Beginning the Project

My grandmother was a farm girl from Arkansas. Her parents died when she was ten from yellow fever and she went to live with an aunt. She grew up and became a school teacher and married another school teacher. They had four children and he went to work for the Worthen Bank in Little Rock where he was very highly thought of. She had everything: a loving family, a beautiful home with a huge garden, dogs and cats. But at thirty-six my grandfather died of a ruptured appendicitis.

My grandmother and her four children went on. She built an apartment house that they moved to and all the kids went to good schools (my mother got a full scholarship to Barnard). But it must have taken a huge amount of inner strength to go through these experiences.

Thinking of Women's Lives

On June 5th, 2001 the day my mother died, my father had a heart attack and a stroke. While he made a good recovery and went on to live a very happy old age, he could no longer live on his own. So I gave up my apartment and moved back with him. It took an amazing amount of work to care for him, work I soon realized that was not recognized by the world. It got me thinking about how so much of what women have done for centuries has not been acknowledged.

I thought about my mother and grandmother and the things they had gone through, and began a series of portraits of women. In this body of work I pay tribute to their contributions and strength.