Art for the Ladylike: An Autobiography Through Other Livesvolume 1

"In this inviting blend of biography and memoir, novelist Otto (How to Make an American Quilt) examines her life in terms of the women artists who influenced her....Otto provides a fascinating tour of art through the lens of her own experience. Creatives of all sorts will enjoy [her] wide-ranging insights." --Publishers Weekly

In Art for the Ladylike, Whitney Otto limns the lives of eight pioneering women photographers--Sally Mann, Imogen Cunningham, Judy Dater, Ruth Orkin, Tina Modotti, Lee Miller, Madame Yvonne, and Grete Stern--to in turn excavate her own writer's life. The result is an affecting exploration of what it means to be a woman, what it means to be an artist, and the perils and rewards of being both at once. In considering how feminism, career, and motherhood were entangled throughout her subjects' lives as they tirelessly sought to render their visions and paved the way for others creating within the bounds of domesticity, Otto assesses her own struggles with balancing writing and the pulls of home life. Ultimately, she ponders the persistent question that artistic women face in a world that devalues women's ambition: If what we love is what we are, how do those of us with multiple loves forge lives with room for everything?

Author: Whitney Otto
Publisher: Mad Creek Books
Published: 03/07/2021
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780814257821
ISBN10: 0814257828
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Collections | Essays
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs
- Biography & Autobiography | Women

About the Author
Whitney Otto is the author of five novels, including the New York Times bestseller How to Make an American Quilt, which was later made into a movie of the same name, and Eight Girls Taking Pictures. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and in several anthologies. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family.