Kate and Louise
Sun 9.25.22
Louise Nevelson was raised in Rockland, Maine where I presently reside and to which I intend to make my home if Spirit approves. On Friday, the Farnsworth Art Museum opened an exhibition of some of Louise Nevelson’s work. I knew of her art in New York because my mentor, Kate Millett, once asked me to name three female sculptors; I could not, save for Judy Chicago and her “Dinner Party.” So I began to pay closer attention.
Per Wikipedia, Louise Nevelson was born Leah Berliawsky in 1899 in Pereiaslav, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire, which today is Kyiv in Ukraine. The family moved to Rockland when Louise was 6. She was thunderstruck at 9 when seeing a plaster cast of Joan of Arc at the Rockland Public Library. From that time till the day she died, Louise devoted herself to creating art. She married rich which pleased her family. The man moved her to New York City where she wanted to be. There she began to study painting, drawing, singing, acting and dancing. Of her in-laws she said, "My husband's family was terribly refined. Within that circle you could know Beethoven, but God forbid if you were Beethoven."
She apprenticed herself to the top artists of the world to understand and appreciate their particular perspectives. She was, yes, a great artist. The Farnsworth is lucky that she chose to leave this art for their safekeeping. This is the first serious art that I’ve seen since leaving NYC. It is an arrow straight to the heart and I am overcome. Such that it physically hurts my heart. Since coming back to Maine, I haven’t fostered those seeking spiritual guidance. This is a method by which one seeks, with the help of an adept, like myself, to see what’s beyond the made up world we live in, how to explain it, to understand on a deeper level and how to resolve its conumdrums. And for the adept? One needs to talk the talk, and at a reading, unless dealing with a fool, people will tell you the most astounding things because I have helped to open the door and we are exposed to another world with its own truths. All serious artists have psychic ability. That’s what their work is communicating. Being an artist is a lifelong commitment. It isn’t a choice; it is a fact.
For a long time I have felt estranged from my art, which for me is the written word and connecting with individuals through my psychic work. I was in a number of lawsuits all connected to the same two corporations. My dream about gardens explained to me that flower gardens are beautiful, intuitive pieces of art, and vegetable gardens in their structured arrangements, teach me about form and structure and how to use them to best advantage. The legal work was my vegetable garden and there was much to learn there. I have not been wasting my time in court. The law is so structured because there is no other way arrive at a “truth” and hopefully achieve justice, the mean, balance. Below, you will find some quotes from my mentor and great friend Kate Millett, who was a world renowned writer, a sculptor, feminist. The image of her on the cover of Time was created by the painter Alice Neel from a photograph. Her book Sexual Politics had just been published and she’d become Time’s person of the year for it. below are some of the quotes:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/150588.Kate_Millett
I chose the photo of Nevelson up top because it is a formally posed, i.e. she gave some thought to the message she was trying to convey to the public. The one below next to Kate’s is of her in one of her many ateliers. Both she and Kate were if the school of Found Object Art and used what they found to create their work. Below you can see some of her creations. She considered her person as a piece of art; the woman liked to wear dramatic dresses, scarves and exotic makeup. When Alice Neel, the artist who painted Kate’s likeness for Time Magazine asked Nevelson how she dressed so beautifully, Nevelson replied "Fucking, dear, fucking", in reference to her sexually liberated lifestyle.
To be a true artist, one cannot be encumbered by “the man.” She has to take her own direction, acknowledge her own appetites. Women are not more beautiful than men, yet there are hardly any nude paintings of men. In this way women become the “object” of desire, not the actor.
