A great lie is that women are less than.

“Madame X Returns to Aid the Kits” (relief print by Rachel Welling)

Last year, I was one of 12 artists asked to make a relief print for a 2024 calendar with Ida Short, an artist and collaborative printmaker who owns Short Stack Press in Goshen, IN. I was excited about the project because I had dreamed about making a calendar someday. I learned a lot through the process and am grateful to have been a part of it!

I was assigned the month of November and wanted to pay homage to the full moon of the month that goes by different Indigenous names. I think a lot about Native Americans and the land that we live on, how to live respectfully and honor the seasons and all living beings. I chose to focus on beavers for November’s Beaver Moon. Of course, just saying the word beaver out loud makes people laugh and I find it funny to see people react and giggle about the word.

I started thinking about beavers in relation to the actual animals who are shoring up for the cold winter ahead and then of course, the derogatory slang term widely known for a woman’s pubic hair + genitalia.

Pondering November, I thought about the upcoming election and how many women feel like they are living in damage-control mode, swimming through cold waters, caring for others, the young and helping sustain a safe enough place to exist in harsh realities. I thought about an art historical woman I would include in the print who had been defamed by assumptions and how simple it is to take down the reputation of a woman with commentary about her sexuality.

And lo and behold! Today, we are seeing it play out with speech about Kamala Harris. The opposition calling her a prostitute, a low, ludicrous attempt to change the way people think about her. I pray the world is getting smarter than that.

I referred to the painting of Madame X from 1884. In the original painting, the woman’s hair is pinned up with a crescent moon, a symbol of Artemis, Goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation. In the print, I let her hair down so she could relax a little into this century. I whispered to her like Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, “Carpe Diem, seize the day”, but more like: “you are not forgotten, I see you, people are learning from you”.

About “Madame X” by John Singer Sargent:

(Renamed from the original title: Portrait of Mme***)

The sitter was born Virginie Amélie Avegno in Louisiana and her father died in the Civil War. After this, she and her mother moved to France. There, she met Pierre Gautreau- a banker twice her age. They married and had a daughter.

In Paris, she became known for her style and elegance. In 1882, Sargent met her and asked if he could paint her portrait. The two were expatriates in their 20’s finding their way in society.

Sargent displayed the portrait in the prestigious Paris Salon of 1884. He titled it, “Portrait of Mme***” Even though he didn’t use her last name, people knew that it was her. The painting was not well-received. They ridiculed her for showing too much skin and the color of it, people gossiped about her ingesting arsenic to lighten it, the neckline of her dress too low, her bare shoulder scandalous as the strap of her dress was painted to have slipped. All of this with a wedding ring on her finger. How could a married woman give off such sensuality? Many acquaintances and friends abandoned her.

After several talks with her upset mother, Sargent repainted the dress strap to fit snugly on her shoulder. But the damage was done. Her reputation as a loose woman and his reputation as a tacky painter of a loose woman was set. She retreated from Parisian life and never recovered from the shame of the incident. Sargent left Paris for London. He held onto the painting for 30 years and in 1916, he sold it to The Met and asked them to maintain the anonymity of the woman with the title, “Madame X”.