The woman artist

I've been thinking about this business of being a woman and an artist. And the more I think about it, the more tricky I realise it is. First off, the woman bit - fairly obvious, really: although things have come a long way, still there are very few decent role models of women in society or high places. Female politicians and women on the TV are generally picked on more for their appearance than their achievements. In film, women are mostly gorgeous sex bombs desperate for a man, invariably young with no wrinkles. Or they are mothers, neurotic singles or intellectuals with a great cleavage just waiting for the right man to thaw their cold, thinking hearts.

In my own life, I find I am often asked about kids more than I imagine any guy would be. It's a bit like, when are you going to stop this silly frittering about with so-called "creative" stuff, and get down to your real vocation as a woman (ie, being a mother)? And unfortunately, that kind of attitude comes from women as much as anybody else. Lots of women, I find, don't understand the concept of being passionate about something other than family and men. I'm not anti-family or anti-men. But if only we could stop worrying about wrinkles, fat and such-like, we'd have a lot more energy to just be ourselves. I'm amazed at the amount of female friends who look great and are fretting over some invisible wrinkle that only they can see and are talking about plastic surgery, or Botox. Get a grip! There are more important things in life.

Then there's the artist bit. Again, the word "artist" seems to be encumbered by various misperceptions in this country. Either you're pretentious for calling yourself an artist, because in Britain we like to slag anybody off for having too high an opinion of themselves, or you must be a painter, or, to be a proper artist (in music, anyway), you must be signed to a major label; only then are you legitimate. Ironically, by the time you've signed to a major label, you've probably lost any remnant of artistic integrity you had in the first place. And the stories of artists who feel they've been compromised by major labels are countless. Because as we all know, cash flow is king.

It doesn't help that for virtually every major label signing, you have critics spurting out guff like "The album of the year" or "The best singer-songwriter of their generation" or "The new Dylan" etc etc. Come on. I was reading a billboard about Ray LaMontagne in the tube station not so long ago. There were quotes like, "A voice that could melt the heart of any person in any nation". Please. And stuff about what a genius he was, and how there's never been anybody like him. Well, I happen to have his album at home (it's hubby's) and I can safely say that after one listen, I haven't been tempted to put it into the CD player ever again. It's not terrible - it's OK. I can relate to some of the stuff he sings about. There's a lot of songs in 3/4 time, which I like. But it hasn't changed my life. I'd hardly give it the genius tag.

There was an article by AA Gill in the Sunday Times yesterday, which I dipped into, that I think was saying much the same thing about theatre critics. It's about time somebody applied some intelligence to these reviews!

To be continued...