1.
I paint because I am a woman.
(It’s a logical necessity.)
If painting is female and insanity is a female malady, then all women painters are mad and all male painters are women.
2.
I paint because I am an artificial blonde woman.
(Brunettes have no excuse.)
If all good painting is about color then bad painting is about having the wrong color. But bad things can be good excuses. As Sharon Stone said, Being blonde is a great excuse. When you’re having a bad day you can say, I can’t help it I’m just feeling very blonde today.
3.
I paint because I am a country girl.
(Clever, talented, big-city girls don’t paint.)
I grew up on a wine farm in Southern Africa. When I was a child I drew bikini girls for guests on the back of their cigarette packs. Now I’m a mother and I live in another place that reminds me a lot of a farm-Amsterdam. (It’s a good place for painters.) Come to think of it I’m still busy with those types of images and imagination.
4.
I paint because I’m a religious woman.
(I believe in eternity.)
Painting doesn’t freeze time it circulates and recycles time like a wheel that turns. Those who were first might well be last. Painting is a very slow art. It doesn’t travel with the speed of light.
That is why dead painters shine so bright.
It’s ok to be the second sex.
It’s ok to be the second best.
Painting is not a progressive activity.
5.
I paint because I am an old-fashioned woman.
(I believe in witchcraft.)
I don’t have Freudian hang-ups. A brush does not remind me of a phallic symbol. If anything, the domestic aspect of a painter’s studio (being locked up in a room) reminds me a bit of a housewife with her broom. If you’re a witch you will still know how to use it. Otherwise it’s obvious you’ll prefer the vacuum cleaner.
6.
I paint because I am a dirty woman.
(Painting is messy business.)
It can never be a pure conceptual medium. The more conceptual or cleaner the art, the more the head can be separated from the body, and the more the labor can be done by others. Painting is the only manual labor I do.
7.
I paint because I like to be bought and sold.
Painting is about the trace of the human touch. It is about the skin of a surface. A painting is not a postcard. The content of the painting cannot be separated from the feel of its surface. Therefore, in spite of everything, Cezanne is more than vegetation and Picasso is more than an anus and Matisse is not a pimp.
Emma
Katyslany
Salastia 