One Foot on the Rockies
This stimulating book examines the experience of women artists in the American West. The women studied here range from Joseppa Dick, Pomo basketmaker, to Georgia O'Keeffe; from dancer Isadora Duncan to African-American writer Ntozake Shange and dozens of other women who lived in a fertile crescent that Jensen calls the Pacific Southwest during the last century. By recovering the work of so many writers, painters, photographers, and craftswomen, Jensen expands the history of women in the West. She also explores the cultural climate necessary to support creative work and considers questions of tradition and memory, examining the forms available to writers such as Buffalo Bird Woman, Christine Quintasket, Ruth Benedict, Sui Sin Far, and Agnes Smedley. Finally she engages the theories of history and creativity that determine what society chooses to remember and preserve.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0826315399
ISBN13:9780826315397
Release Date:May 1995
Publisher:University of New Mexico Press
Length:188 Pages
Weight:0.75 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Finding a Voice in the West
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
A moving critical study on those silences that confronted women artists in the West, focusing on professional, non-professional, and traditional women artists' struggles to find voices and to cope with markets for their work. Jensen discusses several artists whose careers were shadowed or distorted by husbands, some of whom were themselves artists or collectors. She also treats extensively the history of a Native American basket maker's struggles with market forces, traditional cultural artmaking and art-using practices, discrimination, and family forces. Covering late pioneer days through the rise of Hollywood and spanning painting, photography, literature, dance, and crafts, the book surprised me with its concise and compelling portrayals of many societies and art worlds. Jensen communicates immediate and personal interpretations of the "lifeways" of silenced and near silenced women artists, as well as some who succeeded--at their great cost--in finding a voice.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
