Marie Bergstedt, Amy Chaiklin and Laurence de Valmy were featured artists in Feminist Connect, on view at Charles Adam Studio Project in Lubbock, Texas, in March, 2022 and as part of a larger online exhibition by the same name, running through February 2023. The artists Bergstedt (fabric), Chaiklin (drawing/painting) and deValmy (painting) discuss their processes, concepts and relations with the co-curator, Sally Brown, expanding on the discussion the exhibition provokes around the feminist lineage of art.

Sally Brown: Each of you pays tribute to women in your work in a different way. Marie, you honor both professional (scientists, teachers, musicians) and familial (foster mother) women through your intricate expressive thread and fabric work. Amy Chaiklin, both famous, historical and friend artists, curators and writers are honored through your intimate painted profiles. Laurence, your paintings honor the artwork of women in art history that may have been overlooked and bring them into the contemporary by imagining them through appropriations and posts on social media. Tell me about your processes–both artistically and conceptually–in bringing your tribute works about.

Laurence de Valmy: My work on the Post paintings starts with the story and the research. I pick an artist I want to talk about and then choose an artwork that relates to a particular story. I create a composition with both the image and the dialogues. Once in the studio, I paint the image, appropriating the work of the artist, using acrylic.

Marie Bergstedt: I start with the concept or issue. From there I do research if needed and then I choose the person, materials and techniques that I believe best express the story, making it accessible to others.

Amy Chaiklin: My ’Cultured Pearls Portraits’ painting project (2017-ongoing) consists of more than 195 individual portraits of female identified artists, art historians, art journalists, and art curators. These portraits are painted from photographs which I source on social media. It is important for me to paint my perception of each woman’s essence by honoring their personal stance, individual hairstyles, and fashion choices. I draw each woman’s full length portrait with her eyes facing forward.

Sally Brown: Why is/was it important for you to honor these women through your work? What do you hope viewers get out of your work?

Laurence de Valmy: My work being about art history, it’s quickly very clear that women have been overshadowed by men. It seemed important to me to bring awareness to their work. To build a better future, it is important to be aware of the past. My best reward is when someone tells me that they have learnt something about one of these women I pay tribute to.

Marie Bergstedt: My work all stems from concerns I have about society and what is happening in the world around me. There are a number of issues related to the inequality of women, but I also do many pieces where men and their problems are featured. Some of the stories for which I use a portrait of a woman are not about women, but a more general concern. I mean for people to be able to interpret my images with their own story so often my story gets lost in the process. With the two pieces I have in this exhibit my focus is aging. I had a lot of contact with my foster mother when she was 90 to more than 100 years old. Studying her was a study of my own future. We are both women but I believe men face aging as well and I have done work related to that using my foster father as a model before his death, but I worked in photography at that time.

Amy Chaiklin: My intention is to amplify each woman and their work by including their portrait in the Cultured Pearls project. My Cultured Pearls Portraits honors the sisterhood of women who inspire, influence, and support my artistic practice and career. This project also includes portraits of women artists that came before us and led the way. I may know these women personally, or connect with them only through their work. Individually, each portrait is a gift of appreciation. An installation of the entire “Cultured Pearls Portraits” collection is my visual documentation of the diverse community of women in the international contemporary art world.

Sally Brown: What inspires you about each other’s work?

Laurence de Valmy: One of the themes in my series is to show the influences that artists have on each other, and that art is a continuum. The common point between our works is to pay tribute to women each in our own way. I’ve been inspired to focus more on women thanks to my connections with my many women artists friends.