"Women's History Month"
- celebrating it with art
Many countries around the world have declared the month of March as “Women's History Month” to celebrate and honour the contributions and achievements of women in various fields like the arts, science, politics, and more. The idea is to raise awareness about the often-overlooked roles that women have played in shaping our history, culture, and society and to address issues related to gender equality and women's rights.
With that in mind, I thought this was the perfect occasion to share a series of artworks I created a few years ago. It is inspired by the many women who came to the United States of America at the turn of the twentieth century to start a new life, a family, and/or business in this promising yet unknown land.
While living in Chicago (and after moving back to Germany), I traveled the Midwest and the Great Plains of the USA. I drove along the country roads, photographing old abandoned buildings like churches, schools, and farmhouses. There were so many of them. And with every farmhouse I photographed, I wondered about the stories of these houses and the people who once lived in them.
At some point, I wanted to learn more and started to read up on the history of that area, how people got there, how they lived in this rugged place, and what happened that so many people left. I read all kinds of books related to life on the Plains - fiction and non-fiction. I read books about the Pioneer women which gave me an idea about the lives of these women and their families and the hardship they experienced trying to make a living out on the Plains.
I wanted to somehow incorporate these stories - or at least the ones I made up in my mind - into my work. But using a simple photograph wasn’t enough for me. I wanted the story to be more visual, more tactile, and complex. The only way for me to do that was by creating collages. I started with a photograph of an old farmhouse and built up from there: I used old ephemera like letters, photos, book pages, and stamps to create the background. The background is left fairly neutral because I wanted to give the viewer enough space for their own ideas and thoughts about the work.
I included a vintage portrait of a woman in each artwork and assembled different items like spoons, pens, and even tea cups in the work. Before attaching those items, I applied layers of clear hot encaustic wax1 to bring everything together. The layers of all the different papers and the layers of wax on top resemble for me all the different layers life has to offer and all the different stages we go through as we grow older.
And for the final touch, I gave every artwork the name of a woman.
Here are all seven pieces:
That’s it from me today.
Thank you for being here and for reading this week’s newsletter. It means a lot to me!
X,
Susanne
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Encaustic is an ancient painting method using paint that is made of beeswax, damar resin, and pigment. In my case, I just used beeswax and damar resin to have transparent paint.
I somehow missed this post! How cool is that?! I think you have such a knack for mixed media and really, anything you put your hands on. I love the concept, too! What a lovely dedication... by the way, when I was looking at the images, my partner walked by, saw the screen and immediately said, "oooh, I love that! What is that?!" :).
These are so wonderful! The colors, patterns, and collection of accents are so beautifully interwoven. Thank you for sharing!