An Art Work A Day

Women, way too many of them live in the shadows around the world, hidden, weiled concretely or methaphorically, idiolized, romatizised, presented in pastels and pinks or hidden in black. Today my portrait of woman is done in the color that more than anything binds her - red.

The red of her monthly curse leading to seclusion in many cultures - due to her religious uncleanlyness durng these days, the first one leading to massive loss of freedom fo rthe young girl many places.

The red required on her wedding night or else . . . . The symbol of her and the whole of her family and clan's honor. No excuses accepted for the lack of it. No measures too hard to ensure and protect the shedding of this priceless blood.

The red of her blood as she is raped, beaten or killed not only by strangers, mad men, but also by her closest, her husband, father or brother. Here in Norway too often even unwillingly brought along when her depressed husband kills himself.

Today, on the International women's Day - this is why I chose to do a monochrome in red.

Women In Art from Philip Scott Johnson on Vimeo.

Click for the original work this video is made of.

In these modern times most of our students' work are delivered digitally and read as well as commented on and graded digitally. Unfortunately a side effect from that is periodically too much time online watching a screen very focused as well as lots and lots of computer mouse work which is hell for my eyes as well as my right shoulder. I look very much forward to the weekend now. I long for more proper painting time and hopefully not when I am work out after work and grading.








Pink Ladies Exchanging News,
watercolours on paper
ACEO
2.5x3.5inches
$10

p&p is FREE

In January one of the painting that is marked with donated for equality now was sold. Here is the letter I got about that. I hope to be able to sell more for this fantastic organisation. I put all of the letter here except my postal address so that anyone of you who are more interested could get all this contact information.

EQUALITY NOW New York: 250 West 57 Street, #1527, New York, NY 10107, USA ▪ Tel:+1 212-586-0906 • Fax:+1 212-586-1611 • Email: info@equalitynow.org

London: 6 Buckingham Street, London WC2N 6BU, UK • Phone:+44 (0) 20-7839-5456 • Fax:+44 (0) 20-7839-4012 • Email: ukinfo@equalitynow.org

Nairobi: PO Box 2018 KNH 00202, Nairobi, Kenya • Tel: +254 20-2719-832 • Fax: +254 20-2719-868 • Email: equalitynow@kenyaweb.com

EQUALITY NOW WORKS FOR THE CIVIL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD February 21, 2008

Dear Ms. Vogsland:

Thank you so much for your contribution of $100.00 to Equality Now. With your help, we are making a real difference in advancing our common vision of a world in which girls and women live free from violence and discrimination.

In 2007 we launched two campaigns in support of women in Iran and Afghanistan, deepened our commitment to stop the global trade in human lives by launching the Fund for Grassroots Activism to End Sex Trafficking, and succeeded in getting a strong New York State law criminalizing human trafficking passed. In the coming year we will continue our work in these and other campaigns, including shutting down sex tour operator G & F Tours, working for the passage of a law in Mali against female genital mutilation, and demanding justice for the women who have been abducted and murdered in Mexico.

We could not pursue our global fight to end human rights abuses against women and girls without your continued generosity. Thank you for your support.
Best wishes,
Amanda Sullivan
Director, Women’s Action Network

A few days ago I saw a special image on gather.com. The image showed a hand with a bracelet with the words "faith" on it and Lindy the poster told us that her sister in law had one with "hope" on. They had agreed not to take them off until the sister in law was done with chemo.

That story inspired this painting and of course it will be sent Lindy when it is dry.

I really experienced tonight how cultural differences can make communication difficult. I said something I meant as a huge compliment and unfortunately due to bad wording and cultural insensivity on my part I ended up hurting a lady I would not for the world hurt. I have appologized and I ask you to pray or cross fingers depending on your preference that she will forgive me because I would hate it if this escalates.

I write in English but I am Norwegian and English is my second language and I might insult without meaning it. Please if I should happen to write something that you feel is hurtful in any way then email me and I will immedeately try to fix it.


In this painting I chose to focus on the cultural and lingvistic differences between Men from Mars and Women from Venus.


The Difficult Communication,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 18x24cm
$120

This is the third in the black on black series. Together with "waiting in the Shadows" I will try to get them mounte dand framed tomorrow. All the materials and glass etc is bought and made ready. I find it a bit scary but that is normal - I always find thigs a bit scary the very first time.

A good friend of mine told me: "Don't piddle in your puddle". Here I fear I piddled or fiddled a bit too much. It is so hard finding a balance between making this a kind of non detailed work but not too faded. I kind of wish that I had left it a bit more faded. On the other hand, I need to take a day or two off any work before I know how it turned out. when it is just finished I often feel that it is all wrong and then some days or weeks later, I am able to look at it with new eyes. I would love any comments you'd care to give.

I struggle lately and do not seem to be able to handle a big canvas this weekend. Instead I paint more emotions abstract in few colours using Aceo size 2.5x3.5in watercolour paper and watercolours. This journey of mine painting or drawing every day is also a journey into and with myself into the future.

Fighting the Bars of Shame
SOLD
One of the things I have been thinking of lately is how women, my age and older especially, tend to be filled with shame, not the old sexually related shame but the one more connected with "eat up, think about the starving children in Africa"-kind. Concretely we overeat , we are good girls and finish our plates, but more importantly we get unsure about what feelings we should allow ourself to have.

As we were told to ignore feelings of fullness foodwise because of the need of starving children, we also ignore our own feelings when we are on mum-duty; when the whole family is down in flu, who is taking care of everyone? "Was the holidays/Cristmas/ the trip successful? ""Oh yes, hubby was happy and kids were happy and behaved reasonably. Sure, a wonderful holiday /Christmas etc etc. " We're happy when our people are happy. Or at least that is what we tell ourself and if not - Shame.

Add then the fact that many women in that age group get health problems like fibromyalgia, low thyroid, fatigue syndrom, burn out syndroms, menopause or depression. Problem is that all these diagnoses has depression-like symptoms too. What do women do? All of these health issues also carry some kind of Shame. "Get a grip, pull yourself together, don't be so lazy, think about how fortunate you are, think about those that has worse problems". That doctors has called many of these problems "just nerves" for ages adds to the problem. It is kind of more status to have the historical male middle age problems; heart and ruined backs after heavy manual work. These days the double working women has these too.

These kind of philosophical thought and discussions inspired this watercolour: "Fighting the Bars of Shame" It could equally be the poor African Mum having got HIV/AIDS from her cheating husband knowing that their kids would soon be without help. That too and similar situations is known to women. I did not want the face to be weak in shame but hurt and angry fighting it.

I do wish I was a better artist so that I could really explore emotional and philosophical issues like this and one day I am sure I will be able to to that in a manner that satisfies me. Untill then I will have to fight and break down the internalized "good girls do paint inside the lines"- socialization I have grown up with. I am amazed on how tough that is to break down. That is one reason I do not paint very tidy detailed works - I do not want to wake that monster. My dream and goals are quite other styles of drawing and paintings.

Well, the journey has only just begun - keep following me and who knows where it will all end.

"Abstract Geography".