Recently in Arts Category

Earlier this morning I stumbled upon some of the most powerful artwork I've ever seen. My favorite is the sixth one down, what a perfect artisticve representation of Obama's ideals. Progress is exactly what we need right now. Not the I have to tell any of you that!

The works are collected on this French website so if anyone has a URL with more comments in English please share. But the artwork is fanastic and the video is insanely creative.

Sharing an article from ArtReview magazine: The Power 100 (2008). /also posted at Fortissimo /

New at Voice of Dissent - Fabulous Feminist Photos From Flickr.

I've been scouring Flickr a lot lately and after seeing all of the great feminist imagery decided to do a feature here on the blog. I hope you enjoy them and feel free to reply with links to your favorites.

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We went camping on the Oregon Coast last weekend, and while it rained the entire time, Stewie had fun on the beach on the last day we were there. We've come to an agreement though: all future camping is to be done in hotels and resorts. (No Jimmi, wherever you are, no cabins.)

This is a feminism poem I created. I was getting tired of the sexist rap I would hear my boyfriend play, mine have any proffesional level, but I just wanted to do it for fun.

You have nothing to pay for

They want to push you down and make you pay.
They'll tell you to feel robbed and dirty.
Cuz that's all you'll ever be if your raped or layed.
They'll tell you to feel unpure and used like a doll.
Because a doll never stops smiling even through shit.
With fake tits and no brains.
You'll be everyone's bitch.
In this alpha male world your nothing but trash that leaves stains.
Sins and stains you'll have to clean up.
For the thirst of knowledge and freedom from a lie.
Since then your body is bad temptation, so cover up and pay up.
But when sex comes let yourself be control and open wide.
Don't speak your mind, because they say you have no mind of your own.
To them your just the second sex.
And an object and a joke they created on their own.
Now listen, here is the truth so put it to the test.
Your conditioned mind has blinded you, to not do your own best. Because the oppresive male is afraid of you being independent. In other words you won't be their slave, whore, trophy housewife, and their pornographic object.
So stand up for your own.
Never let them push you down and make you pay, because you have nothing to pay for.

Here is a short 5 minute stage play I wrote when I was bored, lonely, angry, upset, sleepy and horny. (and for the record: yes I am a playwright)

LIVING INSIDE A BOX LIKE A DIRTY WHORE
a 5 Minute Play written by Sabina England

2008

This is Stewart. He's a cuddle bug.

Reading katems's post on Fine Arts and Feminism got me thinking some more about opera and feminism. I am an aspiring opera singer, and I put my own interpretations of character into the arias I sing, as I mentioned in my comment there.

However, I've also recently discovered that I greatly enjoy composing. I'm casually working on an opera of The Scarlet Letter right now, which is not a feminist text at all but which is a rather operatic one.

So here are my two questions:

1. What operas would you consider feminist? Both generally and in ways certain roles can be interpreted.

2. What good feminist stories ought to be made into operas? I could stand to have more than one side project.
(For the record, I probably shouldn't leak this, but there's an opera of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower coming out soon.)

So says art critic Brian Sewell in the UK's Independent:

"The art market is not sexist," Mr Sewell said. "The likes of Bridget Riley and Louise Bourgeois are of the second and third rank. There has never been a first-rank woman artist.

"Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness. Women make up 50 per cent or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it's something to do with bearing children."

This, just a paragraph after name-checking Artemisia Gentilleschi, widely regarded by her male contemporaries as one of the great painters of the 17th century.

Riiight, Mr. Sewell. It has everything to do with our uteruses, and nothing to do with men being the majority of art critics, art investors, art dealers and auction house managers. Please go suck on a lead paint-filled brush.

Pieces by male artists regularly go for tens of millions of dollars. By contrast, Marlene Dumas became the most expensive living woman artist at auction 2 weeks ago when her work The Visitor sold for £3.2m at Sotheby's (roughly $6.4 million).

The Russian artist Natalia Goncharova holds the record for the most expensive female artist sold at auction, with her Les Fleurs selling for £5.5 million. Yet this pales in comparison with the £43m made by British male artist Francis Bacon's "Triptych, 1976" in May – the most expensive piece of contemporary art sold at auction to date.

Nope, no sexism in the art world. Never mind the fact that works by Mary Cassatt are dismissed for containing subject matter that is "domestic" (i.e., important to women of her time) or that Georgia O'Keefe's stunning paitings were sniffed at because they dared resemble female genitalia. Because, y'know, male-produced art never resembles male genitalia, right? Read the rest of the article <a href=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/theres-never-been-a-great-woman-artist-860865.html>here.</a> Meanwhile, I and the rest of the fabulous female artists on my blogroll will go back to making beauty in the world.

In her post "The biggest lies about sex I was ever told", Lauren made a suggestion to those of us who fancy ourselves artists: a Frankenstein flower, symbolizing that while we may give away parts of ourselves when we have sex but that our partners do too.

Well, here is my interpretation of Frankenstein's Flower.