Autobiography of a Year of Frustrations for Judy Chicago

Before we get too far away from the Judy Chicago visit, I want to remember the series that catalogs her artistic despair and depression.  The last wall contained 140 drawings and sketches:

During the year of 1993-1994, she found herself depleted, both financially and artistically.  She had created Holocaust Project, only to find it difficult to find a place to display it.  Below she collects fragments from rejection letters:

She was without a studio because of building renovations, and she found herself feeling blocked.  She returned to a form that was manageable; they look like quick sketches/washes/drawings on smaller pieces of paper.

I was taken by their stark honesty:

I recognized some of the frustrations:

As I walked and looked and at times, felt like I should look away from an artist so exposed, I thought, wow, she's created some impressive work, and she still feels this way.  This is years after she created The Dinner Party, but also long before it found its home in Brooklyn.

When I first realized that the exhibit was much smaller than I anticipated, I felt a bit cheated.  It was mildly interesting to see the "rough drafts" of some of the plates from The Dinner Party, and I was happy to see some pieces from Birth Project again, although they weren't as revelatory for me as they were when I saw them in the 80's.

But as I've thought back, I've been most moved by the wall that was a catalog of frustrations.  It's a comfort to know that most of us suffer some of the kind of stuff--artistic stuff, relationship stuff, money stuff, time stuff--regardless of what we've already accomplished.