Exhibition: A Room of One's Own

A review of Shakespeare's Sisters: Voices of English and European Women Writers, 1500-1700 exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library caught my eye this morning, especially as I haven't always had a "room of my own."

Zoe Hecht © 2002

The above collage is one I did for a project entitled, "Under-represented Women in the Arts" and which was featured in an article I wrote for "Artitude" a zine, no longer published, in their #8 issue, Spring 2003.   The project was a collaboration with several other familiar and unfamiliar names, like Lani Kyea and Sarah Fishburn, Sharon Watson and Jennifer Swansen. All of us belonged to an online artist group, also now defunct.  Although now that I recall, Lani wasn't a member, but a friend, and I invited her to join us when I was visiting Taos (NM) that summer.

For about 2 years we exchanged altered books about women in all fields of the creative arts.  While many of those women had name recognition, few had garnered the reputation of their male counterparts.  It is not a room we lack, but equality in ball game jargon "of a level playing field."

We may have jobs, careers, full lives and rooms of our own, but we still don't have equality.