I AM WOMAN

A young mother at a drive-in movie with her daughter, a 1 year old all comfy in her car seat (in the front passenger seat since in those days there were no air bags, this is 1974 after all), is a memory I have in my brain.  It always brings tears to my eyes, so sorry for this pathetic soul who bravely goes to the movie with her child in tow in an attempt to prove to the world that she can do this alone.  The thought in her head is you don't show up for me when you say you will, I'm gone.  I can do whatever it is I have planned without you.

22 years old, full of life and happiness, just beginning to understand what joy is all about and Helen Reddy happens.  Helen shouting "I Am Woman, hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore" empowers this child mother to be all that she can be on her road of life.

So many of Helen's songs are in my memory "My Sister", "You and Me Against the World", "Peaceful", and of course "Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady"--just one of my lifelong anthems.

My thought is to put this into a painting.  How to honor women with my art?  Not just women but all that women ARE; their feistiness, their loving-ness, their wise-ness, their selfless-ness, that they sometimes can be so vulnerable and unable to hide that part of themselves, that sometimes they can hide that vulnerability so well that others don't get that about them--their softness, their willingness to let all go unsaid if it benefits somebody else.

Memories truly do get us through so much especially when we have the time and energy to remember...remember, breathe...breathe, remember.  I'm not a novice any longer, if I have to I can do anything...I am strong, I am invincible...I AM WOMAN!