Feminist Tribute with Sally Brown
How has creating art supported your healing journey?
Yes – I do write and create throughout everything I do and throughout my life it has always been a method of joy, mindfulness and healing. In the past two years since my divorce, writing and creating has definitely been a source for healing, focusing on the movement, the research, seeing the beauty in the moments of the lines and writing/exploring what that means through my own musings and that of other feminist artists. It’s very healing and recharging for me to view and read about other artists, as well as making my own work—both in the physical process of it, and in the outcome. It just makes me so happy.
What does it mean for you to roar? Can you share about a time you overcame feeling silenced?
To roar means to live unabashedly and confidently as me—to create and freely express myself, and to empower/uplift other women as well. I love seeing other women creating and cheering them on as well. There are so many times when I have felt silenced – throughout my professional life, creative life, personal life. It is hard to pinpoint a specific time but I will say that it is over my adulthood that I have gained more confidence in overcoming this feeling – it’s still a process – though I used to think my artwork didn’t matter because there are so many artists out there making work—then I decided I had to make it, it’s just part of me living, my life, and my perspective does matter, so I started making work again, finding my voice, and slowly, sharing it in exhibits and now of course social media, publications and more. I used to separate my art making from my other parts of my life, and in some ways I still do, but I’m much more public now about everything, even with those who don’t approve.
What prompted your art style?
I have taken self-portraits and drawn self-portraits way before the selfie; I have always been interested in how our exterior reflects, expresses and hides or guards aspects of ourselves and I explore this through myself, who I have been getting to know since I was born. Being 40, that is a pretty long time! In undergrad as a studio art major I honed in on my style of more simplified self-portraits expressing different sides of myself. I minored in art history and English and admired the expressive work of Jim Dine, portraits of Alice Neel and humor of Marcel Duchamp. I found Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto by chance at the library one day, and my feminist curiosity was solidly planted though I didn’t understand it quite yet. I quit making art for awhile after I obtained my bachelor’s in drawing as previously mentioned—but once I had my first baby, I felt it in my body I needed to create again, being a woman meant an entirely new thing and I new I had to further explore this and express myself. I began researching mother artists, women artists and feminist artists and found so many more than I had learned about in art history—women doing and thinking things that I did—how revolutionary, I wasn’t alone in my guilt or anxiety for being an artist mother. I started a blog interviewing women and mother artists, and started to find my voice, again, exploring my identity through my body and self portraiture—sometimes drawing, photography and now, using my body as brush, making body prints. Fast forward a few years, I go to grad school for art history, focus on feminist art, and continue my mission to both explore myself and honor the women/feminist artists before and around me, hence my feminist tribute series of drawings and prints. I keep them modest, raw, sometimes seemingly unfinished, to challenge the traditional notion of pristine work’s value.
What advice would you give to artist that want to pursue their craft, but don't know where to begin?
Get lost in other art. Follow as many artists you’re into that you can and art museums/galleries you admire on social media. Research, read, visit exhibits, talk to other artists. And, of course, create. Easier said than done---but just put the pencil to the pad, even if it’s just a few lines. As much as you can, make silly art – cover your eyes, or draw with your non-dominant hand. Attend virtual artist talks and programs. Support other artists and art publications. See your atmosphere in an artful way—put a frame around your surroundings and draw it. All of the things, just do it!
What is one thing you want women to know today?
Be aware and discuss women and feminist artists that paved the way for us—this isn’t easy, because their history is mostly hidden—but it’s out there, if you seek it. And the way we combat this erasure is to talk and give credit to those artists from our past and present – the more, the better. Also, be you whatever that means and celebrate other women, broadly defined.
Sally Brown is an artist, art writer, curator. She holds an MA in art history from West Virginia University where she won two awards for her thesis research. She holds a BA in Art from University Nebraska-Omaha and MPA from UN-Omaha. Deskins’ art explores womanhood, the body and motherhood in her life and others’. Her art has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions internationally; and has been published in publications such as Storm Cellar, Certain Circuits, Weave Magazine, and Painters & Poets. She has curated various solo and group exhibitions, readings and performances centered on women’s perspective and the body. Her writing has been published internationally in journals such as Hyperallergic, Feminist Wire, Bookslut and Bitch. She is founding editor of LES FEMMES FOLLES. She has published five LES FEMMES FOLLES anthologies of art, poetry and interview excerpts. Her first illustrated book Intimates & Fools, with poetry by Laura Madeline Wiseman, came out in 2014 and received Nebraska Book Honor Award for illustration and cover art in 2015. She won another Nebraska Book Award for illustrating Leaves of Absence: An Illustrated Guide to Common Garden Affections, with poetry by Laura Madeline Wiseman, published by Red Dashboard Press, January 2016. She currently serves as Exhibits Coordinator for WVU Libraries.. You can find sally on https://sallydeskins.wixsite.com/feministart, IG: @sallery_art, FB: @salleryart, TW: @sallery_art.