How many female artists can you name?

Okay, now that you’ve checked off your list of teachers, people you went to school with or know from the local co-op gallery…how many female artists of note can you name?

Of note meaning right up there with the big boys.

Hmmm…not too many, eh?  Two pop into my head fairly readily–Georgia O’Keefe. Frida Kahlo. Throw in Grandma Moses and make that three.

This is embarrassing. Especially since I’ve got a degree in art. It’s been a long time since I took any art history classes but yet if you asked how many MALE artists I could name, the big boys, I’d tell you to grab a cup of coffee and sit down ’cause this is gonna take awhile. I could tell you their names, Their most famous works. Who they hung out with. Where and when they lived and died. Along the way I’d throw in tidbits of juicy historical gossip.

Do you see what’s wrong with this picture?

I didn’t…but only because I never even thought about it. Been too busy raising a family, taking care of an elderly parent, tending critters, teaching art, making art…. I’ve been too busy squeezing everything in to look outside myself at the BIG picture. The picture that says the glass ceiling extends into the art world too.

Until my friend Tracy Verdugo (an artist as well as a woman–imagine that!) posted a link to a video on facebook. Check it out down below.

You can learn more about this documentary here.

And then come back here. Let’s get a conversation going about this.