My Favorite Feminists

We're back! In the first episode of season 4, Milena & Megan cover Danish seismologist, geophysicist & 'the master of a black art' Inge Lehmann (1888 - 1993) & Ukrainian national treasure, painter Maria Prymachenko (1909 - 1997)

In this end of season episode Milena & Megan cover Brazilian educator, activist and ceramic artist Celeida Tostes (1929 – 1995) & Native American archaeologist Bertha Parker (1907–1978)

Celeida Tostes

One thing you’ll learn today about Megan that you didn’t need to know, is that as a ceramic artist there are times she wants to cover herself in clay. Well, today we’re talking about an artist that did just that. While Megan is driven by the primal urge to become one with the earth, today we learn the rich symbolism that prompted Brazilian artist Celeida Tostes to create her most iconic work – the 1979 performance piece Passage. This piece is only once of many artworks this prolific artist created in her decades long career. Today we cover key points of Celeida’s work – why she covered herself in clay, the community work she did in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas and her creative investigation of ovenbird nests. This episode is informative as always with a little TMI thrown into the mix.

Selected Work

Passagem (Passage) performance from 1979. Photographed by Raquel Silva

Wanna know more? Always a book for that (usually) (or article)

Celeida Tostes by editors Marcus de Lontra Costa & Raquel Silva. Available to read for free, this is a great collection of essays in both Portuguese and English

Bertha Parker

Keeping our earth theme going, today Milena brings us the first Native American woman archaeologist Bertha Parker. Working as a self taught scientist, Bertha contributed to our understanding of ancient people (and giant sloths) here in North America. In her 71 years, Betha work encompasses both the dig sites and silver screen. Today Milena shares how this woman from NY state ended up on the West coast documenting the history of native peoples, cohosting her own tv show and advising

In this Halloween mini episode, Milena & Megan cover the woman most likely responsible for developing Spirit Photography, professional clairvoyant physician Hannah Frances Green (1833 – 1812)

Hannah Frances Green

In this special Halloween mini episode we get spooky with a non artist or scientist, covering instead a Mesmeric Physician aka a professional clairvoyant physician Hannah Frances Green. While in a way she did contribute to the artform of photography in the 1860’s, today we focus on the Victorian obsession with death and how that manifested into a form of portraiture with haunting results. Grab some Halloween candy and get cozy as Milena & Megan cover how these photos were staged, where a professional circus man draws the line and how we really should hate the game, not the player. Happy Halloween everyone!

Spirit Photography Examples

Approximately 1865 photo attributed to H.F. Stuart aka Hannah (?)

Various Spirit photos attributed to William Mumler

Photo by William Mumler of Mary Todd Lincoln with the apparition of her husband Abraham Lincoln

Wanna know more? Always a book for that (usually) (or article)

Celeida Tostes by editors Marcus de Lontra Costa & Raquel Silva. Available to read for free, this is a great collection of essays in both Portuguese and English

As always, music by EeL

Today Milena & Megan cover American aerospace engineer Judith Love Cohen & 20th century Argentinian paper artist Ligia Montoya

Judith Love Cohen

Judith pictured with the Atlas-Able satellite she worked on, 1959

Every now and again Milena covers a person that makes you think ‘Gee, what was I doing when I was their age?’ That’s the case on a few occasions with aerospace engineer, author and occasional dancer Judith Love Cohen. Today Milena profiles how this engineer was one of the few, if only, women in her science programs, the importance of equal representation in careers, and how to pass the time while giving birth (spoiler: solving a math problem).

Ligia Montoya

Crop from cover of Paper Life: The Story of Ligia Montoya by Laura Rozenberg

Today Megan covers our first paper artist, Ligia Montoya. Looking to find an escape from from the ever-depressing news cycle, we jump into the niche community of paperfolding AKA origami. What we expected to find: carefully crafted objects, inventive use of technique & solitary hours devoted to the artformWhat we didn’t expect to find: suicide, unrequited love & professional smack talk

Megan give us the details on the life of this quiet Argentinian artist who would have been forgotten if not for the work of paper enthusiast Laura Rozenberg, who wrote Paper Life: The Story of Ligia Montoya. Much thanks to Laura, who has written the most extensive English language biography of Ligia to date.

Selected Work

Examples of Ligia’s flower designs, instructions to make them can be found HERE

Assortment of designs by Ligia. Most of her paperart was created from small pieces of airmail paper from the post office

As always, music by EeL

Milena & Megan cover African American octogenarian abstract painter Alma Thomas (1891–1978) and Spanish marine biologist María de los Ángeles Alvariño González (1916-2005)

Alma Thomas

© Michael Fischer, 1976; Courtesy of National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Alma Thomas was an artist who didn’t subscribe to the idea that she was ‘too old’ to be making work. Born in 1891, from a young age her parents supported their daughter and her sisters despite the severe racial discrimination of their rural Georgia hometown. Moving to Washington D.C in order to provide a better life for them, Alma took to the expanded educational opportunities – becoming an artist and educator in the capital city.

Today Megan covers Alma’s path as a teacher and artist, discrimination in the Art World and how after Alma’s retirement her career really took off. Alma is yet another artist that proves that even going into your 60’s it’s possible enjoy a creative career. Next time you think ‘I’m to old for ___’ – think again.

Selected Work

Example of Alma’s early abstract work. Bright colors and crisp brushwork are characteristic of her initial exploration of abstract painting.

Another early example of Alma’s abstract work. This is her 1970 piece The Eclipse

Examples of Alma’s later paintings done in a more muted style. Left, 1973 work Arboretum Presents White Dogwood. Right, 1972  Dogwood Display II. Both acrylic on canvas

Largest painting Alma ever did, 1976 work Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music. About 4 x 13 feet in dimension.

María de los Ángeles Alvariño González

Today’s episode is inadvertently sponsored by SpongeBob. Milena covers Spanish research biologist, oceanographer, scientific historian, discoverer of over 20 types of marine species and all around expert of plankton, María de los Ángeles Alvariño González. While technically she studied the type of plankton featured in the cartoon show SpongeBob, Milena shares the numerous types of plankton out there – and they range from ‘oh that’s cute’ to utterly terrifying.

As funny looking as plankton maybe, María helped establish their importance within an ocean’s ecosystem while asserting her place as a woman scientist. This episode we learn how humans would be dead without them, the importance of learning a second language and how having a woman on a boat will not actually bring out the end times.

As always, music by EeL

Today Milena & Megan cover British aeronautical engineer & motorcycle badass Beatrice Shilling (1909-1990) & financially savvy Dutch-Belgian animal painter Henriëtte Ronner-Knip (1821-1909)

Beatrice Shilling

There are times that hands down, Milena covers the cooler person in an episode. Now that’s not to say that Megan’s artist isn’t pretty neat – she’s just not an engineering PhD and an award winning motorcycle racer. Today Milena gives us the details on the amazing life of Beatrice who is best known for her WWII solution to the British Royal Air Force’s fighter planes engine problem. Milena profiles the impact of women mentoring young women in STEM, how fast Beatrice could go on a Norton M30 motorcycle and the sexist backlash when a woman solves a man’s problem.

Henriëtte Ronner-Knip

Megan will be the first to admit that the artwork of 19th century romantic painter Henriëtte Ronner–Knip is not feminist. Sure, the content is cute and adorable and commercially successful – but feminist? No. Now how Henriëtte developed her painting career and finances? Feminist AF. Today Megan profiles this prolific and commercially savvy painter, who saw an chance to capitalize on a niche and did just that. While painting stereotypical ‘women’s work’, Henriëtte subverted the expected role of a woman artist. Megan explores what contributed to Henriëtte’s artistic and financial independence, the tradition of passing on a trade within the family and how royalty will pay big money for paintings of their little pets.

Selected Wor

Look at all these silly kitties getting up to no good

Henriëtte’s 1876 watercolor on paper The dogs of Marie-Henriette, the Queen of Belgium

No painting of Megan’s will ever be as cute as this 1890’s oil on panel, Kitten with a ball of wool

As always, music by EeL

Today Milena & Megan cover Nobel prize winner radiochemist Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956) & Polish sculptor and Holocaust survivor Alina Szapocznikow (1926–1973)

Alina Szapocznikow

Every now and again Megan comes across a piece of artwork and instantly needs to know more. That was the case after seeing Alina Szapocznikow’s 1968 stone sculpture Big Bellies. Today for our 50th episode Megan gets self-indulgent covering this figurative Polish sculptor. While her artwork is amazing, Alina’s life itself is not the most pleasant. Topics we cover in her biography? Cancer, tuberculosis, Nazis and infertility. By far, not one of our feel-good episodes but one in which Megan fangirls over the curiously abstracted figurative work of this under appreciated 20th century artist.

Hands down this is one of Megan’s favorite pieces of artwork to date – Alina’s 1968 stone sculpture Big Bellies

Early work from the 1960’s, prior to Alina experimenting with mixed media. Left, a ceramic face jug. Right, stone and cast plaster Double Self Portrait

Selection of work from Alina’s mid 1960’s series of ​Illuminated Lips lamps, breast forms were incorporated in the late 60’s

1969 work Motherhood, pigmented polyester resin, photographs, gauze

Alina pictured left with her first husband Ryszard Stanisławski and baby Piotr in 1952. Right, Alina and Piotr in the late 1950’s

* Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw – Has an amazing photographic collection of not only Alina’s artwork, but personal, candid photos as well * Socialist Realist art – Art style propagating idealized depictions of Soviet life* Poland’s post-WWII ‘thaw’ period – Period after Stalin’s 1953 death when Poland started gradually distancing itself from the USSR’s communist rule * You can read Amy Chmielewski’s essay Alina Szapocznikow: and her sculpture of plastic impermanence HERE* You can watch scholar Griselda Pollock’s talk Too Early and Too Late: The Sculptural Dissolutions of Alina Szapocznikow In and Out of Time HERE, part of the 2012 exhibition Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture, Undone, 1955–1972, at The Museum of Modern Art, New York and at The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles* Read about the LGBTQIA “free” Polish towns HERE

Wanna know more? Always a book for that (usually) (or article)

Celeida Tostes by editors Marcus de Lontra Costa & Raquel Silva. Available to read for free,

Today Milena and Megan cover the first professional woman astronomer, Caroline Herschel (1750-1838) & queer, communist painter, the one, the only, Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954)

Caroline Herschel

Sometimes with the people we cover, everything works out in the end. They’re appreciated in their lifetime, credited with their ground breaking work and most importantly, no one dies of tuberculosis. That’s the case with the first Western professional woman astronomer, Caroline Herschel. Today Milena covers this 18th century scientist, revealing the impact of family relationships, just what the hell a comet actually is and most importantly, how to humble brag like a pro.

Frida Kahlo

There are some artists that just about everyone can name – Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is one of them. But how much do people actually know about the 20th century Magical Realist artist? On Megan’s end, turns out she didn’t know a lot. Megan corrects that today by exploring the biography of one of the leading modern feminist artists. Along the way we cover the heteronormative whitewashing that’s taken place, stripping Frida of her agency as a queer, disabled, communist artist.

Selected Works

Painted corset of Frida’s, showing not only a much desired child but featuring the iconic symbolism of her political ideology, Communism

1946 work The Wounded Deer, capturing Frida’s long term pain from an accident years prior

1932 painting Henry Ford Hospital (the flying bed) depicting Frida’s miscarriage while her and Diego were living in Detroit

Wedding portrait Frida painted not long after getting married in 1929 at the age of 22 (Diego being 20 years her senior)

Diego being creepy AF

Wanna know more? Always a book for that (usually) (or article)

Celeida Tostes by editors Marcus de Lontra Costa & Raquel Silva. Available to read for free, this is a great collection of essays in both Portuguese and English

As always, music by EeL

Today Milena and Megan cover Croatian deaf watercolorist Slava Raškaj (1877 – 1906) & British paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey (1913 – 1996) who helped to publicly bolster the idea of evolution

Slava Raškaj

We’re gonna be honest – today is a case were our artist dies young and then gains recognition after the fact. This episode Megan covers the greatest 19th century watercolor artist that you’ve never heard of, Slava Raškaj. Born when Croatia was still under Austro-Hungarian Empire rule, Slava became the leading watercolor artist of her day. Born deaf, Slava defied the notion of a deaf person being ‘deaf and dumb’. Through her watercolors Slava documented life in late 1890’s middle class Croatia. While conventional by todays standards (and honestly late 19th century standards as well), these works showcase the skills of an artist that passed away too early.

Selected Works

Still life work, A Yellow Cock and White Hen, watercolor

 1899 watercolor work, Water Lilies

Another watercolor from Slava’s waterlilies series – these paintings of waterlilies are some of her most well known work

Commemorative coin of Slava released by theCroatian National Bank in 2000

* Vlaho Bukovac – Butthole artist that refused to train a woman artist, let alone a deaf one. Leading Croatian painter of the day* Bela Čikoš Sesija – Not butthole artist that professionally supported Slava * Read the thesis paper we mentioned here: Jamie Lovley, University of Maine Women’s Mental Health in the 19th Century: An Analysis of Sociocultural Factors Contributing to Oppression of Women as Communicated by Influential Female Authors of the Time

Mary Leakey

Mary Leakey was one of countless Britons exploring the work in the name of science. Having experienced archeology firsthand as a young teenage, Mary pursued her interest in history by devoting her career to the exploration of prehistoric humans. Working with her husband and fellow researcher Louis Leakey, together they made numerous findings in documenting the time of mankind’s evolution as well as supporting other scientists like Jane Goodall. A respected scientist in her own right, in 2013 Mary was honored as one of six ‘Great Britons’ by the Royal Mail.

As always, music by EeL

.

Today Milena and Megan cover Japanese American painter and graphic novelist Miné Okubo (1912-2001) & Italian physicist Dr. Laura Bassi (1711 – 1778), who was the world’s first woman university professor

Miné Okubo 

Fact is, the racism we’re seeing today towards Asian American and Pacific Islanders is nothing new. Stemming from decades of systemic racism, today we explore one historical event that fed into that oppression – the WWII internment of Japanese Americans. We do this through the first hand account of painter and illustrator Miné Okubo in her graphic novel Citizen 13660. This book documenting what life was like in an internment camp is her most well known work – but not her only creative work. Today Megan covers the impact of this publication, the difficulties Miné faced within the Art World and how racism may be contributing to a lack of widespread appreciation for Miné’s artwork today.

Selected Works

Selected images from Miné’s 1946 publication Citizen 13660

Selected Paintings, Lesser Known Work

Blue Girl with Cat, undatedGreen Nude in Pink Hat, 1975

Pink Girl with Hat and Vase, 1975Purple Woman with Flowers, 1980

* Executive Order 9066 – Signed by President Roosevelt in February of 1942, initiated the forced internment of Japanese Americans and Japanese residents* Japanese American Internment – Forced internment of over 120,000 people to “Relocation Centers” in rural America during WWII, including Ruth’s family* Federal Art Project – Program run under the Works Progress Administration to employ artists, started during the depression era * Diego Rivera – Mexican mural artist whom Miné worked with prior to WWII. Along with David Siqueiros and Jose Orozco was part of Los Tres Grandes * Citizen 13660 – Autobiographical graphic novel chronicling Miné experience living as an interned Japanese American during WWII* Book Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America by historian Mae Ngai* Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians – 1983 Congressional commission that lead to the 1988 formal apology by the US government for the WWII internment of Japanese Americans

Wanna know more? Always a book for that (usually) (or article)