AMAZING WOMEN ....

A couple of things happened to generate the thoughts behind this page - two women of my acquaintance have been working through very difficult situations in ways that impressed me so much with their strength and courage.

There hasn't been as much time as I'd like to work in my journal lately, so it was special to finally sit down and paint a background and begin to collage.  I know some people are intimidated by a white empty page ... but I love the feeling of possibility and the adventure of starting something with no idea of where it will lead.

Somewhere in this process I had two telephone conversations with the people involved, which left me with the feeling that it was a wonderful thing to be a woman in the company of such sisters.  I was also trying to work with "vintagey" colours, something I've always loved - I prefer brights but sometimes softer hues are more restful to the brain and eye.

Once I found a slip of paper in my stash with the words "women of all shapes and ages" the message I wanted began to form in my mind and on the page.  Another Modigliani lady represents a universal woman here, I think the word "winter" is there because of the dark times we all go through, and "nature" makes reference to the very essence and nature of women.  It all made sense to me at the time, honest!

Then the last thing I did was let the words "women are amazing" explode out of my brain and onto the page.  I have been a lifelong feminist, and yes there is still so much more to do, even if we do now have women bishops!  Some of the voices telling me the battles have all been won have gone a bit quiet lately during the current row (in the UK at least) about equal pay?  Decades after the legislation of 1970 which hoped to ensure this, it absolutely doesn't exist yet ....

I suppose the bottom line here is that this is me making a bit of a speech on paper, letting rip with some of my deepest held beliefs, and above all wanting to focus on the positives, and celebrate all that is amazing about women everywhere - including you and me!

NORMAL WOMAN FIGHTS BACK!!

OK stand well back - because I was flipping STEAMING when I made this page! I've been getting increasingly cross with articles in magazines or items on TV suggesting that we should all be waxing or otherwise depilating practically every hair on our bodies. Add this to the nasty concept of submitting to surgery just to force our bodies into some kind of "ideal" standard, and I finally went off like a volcano. You just can't keep a good old fashioned feminist down!

So I began with this drawing of my entirely normal size 14 (UK) 56 year old body. I'm not ashamed of it, even though I have made it crinkly with over-use! I will not be bullied by body facism into feeling that normal is not acceptable. We come in all shapes and sizes and should be celebrating that, right?
You can see for yourself my thoughts on the subject, but I will apologise in advance to anyone who had to have a caesarian section for my comment "no need for surgery" because its in no way intended as any kind of criticism. It is meant to indicate that the wide pelvis which goes with my pear shape means that giving birth actually comes relatively easy to me, which is definitely something to celebrate right??
And then it was down to adding colour with the trusty Promarkers. I didn't go in for a lot of fancy decoration here because I wanted the message in sharp, clear focus. I do seem to be doing a lot of ranting lately, but I feel so strongly that our young women and girls are being given all the wrong messages, and we HAVE to counteract it.

TOUCHED A NERVE THERE ...

For once I responded to a challenge with this page - over on the Stampotique Designers Blog - to alter a book page, with the option of using a Stampotique image. Well I love this scribbly face by Daniel Torrente, she looks so fierce and cross and I use her a lot. Hmmm maybe that says something about me? So I pasted a page from the old hardback I use for such purposes onto a journal page and set to work ... completely forgetting to take my usual stage pictures.

But you can probably see why ... this subject is something which has been on my mind for some time. I can't understand why any woman would describe herself as "not a feminist". All it means is "pro-woman", and my Other Half describes himself as one too! I fought a lot of battles against sexism and patriarchal attitudes in my younger days, and sad to say I still see a lot of things which need to change. So rude words to the whole concept of post-feminism - if we girls can't stand up for one another who will? And I want things to be better for my girls and my grand-daughters ...

Oh yes, and how do you like the brilliant ink pad rack my nephew made for me? Super innit? I couldn't find anything (affordable) to house these larger ink pads and we did a spot of bartering - I made him a scrapbook album of family history, and he made me this. Result!