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WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH: SINEJAN AND KATIE
MARCH 23, 2020
Numbers are not everything...but they are something.
- Curina was founded by a female entrepreneur.
- More than half of our team members are women, and each from a different country.
- Out of our 33 member artists, 26 are women.
But the paintings from our 26 women artists all look radically different.
Because being a woman is not just one thing, but a collection of different experiences at the intersection of culture, history, and your relationship with traditionally “femme” traits. We are truly lucky to be living in an age when gender and sexuality is appreciated as one of many fluid categories that shape us.
To celebrate this diversity, we interviewed some of our artists about their take on what it’s like to be a woman in the art world.
Q. Who are/is the most influential woman/women in your life?
A. The first person who came to my mind is the Ukrainian activist Oksana Shachko.
She was the co-founder of Femen, a feminist group I became familiar with in my early 20's.
One might argue with some of their rhetoric, such as them being not sensible, or secular, but I think it is crucial to underline their effort in fighting off the patriarchy in the early 2000's. I didn't have a chance to get to know Oksana personally, she died mysteriously in 2018, but when thinking about this question, her name sprang to mind right away, and I chose her as a small way to pay homage to her and perhaps introduce her to those who are unaware.
Q. What does it mean to be a woman to you?
A. I would share my friend’s explanation of a particular word, which made me pause to confirm my gender oriented struggles in the past. She has recently shared her definition of "feisty" as "The way in which a woman who tirelessly defends a decision or opinion she strongly believes in is described as due to unconscious gender bias". I thought this was brilliant as it summarizes the hardship of constantly trying to fight off ongoing gender labeling.
Q. How has being a woman affected your creative journey?
A. I'm not sure if identifying myself as a woman affected my practice. I would say changing the locations, being an immigrant and/or emigre artist has affected my ways of thinking and making art in far more profound and distinct ways than merely being a female.
Q. Who are/is the most influential woman/women in your life?
A. Luckily, I've had a number of influential women in my life starting with my grandmothers who shaped my interest in art and taught me how to work with my hands from an early age. Mentors all along the way like, Khalilah Sabree, Chantal Cartier, Hanneline Røgeberg, Barbara Madsen, and Ardele Lister undoubtedly showed me how to cultivate and sustain a creative life.
These days I look for inspiration and guidance from a fierce network of peers whose passion for creating is wonderfully generative.
Q. What does it mean to be a woman to you?
A. I feel as though I just recently crossed over the threshold into "womanhood" physiologically, mentally, and spiritually; so I'm kind of new here haha! At the very least I think I'm the woman I envisioned growing up to be which is pretty cool. My experience as a woman and how I actualize myself changes constantly.
I wear so many different hats any given day that the ability to be flexible, responsible, and an effective communicator is what defines personhood, as well as womanhood to me.
Q. How has being a woman affected your creative journey?
A. I used to host panel discussions on this exact topic attempting to unpack and compare pathways and others' lived experiences. I remember feeling push back, barriers, limitations tied to my gender which really boggled my mind especially as a younger artist.
Maintaining a career in the arts is a slippery thing to begin with. I've learned to simply trust my instincts and rely upon them to serve as my compass.
