International Women's Day Celebration - Features - 08/03/2012

- This is our 100th post - how apt! -


In honour of International Woman’s Day, Pink Panther Magazine would like to pay homage to some of the inspiring art in our galleries that celebrates the creative ability of women and the many dimensions exposed through their art that illustrates woman’s dynamic and extraordinary abilities and achievements. This collection has been prepared by PPM’s hosts: Anna, Sybille and me. Whether we’re recognising the importance of embracing and nurturing our inner child, marveling at the courageous example of inspiring women, or celebrating our seasonal landscapes—the ones that, together, continue to shape us—one thing is constant: we are aware of our very breath of life. For it is in this very realisation that we turn to art as an outlet. And as a means of sharing what may be a common connection. And perhaps even as a means of sending the messenger pigeon into the future.
Here are the three sections that weave together this collection. They are only the beginning of a wonderful tribute that aims at celebrating woman’s creativity. To view the entire collection that the hosts and members have been building upon, please visit the International Women’s Day Celebration Page.

Embracing the Inner Child
It seems once we grow up and become women we forget how to simply enjoy life and have fun. We are more likely to look after children and enable them to live in a world of bright colours than to seek out the rainbow ourselves. So, it is time to embrace our inner child and find the wonder all around us again.

First we have to learn the art of seeing ALL that is around us again.

Binoculars by © MissMoselle

And we need to feel the sun on our face and re-discover the joy that lies within each sunbeam.

Pure Joy by © Maree Cardinale

Maybe be a little wild. Why not?

Rock the Casbah by © Lissie Rustage
 
And remember how to sing.

why the caged bird sing by © Jessica Islam Lia
 

Courage
It is the indomitable courage shown by women that never fails to impress and inspire me. Faced with unspeakable odds we still manage to live, love, nurture, dream and create, so it is an apt theme with which to celebrate International Women’s Day.

We can see the courage and the strength shining though the pain.

The Operation © by Georgi Ruley: Agent7
   
The courage to carry on and to be able to celebrate life after the unspeakable loss of a daughter.

Whispers Of The Breeze / Whispers Series © by Mariska  
The courage to grow old and still be able to show off one’s beauty.

Modesty – An ageless virtue © by iamelmana
   
The courage to be able to say ‘no’ to domestic violence, to move on and to still be able to love.

Just another statistic on paper © by NumandisArt

 

Woman’s Seasonal Landscapes
Just as the natural seasons go through changes, so too will woman journey through seasonal stages of life—none more superior than others as each one serves a significant purpose in the larger picture of the cycle of life’s experience. Where there are summer breezes that rejuvenate during a season of sowing, there will follow a bountiful autumn harvest. Where the things of old become dormant in winter’s deep-freeze, spring’s promise of rebirth and renewal will blossom into full bloom. Being able to fully appreciate the wonder and awe these seasons behold sometimes requires taking a step back in order to take it all in.
It’s important to embrace the seasons of rejuvenation, to slow down and relish in the simpler things.

Today…I’m Just Here to Dream by © lovemexxx

 
There’s a time of preparation for rougher seasons, a commission to collect the harvest and fill up the storehouses.

 We Two Are Warriors by © Nicole McBride  
There’s a time to be still, to take shelter from the harsh elements while remembering this dormant season preserves that which is not ready to pass or fade away.


The story of frozen dreams by © dorina costras

There is a time to breathe in the hope-filled promises of new life, to branch out and allow the buds of newness to flourish.

Awaited by © Marcelle Raphael

 

Our Featured Artist for February - Cynthia Lund-Torroll

This month’s artist is Cynthia Lund Torroll







She was one of first artists I discovered when I joined Redbubble and her art has always fascinated me. There’s a great mystery and magic about each single piece and I am so happy she has now started to write as well as I love her poetry and have featured it recently.

Here’s what she says about her art and herself…

I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. My mother claims I was two when I started – in my high chair.


I didn’t always value it as an honorable activity. I sought studies in psychology and social work – wanting to help cure the world with my empathic skills. However I found myself crippled by my own fears – intense panic attacks and clinical depression along with complicated physiological factors. My world grew smaller – by intent and by force of circumstances. But I have always felt that there was something inviolate within that was stronger than anything topical/situational. So slowly, s L o w L y – and steadily over the past 22 years, I’ve brought myself back into life. The drawings are touch posts. They often speak louder than I – or they tap into a stronger, more fierce side of myself. They are a mystery to me – and often show more insight years after I complete them. But I am compelled to make them. They engage me. When I get the lines right, something within me is righted too.


Eckhart Tolle is one of my modern-day heroes. Along with my mother. I was heavily influenced by Picasso and Dali when in high school. I studied independently and was encouraged to develop my own visions – which I did. Since I didn’t go to art school or college actually (does one totally panic-stricken semester count?), I had to rely on my own sensibilities. I was also pretty much ignored by my family in regards to my work – so my flame was fanned internally – and then later – by some remarkable friends. At this point, I’m grateful that I never studied formally and am almost protective of my eyes in viewing other historical art figures. It’s really just been within the past few years that I have started to actively look at other work.


Right now, my favorite drawing is Timor Servilis
To me, it captures everything that’s been going on the past year with my life and my internally balancing.


Timor Servilis by © Cynthia Lund Torroll


The color work and writing are unique to Red Bubble. I have found the community here so warm, inviting and supportive – that I am experimenting greatly.

I love the way we’re all affected in so many ways by Redbubble – the friends we make the support we give and receive and that it allows us to experiment and try out new things. Therefore let’s start with one of Cynthia’s colour experiments. The colours and textures in this image are just wonderful, spirtual and magical all at once.

Mid May Maiden by © Cynthia Lund Torroll




Here are some more of my favourites

I love the delicacy of this one. An almost secret maybe to be told…

Wind of Steel by © Cynthia Lund Torroll




The detail images are so fabulous in their own right. Full of mystery and magic.



Under an Odd Moon (detail) by © Cynthia Lund Torroll


The colour of Viridis is just amazing and the face half-hidden by the leaves makes this special.



Viridis by © Cynthia Lund Torroll



An image in progress… totally fascinating to wonder where it will go but a beautifully detailed drawing in its own right.

The Witness (Day One work – detail) by © Cynthia Lund Torroll


I am a colour girl and I am so enamoured by the way Cynthia uses colour in a special, very delicate way even if the colours are as intense as in this image.

She Comes in Colours by © Cynthia Lund Torroll

It’s interesting to see how she plays with her drawings and creates new ‘logic’ from parts of drawings she’s already done. It’s a process one can almost follow, almost like a silver line going to somewhere else. More mystery perhaps.


Luna by © Cynthia Lund Torroll


The detail in this drawing is totally awe inspiring. Each little branch and the mysterious faces entwined within. Fabulous.



Cacophony by © Cynthia Lund Torroll


If I had to choose just a single image from Cynthia’s gallery, this would be it. I find it compelling and touching.



aWay (detail) by © Cynthia Lund Torroll


Another mysterious image – half the face hidden behind the fan and it makes you wonder if she smiles or if she’s about to tell a secret – all beautifully rendered in pencil…



The Fan by © Cynthia Lund Torroll


And here’s my final image. I am not sure how I managed to stop because there are many more I’d like to feature… :-) This is beautiful and I can almost hear the story unfolding.

The Calling by © Cynthia Lund Torroll




I am so pleased Cynthia agreed to be our featured artist for February. Her art is stunning and I wish her lots of luck with her art, her writing and her self discovery. Isn’t that what art is all about?

Please congratulate Cynthia and add your favourite images to this post.

Sybille and Anna xo

Feminist Art, What is it?

I found this fascinating article today and wanted to share it with you all.

Source….
Feminism & Feminist Art
The Art History Archive – Feminist Art

Feminist art sometimes poses or confronts such questions as:

1. How is a woman’s gaze different from a man’s? How does that difference influence the ways in which the two genders view the world? And how they view art?

2. What constitutes obscenity and pornography? Where do they come from? What are their results? Are they always transgessive? What place do they have in art?



Especially since the late 1960s, when the feminist art movement can be said to have emerged, women have been particularly interested in what makes them different from males — what makes women artists and their art different from male artists and their art. This has been most prominent in the United States, Britain, and Germany, although there are numerous precursors to the movement, and it has spread to many other cultures since the 1970s.



Feminists point out that throughout most of recorded history males have imposed patriarchal (father-centered) social systems (in which they have dominated females). Although it is not the goal of this article to recount the development of feminist theory in full, the history of feminist art cannot be understood apart from it. Feminist theory must take into account the circumstances of most women’s lives as mothers, household workers, and caregivers, in addition to the pervasive misconception that women are genetically inferior to men. Feminist art notes that significant in the dominant (meaning especially Western) culture’s patriarchal heritage is the preponderance of art made by males, and for male audiences, sometimes transgressing against females. Men have maintained a studio system which has excluded women from training as artists, a gallery system that has kept them from exhibiting and selling their work, as well as from being collected by museums — albeit somewhat less in recent years than before.

Here is a notice posted by the Guerrilla Girls (founded in 1985, a New York based group of otherwise unnamed women “artists, writers, performers and film makers who fight discrimination”) in a list they published in 1989:

The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist:

Working without the pressure of success.
Not having to be in shows with men.
Having an escape from the art world in your 4 free-lance jobs.
Knowing your career might pick up after you’re eighty.
Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labeled feminine.
Not being stuck in a tenured teaching position.
Seeing your ideas live on in the work of others.
Having the opportunity to choose between career and motherhood.
Not having to choke on those big cigars or paint in Italian suits.
Having more time to work when your mate dumps you for someone younger.
Being included in revised versions of art history.
Not having to undergo the embarrassment of being called a genius.
Getting your picture in the art magazines wearing a gorilla suit.
Feminist art history must be considered as part of this discussion. Its proponents have demanded that women’s arts from all cultures, of all periods, be included in studies and exhibitions of art. In 1971 Linda Nochlin (American, contemporary art critic) wrote a landmark article, Why Have There Been No GREAT Women Artists? giving tremendous momentum to feminist scholarship concerning women in the arts. Numerous histories of women artists were published in the 1970s, and several others have appeared in the years since then.

Before the late 1960s most women artists, struggling to participate in the male-dominated art world, had overwhelming disincentives to put feminist meanings into their work, and sought to de-gender their art. Often, on the basis of appearance alone, their work could not be identified as woman-made. Several countercultural movements arose simultaneously with feminism in the 1960s. At this time the United States experienced social upheaval coming with the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, economic prosperity, the arrival of oral contraceptives, reforms in the Catholic Church, nostalgia for the presidency of John F. Kennedy, and experimentation with psychotropic drugs. Many other countries experienced social unrest of various kinds during this period. Some gender issues have been of interest to both male and female artists. Although feminist art has arisen more from the concerns of artists of one gender, and some of those concerns are sexual in nature, more often than not feminist issues have been about women’s power in arenas of which sexuality (reproductive acts and roles) is an important part.

Feminist art sometimes poses or confronts such questions as:

1. How is a woman’s gaze different from a man’s? How does that difference influence the ways in which the two genders view the world? And how they view art?

2. What constitutes obscenity and pornography? Where do they come from? What are their results? Are they always transgessive? What place do they have in art?

Although feminist artists have shown great interest in the depiction of nude figures (both male and female), very few feminist artists have shown interest in creating erotic work. Learn more by reading Feminist Art Practices & Political Art.

Link to the original article.

Examples of Feminist Artists:

• Cindy Sherman
• Joyce Wieland
• Frida Kahlo
• Artemisia Gentileschi
• Lilith Adler
• Caroline Folkenroth
• Candice Raquel Lee
• Jennifer Linton
• Martha Rosler
• Rachel Stone
• Victoria Van Dyke
• William Blake

Other Famous Women Artists:

• Emily Carr
• Georgia O’Keeffe
• Berthe Morisot
• Rosa Bonheur
• Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun

Articles about Feminist Art:

• Feminist Art Practices & Political Art
• Women Artists of the 20th & 21st Centuries
• 20th Century Feminist Artists
• Gender in the Visual Arts
• Slavery is a Woman
• Why Have There Been No GREAT Women Artists?
• Estonian Feminist Artists
• Turkish Feminist Artists
• A Feast of Feminist Art