hula hoops

Brittany, if you haven't already, check out the Sunday NYTimes Magazine article about painter Marlene Dumas. there's an interesting if shocking moment in there about whether charges of sexism/chauvanism can be relevant in the 21st century. there is also a ton of blog activity about this issue and Dumas, might be worth tracking that down and seeing what you think. but start here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15dumas-t.html

our east Berlin neighborhood, Fredrichshain, appears to be unbelievably fertile. there are pregnant women and babies and toddlers everywhere, all of the women in the residency program have commented on it. I can't tell if the men noticed it before the women mentioned it. Tom and I are wondering if those families will stay here through junior high and high school and then the demographic will completely change---or maybe there's some mysterious urge to move on and their places will be filled with more fertile folk. I think of this because of that great comment you recorded by Kate Stanner.

Germany's current Chancellor is a woman, Angela Merkel, read some facts and ponder how few women still are involved in politics at a high level: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel

The Berlin Biennial had a number of interesting contemporary women artists as well as a small mini-exhibit of works by Polish artist Zofia Stryjeńska (1891-1974).
http://www.forum-polonia-houston.com/Art/Zstryj/zs.htm

I am working rather feverishly in the studio but I plan on providing links to all of the women artists I have seen. both here and in Prague the communist aesthetic meant that public sculpture presents Comrades working together, both men and women strong and powerful in these idealized moments. up above the woman with child on her back is from this wild block of communist era buildings here in east Berlin, the woman with the beehive is from a building in Prague.