WILLA CATHER FOR POPE
Signed digital print in an edition of 5. Original created from archival phto which was hand-colored, englarged and cut out. Mounted on a painted background with digitally added icons. Wilella Cather was an American author who some believe was an important early feminist. Born in Back Creek, Virginia in 1873, she moved to the midwest when she was nine and grew up in the male-dominated culture of Red Cloud, Nebraska. The Great Plains figured deeply in some of her work.
Cather had a particular affinity for the older immigrant women around her and spent hours visiting them and hearing their stories. In her work, Cather created strong female characters and championed equality for women. Yet, she also vividly portrayed male characters.
Some of her books are steeped in Catholicism, though she was an active Episcopalian. âThere is no God but one God and Art is his revealer; thatâs my creed and Iâll follow it to the end, to a hotter place than here if need be.â
To her college friends Cather was remembered as one of the most colorful people on campus: smart, outspoken, talented, and mannish in her opinions and dress. Cather changed her name to Willa and later signed her name William.
The Cather image I use is from the Cather Foundation and shows her as a girl with short hair and masculine garb. Later she wore it shingled in a time women had fashionably long hair. A biographer saw her style as, âa purposeful step in challenging the social construct of the masculine gender.â
Willa Cather surrounded herself with female friends and lived with Edith Lewis, a professional editor, in a domestic partnership for 38 years. Lewis most likely was challenged by the work of this fiercely independent, opinionated, cantankerous, Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Her works include âOne of Ours,â âMy Antonia,â âO! Pioneers,â and âPaulâs Case.â
There is speculation, though never verified, that Cather was a lesbian. Most of her letters and personal writing were destroyed after she died in New York in 1947. Considered one of the great American writers, she knew and loved her characters and their environment.
Cather had a particular affinity for the older immigrant women around her and spent hours visiting them and hearing their stories. In her work, Cather created strong female characters and championed equality for women. Yet, she also vividly portrayed male characters.
Some of her books are steeped in Catholicism, though she was an active Episcopalian. âThere is no God but one God and Art is his revealer; thatâs my creed and Iâll follow it to the end, to a hotter place than here if need be.â
To her college friends Cather was remembered as one of the most colorful people on campus: smart, outspoken, talented, and mannish in her opinions and dress. Cather changed her name to Willa and later signed her name William.
The Cather image I use is from the Cather Foundation and shows her as a girl with short hair and masculine garb. Later she wore it shingled in a time women had fashionably long hair. A biographer saw her style as, âa purposeful step in challenging the social construct of the masculine gender.â
Willa Cather surrounded herself with female friends and lived with Edith Lewis, a professional editor, in a domestic partnership for 38 years. Lewis most likely was challenged by the work of this fiercely independent, opinionated, cantankerous, Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Her works include âOne of Ours,â âMy Antonia,â âO! Pioneers,â and âPaulâs Case.â
There is speculation, though never verified, that Cather was a lesbian. Most of her letters and personal writing were destroyed after she died in New York in 1947. Considered one of the great American writers, she knew and loved her characters and their environment.