100+ Women Over 50

Several factors motivated me to start this project. My friend, Peter Hocking, revealed in a conversation in 2005 that he was painting 100 gay men. So I decided to paint 100 women. First I painted my friends; they then suggested others. Then I went to Minneapolis where I painted my partner, Polly’s, friends. And then I met Jane Westerlund and Lauren Stringer who brought me whole families and book clubs. The project now has a life of its own it seems; people have heard about it and want to be part of it. I am so touched and amazed.

I became interested in groups of face paintings when I first saw Susanna Coffee’s paintings of herself in NY in the early 90’s. It was unexpectedly powerful, as were Gerhard Richter’s 48 paintings of paternity figures, which were displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in 2002 as part of his retrospective.

I started this project in 2008 and finished the first 100 paintings in 2013. I am enjoying the process so much that I want to continue into the second 100. I feel privileged to spend time doing something I love while spending 6 hours or more engaging in very meaningful conversation and hearing some really wild life experiences. We talk a lot, mostly about families of origen. Almost everyone has a pretty crazy tale to tell. I certainly do. This became a common way of connecting, telling our stories. I wish I could write some of these truly amazing biographies but it would shatter the intimacy of the experience.

Nearly everyone says it is an uncommon and relaxing experience sitting for 6 hours, being nonproductive, just talking and listening. Hardly any of us ever do that during daytime hours without guilt. We feel we have to be busy during the day.

Many sitters express how unusual it is to be truly looked at. It is not the norm in our culture to be so closely, visually studied. Mostly we feel it’s rude or invasive but it actually creates an intimate space for painter and sitter. No longer are the over 50s invisible. This project is about regaining visibility and power in a culture that is youth obsessed.

I think of the 100 individual paintings as one big, strong, powerful image of the strength of older women. Aren’t we grand? Shouldn’t we be seen? And with the baby boomers coming of age there are now so many of us. We are a community of older, mature women who are proud to recognize each other and our many diverse accomplishments. Our progress has made it easier for our younger sisters to make their marks in business and science and the arts. We are a community of wise women and we celebrate ourselves. We are fabulous. We are here.

The Process

I do the paintings from life. I find I can’t get the information I need from photographs. I need to hear the person talking, watch their facial expressions, find out who they are in order to distill their essence into a painting. These are not glamorized portraits. I want to know who the person really is.

I divide the sittings into three days consisting of two hours each day. The first day I draw using only Raw Umber because it dries overnight. I use Baltic Birch plywood because I like the solidity of working on board rather than the bounce of canvas. I cover the surface with paint and then draw in the features and take out paint with a cloth so that the drawing shows form and volume. It looks like a monoprint.

On the second day I mix the colors and try to get the board covered even if the colors aren’t exactly right. Color is relative. So if I can get all the color onto the painting on the second day, I can concentrate on the third day refining, changing, getting it right.

This is a highly focused process of looking, seeing, more looking, translating a three dimensional person sitting in front of me into a two dimensional representation of who I think that person is. The process is very intense. After it’s over and the sitter is gone, I pull out another board and use up the paint in a completely free and abstract way. This process uses another part of my brain. I work on several abstracts at once until I feel I’ve brought the painting to resolution. Sometimes I do something that is just right and needs no change. Those are the magic moments I love. This is the flip side of the portrait paintings, pure abstract thinking and action, as opposed to the very close and highly focused observation of the portraits. It completes the whole.