Beauty, Mystery & Bold Truths: Exploring the Art of 33 Women
I had no idea the National Museum of Women in the Arts even existed—until I walked into The New City of Ladies exhibit and felt like I’d stepped into a world that had been waiting for me all along.
Thirty-three women. Thirty-three voices. And right in front of me, a two-foot-high glass sculpture that stopped me in my tracks. It shimmered with this impossible smoothness—no seams, no tool marks, just this quiet, glowing elegance. I couldn’t figure out how it was made. Was it blown? Carved? Magically summoned?
Fueled by a little burst of bravery (and honestly, too much curiosity to stay quiet), I turned to the gallery director who happened to be sitting nearby and asked, “How on earth do you sculpt glass like that?”
What he told me felt like a secret behind the magic curtain. It turns out, it’s made just like a metal sculpture: first crafted in wax, then encased in a mold, the wax melted away and molten glass poured in. But here’s the wild part—if a single bubble forms, the whole piece is ruined. The cooling process has to be incredibly slow and precise, or the glass can crack or collapse entirely.
It was one of those moments where art, science, and patience collided—and I was so glad I asked.
“There was also another painting across the room that I was not so enchanted with. It was fairly big (4 x 4), a quilt, and it had different geometric shapes of different yellows and browns and oranges. Very abstract. From across the room, it was pretty much nothing. I said that to Alice, and so she walked over in front of it, and she got really interested. Each of those shapes had stitching inside of the shape in decreasing sizes, there was a lot of stuff going on. The pieces that were curved had stitching that reflected the outline, it had a lot of texture and shape stuff going on. After I looked at it with Alice, I ended up thinking it was pretty interesting. I wouldn’t have said it was my favorite piece of art or that I would hang it in a gallery, but on the other hand, it was interesting to look at.
There was another interesting piece by Rosemary Meza-DesPlas – “What You Whispered, Should Be Screamed.” It was done on black fabric, with the artist’s own grey hair!
In another room, which was not part of The City of Ladies exhibit, there were three large pictures — portraits of African-American teenagers, young girls who were obviously African American, but their skin was green. They were abstract, but they didn’t have details like in their skin or in their clothing. I asked the director why the skin was green; we had just watched the movie “Wicked,” and I wondered if this was related. He knew it was painted before that and that the green skin was to show that Black people are invisible. He compared it to a green screen, which is what you put in the back of a picture of a video where you’re gonna put something else in that covers up the green, so I didn’t see how that made the girls invisible. I wasn’t enchanted with that picture.
There was a sculpture, pictured above, that I thought was fascinating, and if it had been less money, I would’ve bought it. But it was almost $3000. It was called “Of Two Minds Meeting.” It spoke to me!
