Maruca Salazar, Laura Shill, Kristen Kimmell, Sally Elliot, Margaretta Gilboy, Jane Jones

‘Cooking in Sayulita,’ by Barbara Shark

Acrylic & Steel sculpture, by Barbara Baer

‘Vases and Windows,’ by Betty Woodman

Towing the Line at Redline

In collaboration with the Art Students League of Denver

It was interesting girl talk last night. The current show at Redline Gallery, Transit of Venus: Four Decades, Front Range Women in the Visual Arts, http://www.westword.com/2014-02-06/culture/transit-of-venus-at-redline/ has generated dialogue in local publications and websites, about,  of all things, “an all women’s art show.” The women in the show have been working artists for the last forty years. The panel discussion began with the question, “Do you call yourself an artist or a woman artist?” That was asked because you never hear a man say he is participating in an ‘all male’ art show. A trivial insult to women artists who sometimes find that tag hard to swallow. Let’s get serious, women have more pressing issues at hand. Like being treated equally in the market place, galleries, museums and the media.

The panel of professional women were brought together to engage dialogue about the hurdles they had to jump over or avoid in their careers.  The women did not wax metaphysically on the subject of being a woman artist nor, did they complain about the need to combine motherhood and a career early on. It occurred to them, but it did not hinder their efforts to pursue an art career regardless of their gender or marriage status.

The panel was made up of six women from various art disciplines: self employed, the business side, curator, professor.  Each recalled a time when being a woman meant you worked harder, you ignored the slights and you kept creating art.

Panel members:

Margaretta Gilboy, Front Range Women in the Visual Arts member and Art Students League Faculty member

Sally Elliot, Front Range Women in the Visual Arts member and Art Students League Faculty member

Jane Jones, Art Student League Faculty member

Laura Shill, RedLine Resident Artist

Kristen Kimmell, Chief of Staff of RBC Wealth Management

Maruca Salazar, Executive Director of Museo de las Americas

Moderator: Rachel Bayse, Executive Director of Art Students League of Denver

This evening was not designed to find solutions. Rather it was a gathering for creating dialogue among women, women in diverse sectors of the art world.  The last 5-part question, and the crux of the matter in a nutshell, was, “Why is it men continue to sell art at higher prices; men are sought after by the best galleries; collectors purchase high dollar work from male artists more often than from a woman; galleries and museums promote men over women?” Jane Jones, panel artist, was quick to summarize. “It’s the way of the world. Men run it, men have the money to purchase large ticket items and they get to proclaim great art and artists.”

Throughout time women would, could, can and have gone crazy over this question.

Here’s a suggestion to the next panel. Pick up where last night’s conversation ended:  Why is that? What can women do to crack that holy ceiling of cracked plaster? Intellectually everyone (including males and priests) know women have as much talent as men, yet, take a look at art history. What is remembered about the Mary Cassatt http://www.biography.com/people/mary-cassatt-9240820 and Camille Claudel?http://wais.stanford.edu/Biographies/bio_CamilleClaudel.htm. Claudel went crazy from Rodin’s abuse and Cassatt is still considered an impressionist painter of children. They were fabulously talented women artists who did not find the quality of success their counterpart male artists found – ever. That question is still unanswered and will likely never be answered. This night they gathered and found a common thread. It was agreed, in order to  empower the next generation of women, women must to continue to pave a new path for  younger generations.

Among the local women in the audience, supporting this gathering were artist, Barbara Baer; gallery owner, Tina Goodwin; art consultant, Candice Pulliam; artist, Leona Lazar; artist, Joellyn Duesberry.

RedLine is a diverse urban laboratory where art, education and community converge. Our vision is to foster forms of social practice in the arts that inspire inquiry and catalyze change.

http://redlineart.org/art/events/other-events/towing-the-line.html