Article by Elli Lahdesmaki

A Silicon Valley With Art

ELLI LAHDESMAKI

s

ince art started becoming popular to the public eye during the Renaissance, artists also started establishing their names to the world. If you search up “famous renaissance artists”, names such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael pop up—all who are famously known all around the globe. It’s not until the 21st artist is listed that the first woman shows up, who is infact one of the very few women in that list. Although gender-bias has played a role for hundreds of years, artists in general are often disregarded and it’s difficult to establish oneself as a noticed artist. It’s even more difficult as females living in the overly STEM saturated Bay Area.

In the 2018 novel, Ninth Street Women, five empowered female artists tackle the twentieth century, male-dominated art world. Placed in New York and in a post-war economy, the book follows the stories of Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell. These painters paved a way for more and more women to feel encouraged to enter the art world as well. In one part of the novel, Lee Krasner, who had just discovered the art of modernism, showed her work to teacher Hans Hofmann (a male, of course). Hofmann responded to the art with a bittersweet comment of how it was good enough to pass for a man’s art. Knowing that this was the harsh reality at the time, Krasner turned this into motivation to tackle the man’s art world and make her art recognized by the public eye without having it be instantly compared to a man’s. This novel is a success story: the five painters fought the hard battle of gender norms until their works were being taken in by major museums. Their stories and struggles are inspirational enough to convince the readers that female artists shouldn’t be referred to as female artists, but just as “artist” or “painter” like a man would be called. A quote that I still remember from the novel is when Joan Mitchell said “when I was discouraged, I wondered if really women couldn’t paint, the way all the men said they couldn’t paint. But then at other times I said, ‘Fuck them’, you know’”. It goes without saying that it was the second mindset that brought her to where she wanted to be as a painter.

2

Despite women making more appearances at art shows and museums, the discrminiation is still clearly apparent in today’s society. The problem isn’t the quality of the art, and it never has been —it has nothing to do with the discrimination. The problem is the mindset that so many people have: they immediately choose male over female without ever even seeing their work. Obviously, and sadly, this is not the matter for only artists as the gender bias is clearly present in many different areas of work as well. But going back to art: women’s art becomes invisible to the eyes of many without ever having seen it. They simply would rather see a man’s painting or a man’s sculpture, and this is where all the problems stem from. It’s not the women’s work or their work ethic that has to be changed, it’s the entrapping mindset that society has created.

Not only are female artists still underrepresented, but women’s work is less valued as opposed to their male counterparts. In a study provided by the Public Library of Science, it was shown that in 18 prominent US museums of over 10,000 artists, 87% of these artists showcased were male. Both male and female artists are given the same tools and the same starting point, but male artists are given a substantial head start before they even begin their work—and solely for being born as a man.

In 18 18 famous famous art art museums museums in in the the U.S, U.S, In of of over over 10,000 10,000 artists, artists, are male male 87% are

The first things that people connect with Silicon Valley is technology and STEM. Art would definitely not be one of the first things to pop into mind—and for a fair reason. The Silicon Valley has become a hub for technological advancement and innovation, which makes the already hidden artists even more hidden. I wanted to combine the two: female artists and the hidden art appreciation in the Silicon Valley. I interviewed two successful female artists living in Los Altos to shine light on their work and their personal stories in becoming full-time artists.

3

Morgan Morgan Bricca Bricca At 25 years old, Morgan Bricca painted her first ever mural in her own home. As soon as she finished it, she was surprised at her own skill and how the one-wall mural immediately made her house more exciting and personal to her. Within a year, Bricca had quit her job in IT and kept painting.

You might think that someone who would be brave enough to quit their job to become a full-time mural artist would have a lot of experience and training. Or that they would graduate from college with an art degree.

Well, Bricca didn’t really have either of these. As a matter of fact, the painting she created in her home was the first ever mural she had painted. Basing off of her painting skills that she had grown up with and practiced throughout highschool, Bricca took a leap and dove headfirst into creating her newfound passion into her full-time job. As soon as Bricca saw how she could make a profit off of creating murals for her different clients, she was immediately drawn and saw this as a big upgrade from her day-to-day office job.

Once quitting her previous job, painting murals has become her full-time, one-woman job for the past 19 years. At first, she was painting around five murals a year, but progressively increased her clientele.

Bricca now paints from 20 to 40 murals a year.

“I just started painting murals,” Bricca said. “And then all of a sudden I started getting one little request after another. And that’s what grew.”

“And now as an artist it is so much fun because I actually see how many levels we’re creating on every day,” Bricca said. “And I’m seeing the whole artistic process as all creative.”

It goes without saying that art has had an enormous impact in Bricca’s life. Being able to see the impact she creates on the community through her art makes the job so worth it for her. For example, she has done a lot of work at different elementary schools in the area. In fact, I actually joined her one day and she had me help her paint one of her murals on the Santa Rita Elementary School blacktop. Seeing it and being a part of the process made me realize even deeper what she meant by how the art will stay there forever, because it really will stay there forever. A part of her expression and creativity will brighten up the days of children and other members of the community. A lot of jobs create an invisible effect on the community but Bricca’s mural work is beautifully visible for the entire community to enjoy.

For Bricca, being a female artist hasn’t really come with too many difficulties, since being a skilled artist in the Bay Area can actually be helpful because there isn’t as much competition as other, more artistic areas.

4

“It feels so good to make something that comes from you spontaneously, like you wanting to share something from your heart and expression. And having somebody else see it and love it so much. And not only love it so much that they want to pay you for it, but that they want to honor your expression.

It’s so validating in all directions, and it’s there forever”

5

Sudnya Jakatdar Jakatdar Sudnya

We all need food and water to survive, and without it, we begin to crave it. This is a similar comparison to how Sudnya Jakatdar sees art— it has become a necessity and a habit in her life. Jakatdar’s art career involves almost all the different aspects of art: writing, weaving, in-place-installing, painting, and more. Like Bricca, art has had an enormous impact in her life since the beginning. Even though it wasn’t always her profession, art has had a looming presence even in her previous job in computer science at Intel, and is still omnipresent in almost every movement of her life, such as her cooking and gardening.

Jakatdar doesn’t sell any of her artwork or paintings for personal profit, as she instead raises money for different charities. The major business aspect of her art comes from her own fashion line. Her designs are all hand-made and the clothing pieces are intended to empower women to wear something that feels comfortable but exciting at the same time to bring more enjoyment to their work lives.

Jakatdar’s work bases around her morals and values for the world, which she stands by strongly. Her design business took a lot of self-direction, as she started her brand working independently and sending her designs to her home country, India, where her mother would manufacture them. After discovering the price of shipping and how it is environmentally detrimental, Jakatdar instead created separate manufactures in both India and the US to reduce the amount of shipping across the world.

The goal of Jakatdar’s clothing brand is to express her creativity while also creating clothing that makes females feel empowered and confident. “I wanted to create something that when women wear it, that they feel so confident that their mind is free to do the work they are supposed to do, which they are good at,” Jakatdar said. Her clothing isn’t meant for a specific occasion, either. She wants any female, no matter their profession, to feel like they can wear something bold and artistic on the daily that can also inspire more art into their lives. I would say it goes very well with the “feel good, look good” idea.

6

““And I thought that there were many levels at which it’s tied a lot to my work in feminism. And I just found the inequity in the world between men and women at so many levels, but this particular level, which is kind of invisible to the world, you know, we can see salaries not being equal, we can see not equal opportunities in education and all those are fights that have to be fought. But there are invisible fights that some are hidden inside of us because it’s the psyche that has been built into us”

7

Despite her success from the clothing line, Jakatdar has decided to leave her business in the hands of her colleague and move forward with other projects due to how she believes it is wrong of her to produce more clothing into the world when there is already a massive overflow of mass production of clothing. She is now majorly focusing on creating artwork and story-telling based around the migrant and refugee issue that is happening globally.

Although that is her major focus at the moment, Jakatdar’s work has always been multi-layered. She is never just working on one thing, but instead has several projects going on at the same time—something that she finds to be the beauty in working with art. “[Art] is a huge gift to me because as I have used it as a tool to get insights, I have been able to transform my own internal pinpoints into something productive rather than destructive,” Jakatdar said.

These two women are only two examples of inspirational and successful female artists who created their own careers based off of their passion for art and their own personal morals to create art to the best of their potential. If there is something to take out of this article and the stories of both Bricca and Jakatdar, it would be that art has indefinite value. I’m not saying that art is the only thing that matters, but I am saying that each individual should approach art with an open-mind and with a willingness for appreciation. It’s not just paint and color on a canvas, it’s a tool for empowerment and speech. Art can truly change the way we perceive the world and how we go about our lives. Anyone and everyone should have the ability to express their artistic voice through whatever medium, and art should be appreciated regardless of which gender has produced it.

What would you do if art was your only voice? And how would that change your life?

8

Works cited: Sudnya Jakatdar, personal interview

Morgan Bricca, personal interview

“National Museum of Women in the Arts.” Get the Facts | National Museum of Women in the Arts, nmwa.org/advocate/ get-facts.

Brown, Taylor Whitten. “Why Is Work by Female Artists Still Valued Less Than Work by Male Artists?” Artsy, 8 Mar. 2019.

Halperin, Julia. “The 4 Glass Ceilings: How Women Artists Get Stiffed at Every Stage of Their Careers.” Artnet News, 20 Dec. 2017, news.artnet.com/market/art-market-study-1179317.

Halperin, Julia. “‘It’s Not the Quality of the Art That Matters, It’s Discrimination’: Excerpts From Our Interviews on Women’s Place in the Art World.” Artnet News, 19 Sept. 2019, news.artnet.com/womens-place-in-the-art-world/pull-quoteswomens-place-art-world-1655308.

Visser, Nadine, et al. “Why Are Female Artists Underrepresented?” Diggit Magazine, 12 Apr. 2019.

Sutton, Benjamin, et al. “Art by Women Sells for 47.6% Less Than Works by Men, Study Finds.” Hyperallergic, 14 Dec. 2017, hyperallergic.com/417356/art-by-women-gender-study-sexism/.

Boone, Mary. “Why Art Matters.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 25 May 2011, www.huffpost.com/entry/why-art-matters_b_151428.

9

about the author

Elli Lahdesmaki is a Junior attending both Los Altos High School and Freestyle Academy. She has always been pretty artistic throughout her life, which is one of the main reasons why she enjoys taking Design at Freestyle. She has done art classes all throughout elementary school and art ( painting, drawing, writing) has always been a way for her to relax and be able to express herself. Elli moved from Finland to California when she was 9 years old. Growing up in a completely different environment from what she was used to allowed her to gain a lot more diverse perspectives. This change in atmosphere in her life has made her more of an open person. Besides art, Elli also enjoys playing the piano, running, and playing tennis. She likes to stay active and loves going on adventures to see new places. If she had the opportunity to climb Mount Everest, she would do it. Putting oneself in new experiences, even if they are scary and intimidating, is one of the most important aspects of life. As for Elli’s future, she is still unsure of what she wants to do. Despite this, she knows that she wants to keep incorporating art into her everyday life. As much as she loves the Bay Area, she wants to see the world as much as she can throughout her life. Elli hopes to keep growing as a creative person and will keep creating projects that she can be proud of at the end of her lifetime.

10