paradoxes Being recently faced with the grim statistics of some factors relating to women’s career success in the visual arts, | looked for some way to get round them. The sentence “’art world discrimina- tion does not fall into consistent patterns and is not always either conscious or deliberate.”’ (Baker), gave me space to see the statistics as a renewed challenge. | was reminded of the following excerpt from the foreward of Gregory Batesons’ Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity: ‘We have been trained to think of patterns, with the exception of music, as fixed affairs. It’s easier and lazier that way, but, of course, all nonsense. The truth is that the right way to begin to think about the pattern which connects is to think of it as primarily (whatever that means) a dance of interacting parts, and only secondarily pegged down by various sorts of physical limits and by the limits which organisms impose. There is a story which | have used before and shall use again: It is the story of a man who wanted to know about MIND, not in nature but in his private large computer. He asked it (no doubt in his best Fortran), ‘“‘Do you compute that you will ever think like a human being?” The machine then set to work to analyze its own computational habits. Finally the machine printed its answer on a piece of paper, as they do. The man ran to get the answer and found, neatly typed, the words:” THAT REMINDS ME OF A STORY If you take the time to watch the playbacks of your own computational habits, you'll most likely find that you connect the events of your life into stories. These stories, in turn, become the filters through which new events and ex- perience in your life must pass. The particular pattern of thoughts and memo- ries will contain certain built-in can’ts and don’ts and |’m afraid to’s. It’s important to recognize these filters — in yourself and in other people — because they may simply be automatic patterned responses. It may take only a small event to change your own or other people’s response to you, your work and your abilities. Here’s a story of a small event. On one of my trips back to Canada, to Alberta, | decided to make a large brass key. My tool box was still in London so! telephoned my father at work to ask if | could borrow some tools. He agreed, but said that what | wanted to do was extremely difficult and that | should go to a metal fabrication place. At the metal shop, the owner, manager, foreman and one of the workers agreed that | was asking the impossible, they couldn't do it. | asked if they would sell me some brass. It may have seemed to be the only way to get rid of me, but they kindly gave me a solid brass cylinder 2”’x4’’. | promised to show them the key the next day. The owner of the shop shook his head, smiled and said: ‘Will you tell your Daddy to phone me, dear?’ | was pushing 30 at the time, but | smiled and agreed: the challenge now had an added dimen- sion! Having raided the tool boxes of father and friends, | set to work blocking out the form, breaking a saw blade a minute and having a won- derful time, while | sawed, swore, sweated and played; Father and cronies were confering. They were concerned and were deciding the best way to help out when | gave up. By the time he came downstairs (bringing me a large brandy for consolation) the initial blocking was almost finished and my arm hurt like hell from the exertion. He sawed through the last bit, with a wonderful grin on his face and promised to show me how to drill and file the next evening. He couldn’t decide whether to be delighted or disappointed when he found the finished ke, on the breakfast table in the morning. This Christmas, five years later, | found that the story of the key had been told again and again - whenever the “‘impossible’’ presented itself. Women artists, trying to survive and succeed in the highly competitive, male dominated art world often find themselves faced with the “impossible”, whether the response is conscious or unconscious. Almost all of written history, where women’s life work contributions are all but excluded, and present statistics, can be used as overwhelming justification for failure; for complying with established patterns. Conversely, the ‘‘facts’’ of our “civilization’’ can be accepted as a chal- lenge to endeavor to work to the limits of crea- tivity on all fronts — and with each small victory the limits shifi. It takes courage to make the work you want to make, to make honest work from real experience and insight. It takes another courage to learn to look at what you’ve made with “objectivity”. Other words might be hard work, perseverance, a streak of orneryness, and when all else fails: bravado. And it doesn’t happen all at once — that’s why it’s nice to celebrate the small breakthrough that daily challenges made memorable: pushing the limits. It was hoped that the women’s workshop would, by operating in what may have seemed to be paradoxical directions at first, create a work- ing situation for the artists involved which had possibilities of becoming, in time, a communica- tion network. It has, for the most part, begun to shift from a “‘class’’ situation to a real exchange of ideas, experiences and information. Women (Net-)Work will continue to meet during the summer. Leave your name, phone number and address with Vera in the main office if you would like to add to the web. Sylvia Scott Helen Pitt April 7 - April 19: The dynamic ceramic show. Another show of superb works by artists from the Emily Carr College of Art. Collectible pieces at a modest price. Review Review — Ceramics Show — Helen Pitt Gallery April 7-22 by Pat Sullivan | would like to know, when students are setting up a show amidst utter confusion, if any thought is taken for placement of their work. The work at the Helen Pitt is erratic, often confusing to someone looking from one pedestal to another. More thought could have been taken for a more orderly transition of style, content and colour for the viewing public. The orchids were hard to find in a field of pansies and dendelions. There were a few orchids in full flower though, among them, Stan Leak’s water creatures. One had a feeling of being immersed in a delicate pond of reflections with colour bouncing off forms of hand hewn clay. Deanne Radmore was very innovative. Her reclining figure was almost ‘“Stone-like” in quality, while her other pieces had a mythic intensity. The chess set by Anne Kerstan was superbly crafted and interesting to look at on a large scale. Carson Tipper does well as a sculptor, but his peices fall down individually from\ack of original titles. There were some exquisitely crafted bowls by John Gutteridge, one striking piece by Irene Gabor, and some nice work by Carman Tome, but overall as a total experience one gets the feeling that students try hard to please. Loss 8 of aera lise. - “ns donc? And the woman said, The seepent beguiled me, and f i tid eat. |" 14 And the | the serpent, becaus at hast done |this, thou rt cursed sia all cat- Itle and above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shait thou und ‘dust shalt thon eat all the uys of thy life: | 19 And [will put enmity between 3 | thee and the woman, and between “thy seed and ‘her seed; 4it shall bratise thy head, and thou shalt W : subtil fas any a fie! Id which e ev garden? d the woman said unto ire it, We may eat of the fruit of | . : rth children; “and ¢ te* to thy husband, and he shall *rule over thee. ee wax good for foo. *pleasant to the to on fruit hase if ave also unto [4 “and he iid her aber with her; did eat. 7 And © the ened es of them both were fz knew that they they sewed fig |f leet Hin said. 1 heard thy yoiee }j rden, fand | was afraid. |§ Lowes naked; and 1 hid 12 ee the man said, "The wo- vhom thou gavest to 4e with [3 © gave me of the tree, and I Collage by Shannon Reese t. 13 And the Lorp God said unto} the woman, What 7x ne that thou! paradoxes Being recently faced with the grim statistics of some factors relating to women’s career success in the visual arts, | looked for some way to get round them, The sentence “art world discrimina- tion does not fall into consistent patterns and not always either conscious or deliberate.” (Baker), gave me space to see the statistics as a renewed challenge. | was reminded of the following excerpt from the foreward of Gregory Batesons’ Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity: “We have been trained to think of patterns, with the exception of music, as fixed affairs. It's easier and lazier that way, but, of course, all nonsense. The truth is that the right way to begin to think about the pattern which connects is to think of it as primarily (whatever that means) a dance of interacting parts, and only secondarily pegged down by various sorts of physical limits and by the limits which organisms impose. There is a story which | have used before and shall use again: It is the story of a man who wanted to know about MIND, not in nature but ivate large computer. He asked it (no his best Fortran), “Do you compute that you will ever think like a human being?’ ‘The machine then set to work to analyze its own computational habits. Finally the machine printed its answer on a piece of paper, as they do. The man ran to get the answer and found, neatly typed, the words:”” THAT REMINDS ME OF A STORY If you take the time to watch the playbacks ‘of your own computational habits, you'll most likely find that you connect the events of your life into stories. These stories, in turn, become the filters through which new events and ex- perience in your life must pass. The particular pattern of thoughts and memo: ries will contain certain built-in can‘ts and don'ts and I'm afraid to's. It’s important to recognize these filters — in yourself and in other people — because they may simply be automatic patterned responses. It may take only a small event to ‘change your own or other people’s response to you, your work and your abilities. Here’s a story of a small event. On one of my trips back to Canada, to Alberta, | decided to make a large brass key. My tool box was still in London sol telephoned my father at work to ask if | could borrow some tools. He agreed, but said that what | wanted to do was extremely difficult and that | should go to a ‘metal fabrication place. At the metal shop, the ‘owner, manager, foreman and one of the workers agreed that | was asking the impossible, they couldn't do it. | asked if they would sell me some brass, It may have seemed to be the only way to get rid of me, but they kindly gave me a solid brass cylinder 2’x4". | promised to show them the key the next day. The owner of the shop shook his head, smiled and said: “Will you tell your Daddy to phone me, dear?” 1 was pushing 30 at the time, but | smiled and agreed: the challenge now had an added dimen- sion! Having raided the tool boxes of father and friends, | set to work blocking out the form, breaking a saw blade a minute and having a won: derful time, while | sawed, swore, sweated and played; Father and cronies were confering. They were concerned and were deciding the best way to help out when I gave up. By the time he came downstairs (bringing me a large brandy for consolation) the initial blocking was almost finished and my arm hurt like hell from the exertion. He sawed through the last bit, with a wonderful grin on his face and promised to show me how to drill and file the next evening. He couldn't decide whether to be delighted or disappointed when he found the finished key n the breakfast table in the morning. This Christmas, five years later, | found that the story of the key had been told again and again - whenever the “impossible” presented itself. Women artists, trying to survive and succeed in the highly competitive, male dominated art world often find themselves faced with the “impossible”, whether the response is conscious ‘or unconscious. Almost all of written history, where women’s life work contributions are all but excluded, and present statistics, can be used as overwhelming justification for failure; for complying with established. patterns. Conversely, the “facts” of our ‘civilization’ can be accepted as a chal- lenge to endeavor to work to the limits of crea- tivity on all fronts — and with each small victory the limits shift, It takes courage to make the work you want to make, to make honest work from real experience and insight. It takes another courage to learn to look at what you've made with “objectivity”. Other words might be hard work, perseverance, a streak of orneryness, and when all else fails: bravado. Andit doesn’t happen all at once — that’s why it’s nice to celebrate ‘the small breakthrough. that daily challenges made memorable: pushing the limits. It was hoped that the women’s workshop would, by operating in what may have seemed to be’ paradoxical directions at first, create a work- ing situation for the artists involved which had possibilities of becoming, in time, a communica- n network. It has, for the most part, begun to shift from a “class” situation to a real exchange of ideas, experiences and information. Women (NNet-]Work will continue to meet during the summer. Leave your name, phone number and address with Vera in the main office if you would like to add to the web. Sylvia Scott Helen Pitt April 7- April 19: The dynamic ceramic show. Another show of superb works by artists from the Emily Carr College of Art. Collectible pieces at a modest price. Review Review — Ceramics Show — Helen Pitt Gallery April 7-22 by Pat Sullivan | would like to know, when students are setting up ‘a show amidst utter confusion, if any thought is taken for placement of their work. The work at the Helen Pitt is erratic, often confusing to someone looking from fone pedestal to another. More thought could have been taken for a more orderly transition of style, content and colour for the viewing public. The orchids were hard to find ina field of pansies and dendelions.. There were a few orchids in full flower though, among them, Stan Leak’s water creatures. One had a feeling of being immersed in a delicate pond of reflections ‘with colour bouncing off forms of hand hewn clay. Deanne Radmore was very innovative. Her reclining figure ‘was almost “Stonedlike” in quality, while her other pieces had a mythic intensity. The chess set by Anne Kerstan was superbly crafted and interesting to look at on a large scale. Carson Tipper does well asa sculptor, bout his peices fall down individually from lack of original titles. There were some exquisitely crafted bowls by John Gutteridge, one striking piece by Irene Gabor, and some nice work by Carman Tome, but overall asa total ‘experience one gets the feeling that students try hard to please. Collage by Shannon Reese