Final Draft: Discovering Identity Through Art

Discovering Identity Through Art

College is often discussed as a time of self-discovery and reinvention.  When I came to college I wanted to be a photographer. I entered the College of Fine Arts not realizing how little I knew about the art world and how extensive it was. After a couple of years in college, I started to grasp what this idea of being an artist was really about, to me at least. Recently I’ve come to the realization that being an artist can mean different things to different people. Especially when you are a female artist. The label female artist has become a defining feature of my identity and has had different connotations attached to it by different people. The experiences, influences, and ideas that I have encountered while being a female art student transitioning into a practicing artist has shaped my identity in ways that have and will continue to influence the way I see myself and the world around me.

Image Taken From Google Images 
Where are all the women?

To understand how the art world functions now and how it has shaped my view of the art world, it is necessary to travel back and explore the development of art history. Throughout history, women’s roles in art have not been significantly noted for several reasons. Females have always participated in the art world, whether as working artists, art critics, art collectors, etc. Despite their contributions, white males have always dominated the art world and their influence caused the female presence to be nonexistent.  Female art was considered a “craft”, a lesser version of what males created. This is due in part to gender roles created by society and the type of art that women created. The themes or topics that women create and discuss are not as relatable to males and therefore are considered inferior or non-existent. The presence of females has improved recently due to a group known as The Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls are a feminist art group, founded in 1985 by women artists, who distribute propaganda and create artwork that draws attention to feminism and women’s issues in the art world.  During an interview, one spokesperson for the group was asked the question “So, are things ok for women in the art world now?” she replied, “Things are better now than they ever have been for women and artists of color and we have helped effect that change. Right now there is decent representation of women and artists of color at the beginning and emerging levels of the art world. At the institutional level however, in museums, major collections and auctions sales, things are still pretty dismal for all but white guys. We believe that the economics of the art market is responsible for this.” (Guerilla Girls: Frequently Asked Questions) The image below is one of their art works that draws attention to how many women are present at the institutional level today.

This image emphasizes that women have made progress in the art world but there is still much that can be done. I consider myself pretty naïve for coming into college and not being aware of all this history behind art and its development.  But as I traveled through college, I became aware of how that history is still present today.

I didn’t see this history very much during my first year of college. That year I had general studio classes that covered basic technique. The next year I took classes that focused on my major area of study, photography, and how to develop the skill. When I returned in the fall for my third year, I noticed a shift in attitude. No longer were classes about learning technique but rather about modifying concepts. This is where I first noticed a, sometimes subtle, difference in how being an artist was different for men and for women.

During the transition into my third year of classes, students were a little more involved due to an intense application process into the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the end of the second year into a specific field of study, for example photography. Every year after this process, those who were not accepted either leave the school of art or fall into the Bachelor of Arts group of students who study general art. I quickly learned throughout the year that if I wanted to be socially accepted and become a “real artist”, I needed to be in the specialized Bachelor of Fine Arts program. After being accepted, I thought I was in the clear. However, my definition of artist was apparently a little different from other students and professors.

In one of the classes I took during my third year I was the only photography student. It was a topics class focusing on one theme in art. One day I put a photograph up on the wall to be reviewed. It stood as the only digital media next to paintings and sculptures. When the professor approached it he turned to me and, with a goofy and sarcastic tone to his voice he said, “It’s a picture!” I wasn’t sure how to respond but it was clear that this work was not considered to be worthy of the title of art and I wasn’t worthy of the title of artist.

The first definition that is generated when you search “artist - definition” online is, “a person who produces paintings or drawings as a profession or hobby.” So does that mean I am not an artist because I don’t paint or draw? Some people consider art to fall into the classification of either “high art” or “low art”. There is a large and complicated debate on what characterizes high art and low art and what kind of art falls into what category. To attempt to define these terms, high art is considered artwork that has formal properties, has a history, and that increases ones understanding of the world. Typically high art includes paintings, sculpture, and drawings that you would find in a museum or other esteemed institution. Photography is still a relatively new invention, when compared to painting, and produces a very realistic image of the world that can be reproduced more than once. This is the definition of low art, artwork that is not one of a kind and that is realistic rather than interpretive. Many art students at this university will state that they don’t consider photography to be an art form due to the characteristics listed above. This often makes me feel excluded from the art community because I don’t meet the standards of art created by other people. Especially when it comes to critiques.

In the fine arts program, professors and other students critique work openly. Critiques are equivalent to exams aside from one major difference. If you fail an exam, no one knows but you and the professor. But if you fail a critique, everyone watches it happen and contributes to your downfall. During the critiquing process, projects are displayed or hung on a wall and professors and students discuss what they see. During my third year, professors often asked me what my intentions were, what I planned to accomplish, and why I chose to make certain decisions relating to the aesthetics and methods used creating the project. From my perspective, in the three years that I have been in art school, male professors do not understand my works as well as female professors do and they do not grade my work as highly either. It is typical during critiques to hear the words “chichi”, “craft”, and “soft” being used to describe my projects in negative ways. These words used negatively reinforce the idea that these traditionally female qualities do not make up a good piece of artwork.

Once I noticed this pattern of constantly not meeting the requirements set by male professors, I went onto RateMyProfessor.com to see what other students thought about the, in my mind, unfair treatment. The first professor that came to mind in my search on this website was a professor I had during my second semester of my third year, who is known for being blunt, rude, and offensive. Curious as to how he could still be teaching while having such a personality, I typed in his name and read the results. To my surprise, he had high ratings and several of his reviews described him as a “genius”, “super talented”, “amazing”, and so on. The man who made sexist and stereotypical comments during class as well as degraded students publicly when they failed, was a superstar according to RateMyProfessor.com According to research done by Benjamin M. Schmidt, an assistant professor of history at Northeastern University, there is a correlation between positive and negative feedback and male and female professors. Schmidt created a tool, Gendered Language in Teacher Reviews, that shows how students use different words when rating male and female professors on the website Rate My Professor which shows this correlation. As I related this information back to my own experiences, I saw that this didn’t relate only to male professors but also to male students.

During a class meeting, a male student in the class told a female student that her work was subpar and that it was not appealing. He continued to ask her why she would choose to do something that obviously was not aesthetically pleasing. No one said anything. This same student called out other female students as well but never a male student. The majority of the students in the class were females. Why did this male student feel as though he had the authority and experience to critique the work of another student? I view this as an example of art history’s white male dominance shining through the cracks of our “modern” society.

By constantly being critiqued and feeling the male gaze always looking down on my work, I feel a sense of detachment. My work as a female photographer isn’t understood or credited and therefore I don’t feel like I am an artist. In Women and Art: Contested Territory by Judy Chicago and Edward Lucie-Smith, Chicago states “It was only there that my gender seemed to cease to matter, where I could be all that I was. …whenever I tried to bring what I had created out of my wholeness into the world, the problem of my gender continually interfered.” I recently have come into more of an understanding of what Chicago meant by this. From my point of view, even if I put all my effort into a project it will mean nothing if males can’t relate to it. Male students have stated during critiques that they do not include the feminine view or females at all because they do not understand it. Does that mean that females should just be left out like they were in the past?

This lack of understanding also extends to my family and friends. Whenever I gather with family members or friends who aren’t involved in the art world, eventually the question comes up, “What are you going to do as a photographer?” That’s a great question. There are lots of different career options for photographers and artists. However, the lack of knowledge on these career options makes the conversation particularly one sided. A few weeks ago I visited my uncle and we began discussing what I had been up to and what I planned to do after graduation, which is thankfully still one year away. I began to explain my goals and when he didn’t seem to understand them he began asking patronizing questions such as “Do you have a back up plan?” and “Well what do you really want to do?” Finally, when he couldn’t understand my position or career goals anymore he sarcastically stated, “Well do you want to take photos of the president or something?” This was funny to me because I took photographs of President Obama when he came to Ohio University in 2012. So my pointed reply to this was “I already have.” I wonder why that’s where the questions stopped.
                 After experiencing all of these conflicting views and opinions, I've come to realize that there is no right or wrong answer or way of doing things. Despite the negative opinions of my peers, photography to me is an art form because it allows me to express myself. To me that is what art is - an extension of one’s self through the expression of art. Art relates to others and allows them to feel something. It allows humans to connect and relate to one another. I reject the patriarchal standard of what defines art and being an artist. Being an art major has taught me how to stand up for myself and for my artwork. I have recently learned that I can use my art as a tool to spread information and ideas, even if they aren’t popular ideas. My professors, classmates, peers, and experiences in the school of art have influenced how I feel about my artwork and how I view myself as an artist. I know now with great confidence that in the end, it is only my opinion of myself that matters the most.

Photography by Clare Gucwa

Works Cited:

“Guerrilla Girls: Frequently Asked Questions.” Guerrilla Girls: Frequently Asked Questions. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.guerrillagirls.com/interview/faq.shtml>

Chicago, Judy. “Introduction.” Introduction. Women and Art: Contested Territory. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1999. 8-15. Print.

Jaschik, Scott. “Rate My Word Choice.” Inside Higher Ed. 9 Feb. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/09/new-analysis-rate-my-professors-finds-patterns-words-used-describe-men-and-women>.

Schmidt, Ben. “Gendered Language in Teacher Reviews.” Gender and Teacher Reviews. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://benschmidt.org/profGender/#%7B%22database%22%3A%22RMP%22%2C%22plotType%22%3A%22pointchart%22%2C%22method%22%3A%22return_json%22%2C%22search_limits%22%3A%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22funny%22%5D%2C%22department__id%22%3A%7B%22%24lte%22%3A25%7D%7D%2C%22aesthetic%22%3A%7B%22x%22%3A%22WordsPerMillion%22%2C%22y%22%3A%22department%22%2C%22color%22%3A%22gender%22%7D%2C%22counttype%22%3A%5B%22WordCount%22%2C%22TotalWords%22%5D%2C%22groups%22%3A%5B%22unigram%22%5D%7D>

“Google images.” Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <https://images.google.com/>