care for the standards of beauty. Links to the works discussed: "The Blue Room," Musée National d'Art Moderne and "Venus of Urbino," https://www.uffizi.it/en/the-...

Explore the visual world through the medium of colorful threads and fabrics in the miniature works by American textile artist Sheila Hicks. This podcast episode is dedicated to my friend Wendy. :) Learn more at https://www.sheilahicks.com

Painter Esphyr Slobodkina creates compositions of hard-edged forms and colors, structures\ that express a universal visual vocabulary not found in nature. Links to learn more about Slobodkina include her foundation at https://www.slobodkinafoundation.org/ . She also authored and illustrated children's books including "Caps for Sale." Image Credit: New Britain Museum of American Art ( www.nbmaa.org...