Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi is my favorite artist. Her life story is amazing on several levels. Wikipedia gives an account of her life.

When you get past her life story, the story she tells on a canvas is just as enthralling. Artemisia shows a vast amount of emotion in her paintings. While I would not go so far as to say the male point of view is lacking this, I will say that it is refreshing to see a story told as a woman would tell it to another woman. Her work speaks to me. I loved it before I discovered the history of the woman behind the paintings, but I truly appreciated it more, once I learned more.

As I work on my self portraits the back of my mind is always holding on to this image.

If you have trouble finding clear images of here work there is always ARC. They do not have her full body of work, however the images they do have are very nice quality.

Artemisia dared to be different. At the same time, she challenged herself to be held under high standards. That is my goal as an artist.