It’s been a while since I have posted a Celebration of Female Artists. Currently I am working on a deadline for my publisher. (Doesn’t that sound grand!) While I work on that, please enjoy these lesser known women artists!
(Many are playful, I see now.)
Alice Beasley, California-based, self-taught quilter, has been making portraits of people and objects for over 30 years. Fabric is her chosen medium of expression. She relies on finding color, line, and texture in the print of commercial fabric and thread or in fabrics that she prints herself. Beasley works directly — gradually building a composition in the same manner as a painter working on a canvas — cutting all pieces freehand from fabric and then machine appliquéing them.
Marcia Hodges was a woman’s health nurse practitioner, now retired and painting full time. “I am open to the paint telling the story. I am truly thankful when someone gives my art a home. My desire is that something I paint might touch something in your soul.”
Brooke DiDonato, American photographer (b. 1990), was born and raised in Ohio, now based in New York City. She graduated with a degree in photojournalism from Kent State University in 2012. She is known for her surrealist style which combines elements of nature with portraits. Her abstract concepts combined with real world elements allow for a unique style which showcases both her concepts and eye. Her work explores the complexity of human cognition, and what happens when psychological anomalies manifest in reality.
Erin Hanson is an Oregon-based artist, considered to be the originator of painting style called “Open Impressionism,” a style of painting that encompasses wide brush strokes and an alla prima technique, where the paint is applied wet on wet without letting earlier layers dry. Her first encounter with the van Gogh painting, Irises, in elementary school marked the beginning of her appreciation for Impressionism. Hanson’s paintings depict the natural beauty of America and the world, but her roots are in the American West. Her landscape paintings have been shown internationally and at solo and group exhibitions and museums worldwide.
June Valentine Ruppe, a self-taught artist, was born and raised in California. For more than 30 years, June illustrated over 120 children’s books for the likes of Disney, Scholastic, and Golden Books, but “For many years now I have devoted myself to creating my own original artwork.” June paints women almost exclusively: “I enjoy showing all facets and types of women. They can be sentimental, strong, whimsical, edgy, quirky, or sophisticated. One size does not fit all. Plus, there is much more to work with—expressions, hair styles, makeup (the more the better), fashion, etc.—which makes it more fun and interesting.”
Lisa Aisato was born in Kolbotn, Norway. She made her picture book debut in 2008. Her book Odd er et egg was basis for the animated short film, Odd is an Egg, which won a prize for “Best animated short” at the Tribeca FIlm Festival in 2017.
Marla Faith is a Chicago native with a BFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MS in Museum Leadership from Bank Street College in NYC. “I have been in love with color and creating for over 40 years. Each work is a meditation. For a long time, I have been guided by [Indian spiritual advisor] Meher Baba’s words: To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing, in the world of forms, truth, love, purity and beauty — this is the sole game which has any intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents and attainments in themselves can have no lasting importance.”
and finally,
Sylvie Facon is known throughout the world as the designer who tells stories with her dresses. Self-taught, this French-born fashion designer creates magnificent, strange and beautiful dresses, unique and magical. Her multifaceted inspiration is drawn in part from her home city. She is capable of imagining anything and then translating it into delicate fabrics resulting in haute couture dresses. Books, violins, trees, cities or landscapes. Many times strange materials like the spines of old books, porcelain, straw or music scores are part of her amazing designs. The artist always seeks to highlight the woman’s silhouette. During her career, she has designed more than 1000 dresses. Today, she is much sought after to stage catwalk shows and exhibitions.
