Alison Weld
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​Letter 24:
Dear Elaine de Kooning

Dear Elaine de Kooning,

You were secondary to Bill. I didn’t want to be secondary. I was too insecure for that role. I also sacrificed motherhood for a life of painting. This was our choice. I decided to watch my younger sisters have children not knowing whether I would be a good aunt to them: Sarah Goodman. Evan Vaczy. Julia Vaczy. James Goodman. Eliot Cary. Caroline Vaczy. Cameron Sands. Grace Sands. I never wanted my painting to be less important than the needs of people. I felt I was answering needs through creation of serious work. I didn’t want my painting to be secondary to my husband or children. I wanted it to be primary. Yet I wasn’t painting solely for myself. I felt I was contributing to the world through my visual eye and my passion. I liked my time somewhat. I disliked much about time, thinking that celebrities and athletes took precedence over the artists or poets, farmers or the seemingly insignificant person. I knew I was creating works that I believed were needed by society for its emotional and psychological welfare. I believed that painting soothed and queried, confirmed and questioned. I thought that my creativity was a serious and spiritual activity, no matter how bodily or organic my imagery. I felt that art centered one’s being, enabling one to lead an emotionally and aesthetically profound and healthy life. And ironically when I did finally become involved in a relationship, where I wasn’t as successful as my husband, my work, both in the studio and in the museum, expanded greatly and developed great impact and difficulty. I was intellectually challenged. My aptitude at writing and thinking increased. But we wouldn’t have children, only our professions and our passions.

Alison Weld

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  • Home
  • Artist Info
    • Artist Statements
    • Resume
    • Reviews and Essay Excerpts
    • Links to Texts and Installations
  • Painting
    • 2021 and 2022 Painting
    • Spoken to by Field
    • Liminal Series
    • Tonal Variation Series
    • Home Economics
    • Selected Solo Exhibitions
    • Assemblages
    • Striation Series
    • Neo-expressionism
  • Works on Paper
    • Of the atmosphere, 2022
    • Field of Presence, 2022
    • Inner Atmosphere 2020
    • Earth Mark, 2019
    • Lubec Language
    • Northern Song
    • To listen without ceasing
    • Oil on Arches huile
    • Thus the Night
    • Animal of Thought
    • Pounded mark
  • Domestic Genealogy
  • Ghost Letters
  • Voice Statements
  • Contact