Unpaid Labour
Prior to producing images of Domestic Objects, my focus was on methods of drawing the human figure. I wanted to change my focus and to expand my imagery and deal with new ideas. Since I was surrounded by domesticity, I began to produce domestic imagery.
Read More of Artist's Statement
Among the first domestic images that I produced were my household appliances in use. I exhibited these prints in printmaking competitions and group exhibitions across Canada. After I won two cash awards totalling $3,000 for my print Wringing Shirt, I became increasingly aware that, unlike my art work, my house work was totally unpaid and unnoticed. I was not tempted to give up my family responsibility, partly because there was no day care available. There was no suitable person with the same strong emotional concerns for my family, to take over the child care and training that were necessary.
The prints in this series made use of the basic historical techniques of printmaking. I etched images on zinc plates with nitric acid. I printed with an inked roller, or by the intaglio method. I also added screen printing and relief printing , and off-set printing to some of the prints, making them multi-process prints.
I produced some large editions of 30 or more prints. In doing so, I realized that the time spent producing an edition, limited the number of images that I could create. My later solution to this situation, was to create monoprints or very small editions of five prints or less.
These prints were made in the 1970s when there were regular print competitions held across Canada. These gave me the opportunity to exhibit my work beyond the confines of Kingston Ontario. They also raised the public awareness of and appreciation for artist's prints.
One such competition was sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council in 1974. There were more than 1200 entries from which 30 artist -printmakers were each awarded $1000.00. Each of the winning artists was required to supply ten prints from the winning edition, to the Ontario Arts Council. These prints including my print Wringing Shirt, were distributed to ten public Galleries in Ontario. A second competition known as the Burnaby Biennial Open Juried Show of Editioned Art, in 1975, offered a Juror's First Selection Award of $2000.00. In addition to winning this award also, my prints won several smaller purchase awards at competitions sponsored by public galleries and organizations of printmakers. They were exhibited in publicly funded Galleries from Burnaby B.C. to Halifax N.S.
Images of domestic products and appliances are not commonly seen in art galleries. I was well aware of the work of male Pop Artists who flooded the New York City Art Galleries with their domestic images of food, cleaning products and mundane household objects. There was no reference to the work of women, whose lives and unpaid labour are associated with these images.
Efforts have been made to determine how much this unpaid labour is worth. There are two conventional methods, the replacement cost method, and the lost opportunity cost method. There is a growing awareness that this work should be paid fairly, and should be included in the Gross Domestic Product.
The domestic labour of women has seldom been the subject of paintings. Exceptions can be found. In 1618 the Spanish artist Velazquez painted an old woman frying eggs. The Dutch artist Vermeer painted a kitchen maid pouring milk. The Canadian artist Alex Colville painted a young woman carrying a laundry basket beside a clothesline. These paintings reinforce the message that this is unpaid women's work, whether they like it or not.
