It has been a while since I last made an entry and it's because sometimes I am lazy about logging in and jotting down my thoughts.
But I've been reading my (one of many) cousin's blog and it reminded me of my own space that I had carved out to use as a soap box. This one titled 'but i AM a real women' was originally set up as a place to discuss my role and relationship in/to society as a woman artist and what that means to me. But now I realize that my 'femaleness' extends beyond my artistic practices.
Of course in the great (and mangled here) words of Mierle Ukeles, she says that she is a woman, a wife, a mother and an artist. And due to constraints in time and life, and the demands that every single sector place on her, that she could not maintain her art and career while maintaining her family. So to satisfy her need to create and her duties to her family, she found that she must combine art and family practices so that she might be fulfilled and fulfilling.
Clever girl. Giving her self permission to LIVE. AND to be a real WOMAN all the while. Because real women know that you can only do what you can, and that there should not be shame, guilt, or expectations that lace those decisions with derision from society because we have not done enough. Enough is always enough. Or, what we can each manage individually should be enough for those around us.
And anyone who thinks raising a family does not require the same (if not more) endurance, creativity, patience, and self-love as in making art, well then their opinions are not ones I find worth entertaining.
And as many of the greatest and most successful female (and feminist) artists have been pointing out, especially in recent years- we CAN'T have it all. But we can all have what we need and more. We can all have more than enough.
And that should be enough for the rest of you.
