women Archives ~ Diary of a Smart Chick

About Me or This Blog, Mental Health

Dr(Owning) and S(Wallowing) in Depression

May 23, 2019

I originally wrote this post for Rebelle Society years ago. It remains relevant to my depression story today, so I wanted to share it again. It expresses how despite living with chronic relapses of depression over the past 25 years, I don’t always know in the beginning of each one what is going on. I think it’s something else, usually something that’s my fault, until I finally realize it’s depression again. Depression came back. It walked right in through the front door while I was busy guarding all of the windows and cracks. It ignored the sign warning that “danger, there’s a dog here to protect me”. It sidled up…

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Hello world! (Again)
September 2, 2018
Interviews

Musician Interview with Heather Schmid About Transformations

March 7, 2019

I’m continuing to dig through the archives of the old, sadly deleted, version of this blog. In doing so, I came across this musician interview with Heather Schmid. She’s a globally-minded opera singer. Back in 2016, she released an album called Transformations. I had the opportunity at the time to interview her about this album. Although this musician interview is old now, I don’t want to lose it. Therefore, I’ve decided to republish it again. I hope it’ll encourage people to take a listen to the album. Musician Interview: Heather Schmid Heather Schmid is the subject of this musician interview. If you aren’t familiar with it, then take a moment…

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Interview with Mixed Media Artist Whitney Turetzky
September 7, 2018

Interview with Feminist Embroidery Artist Maria Arseniuk
September 4, 2018

Interview with Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman
September 7, 2018
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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Interview with Weaving Artist Maryanne Moodie
September 4, 2018

Interview with Photomontage Artist Eva Lake
September 4, 2018

Interview with Weaver Meghan Bogden Shimek
September 4, 2018
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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Interview with Weaving Artist Maryanne Moodie
September 4, 2018

Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan
September 4, 2018

Interview with Mixed Media Artist Whitney Turetzky
September 7, 2018
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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Interview with Photomontage Artist Eva Lake
September 4, 2018

Interview with Weaver Meghan Bogden Shimek
September 4, 2018

Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan
September 4, 2018
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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Interview with Sumi Ink and Honey Watercolor Artist Ms. Muse
September 7, 2018

Interview with Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman
September 7, 2018

Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang
September 7, 2018
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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Interview with Weaving Artist Maryanne Moodie
September 4, 2018

Interview with Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman
September 7, 2018

Interview with Weaver Meghan Bogden Shimek
September 4, 2018
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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Interview with Director, Photographer and Activist Danielle da Silva
September 7, 2018

Interview with Photomontage Artist Eva Lake
September 4, 2018

Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang
September 7, 2018
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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Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang
September 7, 2018

Interview with Mixed Media Artist Whitney Turetzky
September 7, 2018

Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan
September 4, 2018
Fiber Art

Interview with Artist Miss Marley

September 4, 2018

Marley Myles, better known as Miss Marley, is a self-taught artist from New South Wales, Australia. Her work is inspired by fairy tales, mythology, and symbolism. She works across different mediums including hand embroidery and ink drawing. She’s always bringing a combination of whimsy and humanity to each piece she creates. In this interview, she shares: how tattoos played a role in her development as an artist what she has learned from her son and how activism and art intersect for her. On a Creative Childhood As a self-taught artist, have you ever taken art classes? I was lucky to grow up in a childhood home that was essentially a…

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Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan
September 4, 2018

Interview with Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman
September 7, 2018

Interview with Feminist Embroidery Artist Maria Arseniuk
September 4, 2018

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