Artist Gali Rotstein Requiem For A Housewife Artist Statement & Release
August 18, 2007
REQUIEM
FOR A HOUSEWIFE, Gali Rotstein, Artist Statement
A
filmmaker came to interview artists about being an artist. According to her perspective, to be an artist
one must look like an artist, live like an artist, starve like an artist, and
work only 20% of your life for paint supplies and a roof for a very long time.
I have worked and married outside of the art world and now that my resources
afford me to live like a well-fed artist, my art constitutes as a “hobby.”
I
was not interviewed.
Why
do I have to fight the Housewife stigma in order to be accepted as an artist?
Why can’t a Housewife be an artist in SOHO? Why do I hate the term “Housewife” so? Is it feminism? Am I disgruntled? It’s not only on Mondays that I cringe to be called Housewife. But what is wrong
with the word? Why have we cloaked it in terms “Stay-at-Home Mom,” or “Primary
Care Giver?” What does Housewife really mean? And why, why did I have to fight
for the right to a studio? Why was it so hard to allocate the rent?
I am ANGRY. My vagina has been held hostage in the complicated relationship of marriage. I am CLEVER. I have used my vagina in the complicated relationship of marriage. I am BLESSED. My vagina has given birth to my pride and joy. I am FORTUNATE to have a vagina.
What
is the perception of a Housewife? I don’t cook, I can. I don’t clean, I can. I
am at my daughter’s side shadowing her like a net under a trapeze artist. I am
a partner to my husband, navigating together a life that I take pride in. I
have fed. I have nurtured. I have loved. I am Loved. I have solved conflict and
created some battles. I get an occasional manicure. I have made us a home. And
I relish in its walls.
I
am a CEO. I am a CFO. I am COO. Am I a housed wife? Is this not enough? Is that
all there is?
So I paint a REQUIEM to the word HOUSEWIFE.
Featured On EXTRA Entertainment News
Magazine (for a look at her work hanging on the walls of a famous celebrity click the link)
Los Angeles, CA
… Artist Gali Rotstein’s REQUIEM FOR A
HOUSEWIFE art series explores the issues surrounding today’s modern housewife. Why do women
still hate the term “Housewife” so? Why is it cloaked in terms like
“Stay-at-Home Mom” or “Primary Care Giver?” What does Housewife really mean? All
this and more is examined in Gali’s REQUIEM FOR A HOUSEWIFE which was recently
featured on EXTRA as part of a special EXTRA design make-over of a celebrity’s
production office by Interior Designer Leslie Sachs of Breathing Room Design.
Gali Rotstein’s art goes against the creed of “less is more.” She chooses to use multiple sources of light and perspectives to create three dimensional multi-layered, sculpture-like paintings. She expresses herself through drawing, painting, photography, and assemblage from found and discarded objects, natural elements such as twigs and moss, and ordinary man-made objects such as wires and light bulbs. “My heaven is in the junkyard and hardware store,” says Gali. Her art is as multi-layered as her story telling which she does through her work and with her sense of humor.
It wasn’t
until after running three successful start-up businesses, writing a children’s
book series, overcoming a serious illness and experiencing a life-defining
moment that she finally came to terms with her untapped childhood passion as a
fine artist.
In one short year after moving into her own studio
for the first time, she created her first series, HOME. Completed in 2005, HOME was
shown as part of the Santa Monica Fine Art Studios Open House in November 2005
and seven pieces, (half the show) sold in one night -- a coup
for a totally unknown artist.
Through Gali’s
latest series, REQUIEM FOR A HOUSEWIFE, she is expelling her war against the
word and all it implies; which, for all practical terms, and despite her
successful ventures in business and other artistic endeavors, she feels she is.
Dirty Dishes
Ghost
Cru_ci_fer
She’s currently working on her next collection, Planet SOS, which deals with the current “crisis” atmosphere in the United States. This body of work will also include sculptures and three-dimensional paintings.
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