II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch
O’Doherty, Susan. Getting Unstuck without Coming Unglued: A Women’s Guide to Unblocking Creativity. 2007.
O’Doherty reframes some well-known sexism issues as they impact women artists. She also exposes one of the deepest roots of patriarchy: that men assume their lives and perceptions hold intrinsic worth, that their individual voices and expressions will be interesting to others. Women who do not share this assumption make art that is draped in self-doubt from the get-go.
 

Her stories and exercises are chosen to underline a double whammy when two marginalized groups in our culture overlap - women and artists. In American families, arts are often seen as hobbies to be indulged in, rather than as serious work or useful for the good of the group.

She also highlights ageism, an especial problem for those starting to make art only after commitments to take care of others wind down. In many cases, this of course is mothers who are beginning their creative journeys once the kids have left home.
 

If these samples of her writing speak to you, you will likely benefit from this book and even more from carrying out the exercises that she provides.
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III. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
Tannen, Deborah. Are You Wearing That? 2001.
Tannen draws on her research as a psycholinguist to write for the public on how we communicate* and this one is for women only. She hits the mark for conversations between mothers and grown daughters that go right, and those that go wrong. Her clarity about language patterns helps us understand the dynamics of criticism vs. helping and closeness vs. distance that are so often intense in these pairings.

Her examples of the top three topics (clothes, hair, and weight) are embarrassingly accurate and often poignantly funny. Although she tries to be neutral about the missteps of each side I feel she tilts toward the grown daughters’ side of things; her courage in sharing interactions with her own mother, who died while Tannen was writing the book, are powerful. A survival manual for every daughter and mother you know.
*You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, 2001.

Who Moved My Cheese? (1998) Spencer Johnson is the man who wrote all those “One-Minute” books.* I include “the cheese” book here because it’s a great parable for handling change that can be shared by artists with their families and friends. It provides a common language to negotiate setting new boundaries that the artists need to protect their creative time, space and money.
*One Minute Manager. 1982; One Minute Father. 1995.
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Forster, Margaret. Keeping the World Away. (2008) This novel follows the fate of a painting by Gwen John, a mistress of Rodin, as it moves through the lives of generations of women. Most of the women have to choose between a family life or one of creative work. In an Afterword, author Forster is asked: “Do you think the problems that affect women in this book – the pull between family/relationships and career/artistic ambition – are still relevant today? Do these problems still divide so clearly along gender lines?”
Foster responds: “Yes, I do. In fact, in some crucial ways the problems are now harder because theoretically, women can have it all and that creates a huge burden. Once, women had to choose, and it was a cruel choice – career versus family. Now they don’t have to choose but the strain of balancing both is such a drain on energy. Yes, they do, in general, divide on gender lines.”
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IV. Creative Links
http://www.nmwa.org/
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, located in Washington, D. C., has just celebrated its 22^nd year, a good time for a reminder of this resource for researching and browsing women artists’ work. It celebrates the “achievements of women in the visual, performing, and literary arts”.

Google>Images
www.google.com  
In case you haven’t discovered Google’s Images section, do be aware that right above the “iGoogle” logo on their main page, is a horizontal list of choices: Web, Images, Maps, News, Shopping, Gmail, more. If you click Images before entering your search word, all the hits you get will be images. This is especially helpful in looking at artists’ work. For example, the work of Gwen John includes several versions of “A Corner of the Artist’s Room” which is the focus of Forster’s novel, above.
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V. E-mail changes. To change your e-mail address, subscribe, or unsubscribe please e-mail connect@dianereardon.com. If you use a spam filter, please add this e-mail address to your list of approved senders. This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching (website www.dianereardon.com) All material is copyrighted ©, September 30 2008, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour coaching session.
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