Diary of a Smart Chick

Various writings from a curious mind

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  • Nancy drew illustration
    Book Review

    Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her

    September 6, 2020

    When the libraries here closed back in March (and still haven’t really re-opened) my mom sent me a bunch of books from her personal library to satisfy my reading itch. I’ve been reading much more slowly than usual but I’ve finished a few of them, including the just-finished Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak. It took me a minute to really get into it but a few chapters in I became totally immersed. Nostalgia: Nancy Drew I will always have a special place in my heart for Nancy Drew. Reading the book, it became clear that many women across multiple generations have this…

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    artist as culture producer

    Recommended Essay Reading: The Artist as Culture Producer … and Thoughts on Creative Collaboration

    August 18, 2019
    books about walking

    5 Books About Walking to Inspire as You Move through the World

    January 7, 2019
    therapist memoir unsayable

    Therapist Memoir: Annie Rogers’ Shining Affliction and Unsayable

    January 10, 2019
  • creative duo Orange Barrel Industries
    Art,  Interviews

    Creative Duo Interview: Orange Barrel Industries

    August 20, 2019

    A portion of the interview about this creative duo was originally published in Happily Hooked digital magazine.  Orange Barrel Industries is the collaborative art business of creative duo husband-and-wife printmaking team Hannah and Blake. They are a witty pair who got married in a series of art events. They share on their website, “At first, Blake thought Hannah was some kind of itchy, excitable midget and Hannah found Blake to be an uppity ascetic. It turns out, they were both right, but they learned to love each other, anyway. They bonded over their shared passions of printmaking, drawing, cooking and hard work.“ I had the opportunity awhile back to interview…

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    Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan embroidery

    Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan

    September 4, 2018

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020

    Interview with Sumi Ink and Honey Watercolor Artist Ms. Muse

    September 7, 2018
  • we shall overcome by Ellen Schinderman
    Art,  Fiber Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman

    September 7, 2018

    Ellen Schinderman is a self-taught thread artist based in Hollywood, California. She doesn’t focus on the labels of being a “feminist artist” or a “fiber artist”, preferring to just be an artist, working with thread as her medium. Nevertheless, her work offers powerful messages to and about women. Her work recontextualizes images of women, including images that may be considered pornographic. She works to remind us that women are not objects. Instead, we are thinking, feeling, amazing beings. She wants us to love who we are the way we are. Furthermore, she wants to support other women in doing the same. Those are messages she shares in her work as…

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    India photography by Danielle Da Silva

    Interview with Director, Photographer and Activist Danielle da Silva

    September 7, 2018
    anonymous woman art by eva lake

    Interview with Photomontage Artist Eva Lake

    September 4, 2018
    Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan embroidery

    Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan

    September 4, 2018
  • Needle felting artist weijue wang
    Art,  Fiber Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018

    Needle felting artist Weijue Wang is an emerging Chinese feminist artist. She was born an only female child to a family in China. Now she lives in San Francisco. Weijue is navigating different identities and bringing her personal experience into her work. She works to approach difficult topics through humor and cuteness. Her art is in done in several mediums, particularly incorporating needle felting. This choice is a direct result of her own personal experience with cosmetic surgery, a practice her work regularly comments upon. We learn more from this interview. What are your earliest memories of becoming an artist? Before I was born, my dad’s best friend bought a…

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    Mixed media artist Whitney Turetzky

    Interview with Mixed Media Artist Whitney Turetzky

    September 7, 2018
    Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan embroidery

    Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan

    September 4, 2018
    India photography by Danielle Da Silva

    Interview with Director, Photographer and Activist Danielle da Silva

    September 7, 2018
  • India photography by Danielle Da Silva
    Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Director, Photographer and Activist Danielle da Silva

    September 7, 2018

    Photographer Danielle da Silva is a multi-lingual, multi-disciplinary artist and activist. Her art includes writing, photography, and filmmaking. Moreover, she is a public speaker, the Founder and CEO of Photographers Without Borders (PWB), and Co-Founder of the Sumatran Wildlife Sanctuary. Furthermore, Danielle also serves on the board of the Dandelion Initiative, a grassroots organization run for and by trauma survivors. Although she tackles many different projects from many different angles, a single thread runs through all of her work: “communicating the extraordinary efforts of people around the world working to solve the most challenging problems.” She took some time out of her busy schedule to inspire us with this interview: The artist…

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    Related Posts

    Interview with Sumi Ink and Honey Watercolor Artist Ms. Muse

    September 7, 2018

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020
    screenplay readers

    How to Become a Reader for Screenplays (A Class I Just Took Online)

    August 15, 2020
  • Mixed media artist Whitney Turetzky
    Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Mixed Media Artist Whitney Turetzky

    September 7, 2018

    Whitney Turetzky is a self-taught visual artist whose mixed media work combines vintage photography, textiles and other ephemera with color block painting. Her pieces evoke powerful emotional responses while honoring common women of past and present. In this interview, she shares what makes this feminist work as well as how her art helps her pass on strong views of womanhood to her young daughter. Journey of a Mixed Media Artist Can you tell us a little bit about your journey to becoming an artist (and claiming that title, which can often be hard for people)? I have always been a maker, but I didn’t always call myself an artist. About…

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    Related Posts

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020
    Needle felting artist weijue wang

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018
    creative duo Orange Barrel Industries

    Creative Duo Interview: Orange Barrel Industries

    August 20, 2019
  • Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Sumi Ink and Honey Watercolor Artist Ms. Muse

    September 7, 2018

    Ms. Muse is a San Francisco artist who works in the unique mediums of Japanese Sumi ink and honey-based watercolor. She uses these mediums to paint “unapologetically girly” women who are “both attractive and thought-provoking”, using a “style reminiscent of twenty-first century French comic book illustration” and inspired by Modern Impressionism to “capture the free spirit and rainbow palette of San Francisco”. This interview shares more about her magical work with the female form. When did you become an artist? Art is something that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a child, I had notebooks filled with drawings of different faces.…

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    Needle felting artist weijue wang

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018

    Interview with Weaver Meghan Bogden Shimek

    September 4, 2018
    Maryanne Moodie weaving

    Interview with Weaving Artist Maryanne Moodie

    September 4, 2018
  • Threadwinners artist team
    Fiber Art,  Interviews

    Interview With Crochet Artists Alyssa and Liz of Threadwinners

    September 4, 2018

    This interview was first published by Fempotential in early 2017. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to work with these great women in a number of ways. I’m thrilled to re-share this original article here. Threadwinners is a collaborative crochet art team based in Southern California. It’s made up of two awesome women: Alyssa Arney and Liz Flynn. They each took their own journeys to identifying as artists. They found their way to fiber art on their own. However, their visions really came to life when they joined up as a team. Together they: work to fight against patriarchy and the status quo by using art forms traditionally considered “interior /…

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    Related Posts

    Needle felting artist weijue wang

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018
    artist miss marley with embroidery

    Interview with Artist Miss Marley

    September 4, 2018
    we shall overcome by Ellen Schinderman

    Interview with Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman

    September 7, 2018
  • Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan embroidery
    Art,  Fiber Art

    Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan

    September 4, 2018

    Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan is a queer embroidery artist whose graduate studies emphasize visual and material culture. She is a mother in New Haven, Connecticut. In this beautiful interview she shares in her own words about: how art intersects with feminism and activism her stitch-a-day project that is a personal effort to embrace the feeling of “too muchness” she’s been accused of us a queer woman insight into the long-lasting potential of material objects as cultural symbols. About Crafting When and how did you learn embroidery? For Christmas 2014, my ex-girlfriend put a tiny “subversive cross stitch” kit in my stocking. I made the piece that January (2015), and was immediately…

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    Related Posts

    Mixed media artist Whitney Turetzky

    Interview with Mixed Media Artist Whitney Turetzky

    September 7, 2018
    we shall overcome by Ellen Schinderman

    Interview with Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman

    September 7, 2018
    Needle felting artist weijue wang

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018
  • anonymous woman art by eva lake
    Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Photomontage Artist Eva Lake

    September 4, 2018

    Eva Lake is a multi-media artist who began making punk art zines and installations in the 1970s. She has been exhibiting her work in various forums for more than 30 years. Over the years she has worked: in the makeup and fashion industry as an art interviewer for radio as a writer working on art features singing in post-punk bands and New York musicals as an exhibition curator This was all while making her own visual art. Her art, primarily in photomontage, explores themes of women and their shared narratives. On Being An Artist Becoming an Artist I didn’t really make a decision to be an artist. It was always…

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    Related Posts

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020

    Interview with Sumi Ink and Honey Watercolor Artist Ms. Muse

    September 7, 2018
    Maryanne Moodie weaving

    Interview with Weaving Artist Maryanne Moodie

    September 4, 2018
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