Virginia Mallon

Art is not supposed to comfort,

it should make you question everything.

George Grosz

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Since 2016, politics has been a major focal point in my work. I was not born a feminist; I was made into one by personal experiences. Born in the sixties, I was raised in a traditional home with a working father and stay at home mom.   A pattern that I, as the first female child, was expected to follow.  The situation was far from ideal, with money always short and the atmosphere tense.  We lived on the borderline of Brooklyn and Queens, in a mixed neighborhood, plagued with random acts of violence, not between minorities but between family members and neighborhood thugs.  

 

Women were often preyed upon and we were exposed to sexual predators inside and outside the home at a very young age, but were taught to ignore and/or accept it.  These experiences prepared us for future harassment at school and  work.  My feminism is a result of life under this overbearing patriarchy as well as the toxic political climate in America, where, for as long as I can remember, race wars waged around us.

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I always knew I would be an artist.  It is something that somehow found its way into my dna.  I was fortunate to study with a political satirist for many years which molded my early views on what art should be.  I strongly agree that art is more than just a pretty picture. It should reflect and comment on the world around us.  As much as style and technique are important, they should in no way overshadow or take precedence over the message behind the work.  Nothing new, we have seen this type of thing through the ages, from Goya, Picasso, Grosz, to name just a few.  It was only in the 70s and 80s that this sort of commentary became  acceptable coming from women.  Even today it is not particularly celebrated, with the art world favoring decorative over substance, especially when it is feminist or in a female point-of-view.  But like my predecessors I carry on, there is plenty of fodder in today's world to comment on.

 

Collected here is a select group of art created 2017 to 2024.  As we stand on the precipice of the new year, and another four years of atrocities, I hope that the continued protests of the artist community helps to put a stop to the madness. If nothing else we will document our country’s journey into darkness.

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