"ARROYO"

A dry channel through which water flows intermittently and irregularly. Kind of like this blog.

My art is an infectious need for me, sometimes a burden but most often a blessing.

This blog is about me and my obsessions, my loves, my need to create and my need of JUNK. I'm addicted to thrift stores, estate sales, flea markets and all roads leading off the beaten track to discover that perfect piece of junk. I recycle old license plates, old shovels, wheelbarrows, saw blades and anything else that's funky using my hand held plasma cutter. I love working with steel, sculpting, photography, watercolor painting, stained glass, and turning everyday utilitarian objects into art. Junked cars ~ I will always veer off the path to search out the beautiful wrecked Arroyo JunKers throughout Arizona, New Mexico and anywhere else the road may lead. When I'm not searching for those JunKers
I ~ RESURRECT ~ STEEL

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Women Can Weld – Get over it!

What is going on in the 21st Century folks!  1998 was the 150th Anniversary of the Women's Rights Movement and we've come a long way baby! Women have been voting, running Corporations, flying planes  and WELDING  for a very long  time,  so why is it that when I’m doing a show and my husband just happens to be sitting in my booth that he’s the one they think makes my ART.  What’s funny is my ART is delicate looking, whimsical; it’s got flowers and butterflies and could even be considered girlie, in a way.  My husband is 6’5 and looks like Tom Selleck and in no way portrays anything delicate.  He makes knives, hunts and shoots, he doesn’t make “whimsical, flowery art”, and so it makes it even wierder that they think he does my ART.
It never fails someone walks into my booth and we are both sitting there and every single person looks at my husband and says “how do you do this”?  He points to me and says “Ask her, she does it” and they gasp and reply “YOU DO THIS”!!   Like being a Woman Who Welds just doesn’t happen in this world.  Then for some strange reason they continue to ask my husband more questions while I’m just standing there.  At first, I thought it was really funny that this kept happening over and over, now I’m not laughing.   I even had a friend helping me set up at my last big show and she sat with me for a while and I’ll be damned if they didn’t look straight at her and think she did it. 
What is it about me that makes me look like I can’t do this?  Maybe I need to not wear makeup (can’t do that I’d scare them away), get a tattoo, or cut my hair short – I know I’ll wear a Rosie the Riveter T-Shirt and just for the heck of it I’ll get one of those temporary skull tattoos and an earring in my nose.  Then I'll look like a bad-ass that can weld!



7 comments:

Luthien Thye said...

hahaha!!! you are sooooooo FUNNY!!! i LOVE that rant! and i want to learn how to weld too ... i would love to weld some assemblages!!

Jerry Carlin said...

Suzy, you ARE one bad ass welder!

soraya nulliah said...

Suze-this post made me crack up...but I also sense your frustration! Don't change a thing about yourSELF...you are PERFECT just the way you are... Girlpower!!!!
Oh yeah...that clipboard project is just soooo cute...I want to make a hundred and put them everywhere:)

soraya nulliah said...

ooooh! your hubby looks like Tom Selleck:)

Barry said...

S- your excellent work speaks for itself - but that does not mean that it is not frustrating. My wife Fiona often says you'd think we had enough time to get equality but we have so far to go - and on a daily basis there are so many examples of people who just don't get it. Go well and continue to create and weld well. B

nanke's stuff said...

You are an awesome welder and your art is beautiful! I know it must be very frustrating. Pay them no mind (as my granny used to say), and just keep creating! nancy

dany chandra said...

Thanks,This blog is very nice and helpful for us.

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