21Country: Women artists at the Garrett Museum of Art

GARRETT, Ind. (WPTA) - There are many self-portraits of great artists from the classical art period. However, don’t look for any female faces among these boys because, at one point, women weren’t allowed to paint.

There’s not a man to be found among the artists in the Garrett Art Museum’s current exhibition; it’s devoted entirely to women. Their views of the world are heartwarming and inviting and sometimes shocking, like landscapes by Ohio painter Andrea Almeida display impressionist images of nature in almost dayglo colors, showing us the world in a truly different light.

Minnesota artist Susan Hensel is on fabric art’s cutting edge, experimenting with digital computer designs and creating beautiful three-dimensional fabric sculptures. Fabric art is an area where women excel.

More than a little better job, Michigan artist Deanna Clyne’s ceramic pieces are among the finest in the country, gorgeous to look at, finished in three-dimensional glazes in perfect color shades that beg you to put your hands on them, which of course, you cannot.

The strangest work here is hair sculptures by Michigan cosmetologist Migena Furxhi. They are made entirely of human hair woven, braided, and coaxed into flamboyant headdresses usually seen on fashion show runways.

You can get into trouble making generalizations about the sexes, but the women in this exhibition create a world that is soft, bright, nurturing, and outrageously beautiful. A female view of the world once silent and scorned, one that invites us to walk around for a while just to soak up the warmth.

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