Blake's 'Emily and Alice in the Night'
WHEN I WAS younger, my mother (as close to a sister as I have in my only-child world) started her own business: an art gallery in her then-hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. A gifted artist herself, she has (if I do say so myself) a wonderful eye, and her selections of works by local artists quickly garnered her a following. Paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics: Everything was detailed, impeccable in technique, full of meaning and beauty.
When TSP founding sister Margaret Roach and I started talking about The Sister Project, we didn’t know that one of the roles I’d take on would be finding artists to showcase in our Galleries. We knew there’d be “shows,” but how we’d get them was, in those early days, mysterious.
Mora's 'Secret Anatomy of a Young Girl'
Equally mysterious, at least to me, is how I started tracking down artists–the more we talked about TSP, the more I found myself surfing around the internet, alighting here and there at sites featuring work that moved me, took my breath away, made me pause and think, or just struck me as delightful, beautiful and worth sharing with my sisters.
Margaret keeps asking me where I found some of them, and honestly, I don’t know. Why did I first land on the blog of Elsita? How in the world did I get to “Genius Girl of Destiny” Bonnie? Grace Bonney at Design*Sponge inadvertently turned me on to Amanda Blake: I had emailed Grace looking for ideas for artists to paint portraits (affordably) of my two kids. She suggested I look on Etsy for someone who seemed like a good fit, and I found Amanda. (I still haven’t gotten those portraits done, but someday, I hope to.) Camilla Engman was someone whose work I’d known and admired for years, and even with Margaret’s ex-Martha Stewart career cachet backing us up, I didn’t dream she’d say yes. But she did. Ironically, the first artist I contacted, one whose work I have long admired, turned us down–but I hold out hope that she’ll see what we’re up to here, and come on back.
Me, by Erica Berger
I may not be able to paint (or sew, or draw, or bind books, or silkscreen…) like my mother can, but in my own way, I hope I’m finding a means to share what I believe, and what I treasure, through the window of others’ work. Here we are, together now in this funny, sisterly community we’re building, and you’re all telling us you want more: more beauty, more meaning, more creative expression that delights and inspires you in your life, your work or both. This, I think, is the power of sisterhood–we gather together to find strength and inspiration, from many sources, and in many forms. So keep it up, keep telling your sisters, and keep telling us what you think. That’s the beauty of sisters, right? We’re here, for you.
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Great curatorial eye, Paige. And great photo of you too! Woo hoo!
Thank you for the wonderful art already in the Galleries! I’d love to see a visual arts section added to the Sisterpedia — we don’t want to forget our sister artists who are long gone, or the many sisters portrayed in art by both women and men. Two of my favorite examples are: Sofonisba Anguissola’s painting, Lucia, Minerva and Europa Anguissola Playing Chess (four of Anguissola’s five sisters were also painters); and Nicholas Nixon’s remarkable photographs of his wife and her three sisters, which he took, one each year, from 1975 to 2005.
Welcome, Millie and Susan, and thanks for the great feedback. Susan, we love Nicholas Nixon, too, and we’re hoping to feature his work later this year. You’re absolutely right about including long-gone sisters in a ‘Pedia entry about art–we’ll put that one on our list, too. I didn’t know the Anguissola painting, but for others who’d like to see it, it’s online here, along with more of her work (just click on her name, Sofonisba–there’s a link to a portrait by sister Lucia, too.) Thanks again, and keep the great ideas coming, please!