Hand-sculpted glazed-clay wall hanging, Linda’s Angel, by Tammy Vitale of Tam’s Originals.

Linda’s Angel is a cast, larger tile piece.  The original went to that Linda of yesterday’s post for Solstice 05.  This has proved to be a popular tile when I can get it to work.  The casting has a weak spot across the neck and I lose as many as I get to final sales stage.  Nevertheless, I like it because it was a new style and size for my cast work.  It retails for $50.

ArtDaily.com reports today on a new exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum:  "The ‘F" Word."  Curious, I pulled up the article.  You know, Andy Warhol, "F" word…hmmm.  Okay, maybe it’s only my mind that’s in the gutter.  The show is about women artists and is an intergenerational group – "from women who led the first charge of feminist art in the 1960s and 1970s, to those just emerging on the international scene – each see art as a means to upend and unsettle mainstream ideologies and dominant stereotypes. Some vocalize dissent and others advocate alternatives in relation to expressing individuality, redressing imbalances, encouraging empathy, and broadening definitions. In turn, the work in The “F” Word challenges and examines the connotations embedded in words such as “feminism,” “feminine,” “female” and other labels often affixed to art made by women. "

Oh, of course!  the "F" word.  Nice mixing of gender, which I’ve been discussing here and at myspace, and art which is a main component of this space but hasn’t been much discussed lately.

Speaking of gender, here’s an article from a Canadian on-liner, Macleans.ca, that claims the new gender "wars" are hardly over the glass ceiling.  They are being fought on the "homefront" over household chores and child-rearing responsibilities: Karen Zagor (May 26,06), The Chore Wars:

"Eleanor’s husband, Paul, rarely watches Trailer Park Boys, so he takes full credit for coming up with the brilliant idea of taking their injured nine-year-old daughter to a vet. "Raven came back from the park weeping," says Eleanor, a Toronto landscape designer and mother of four. "She’d hit her arm on a metal bar." So Eleanor, who was expecting nine children for a birthday party, called her husband home from work and instructed him to take Raven to the hospital. "After the movie I called to check in. He said: ‘Oh. It’s fine. I took her to Anastasia [the neighbourhood vet — not her real name]. She examined her arm and said there was no break.’"

When Eleanor returned, Paul was sitting on the deck, contentedly drinking a beer. "It saved an awful lot of time and I’d been working all day," he says. "I was not looking forward to sitting in a hospital waiting room. And neither was Raven." While Paul’s decision was perfectly rational — children and dogs are not so different when it comes to their tendons and bones — it also illustrates a sore point among men and women: when fathers are involved in child care, they do things differently.

Zagor continues:  "[Joshua] Coleman [The Lazy Husband:  How To Get Men To Do More Parenting and Housework] …writes,  [husbands] need incentives, and nothing is more likely to motivate a man than the prospect of sexual favours. He [Coleman] does not elaborate on what would be a suitable reward for women; presumably, their pleasure in a gleaming home is satisfaction enough."

Ah, ladies, we have come so far and it is only a baby step.

Linda update:  She is in good spirits, is eating broth, and was up walking around twice yesterday.  Go Gay-Gay!

Thought for the Day:  "Dealers claim a share of an artist’s studio sale of work to a customer whom the dealer may naver have seen, arguing that the artist’s affiliation with their gallery legitimizes the art’s standing in the market.  Thus the gallery’s general support of the artist is claimed as a reimbursable factor in every sale.  Similarly, designers ask a share of the dealer’s sale to a client, even though the designer may never have set foot in the gallery, and, the dealer suspects, never have seen the artwork before the sale.  The designer’s aesthetic approval of the work’s presence in the client’s home is claimed as reimbursable."  Stuart Plattner, High Art Down Home:  An Economic Ethnograpy of a Locl Art Market

Let’s see, that leaves maybe 30% of the price for the artist……