Happy International Women’s Day 2022. The theme this year is #breakthebias.
This year, I decided to paint something for a local online art display and included a bit about it below. There was a limited word count, and I’m not a fan of oversharing online, but here’s a glimpse into what this piece is about:
I was working in an unhappy job. I didn’t “push back” and feared being perceived as uncollaborative/negative. My partner said, “you should be more indignant”. Before this experience, I never would’ve seen being indignant as a reasonable, let alone desirable, response. It got me thinking about what women and minority groups internalise regarding how we should behave at work. We need to #breakthebias and allow ourselves to truly express our feelings in the workplace. This painting shows a work laptop, but it also shows an upcycled antique dressing table, a DIY stud wall and the colours are bold and confident. If we unlearn our biases, we can focus on being creative, resourceful, confident and, at times, indignant.
I feel like I could say a lot more on this topic, but for now I’m going to leave it at that.
I haven’t done an acrylic painting in what feels like forever. It was SO much fun to play with colour and have a bright colour palette. I can get that with digital art but it’s not the same as the permanence of seeing paint on a canvas.
Art JMT 