It hit me the other night as my senses feasted in the bounty of a friend's home, that this is where, among other places, women are true artist. The home it seems, is a woman's environment to effect, more so than for any man or child who shares that space.
It is the care they take and the desire to create that touches me most about women and their homes. I realize that this is where they share their art; their souls. Each home is a private and personal gallery. Women adorn their space. They mix memories, visions, beauty, insight; in short, who they are, into domesticity. That mixing is a work of art.
The touches are expressions that are uniquely theirs. A favorite color, a period of time that captures their imagination, treasures from yard sales or from grandma's attics are arranged from the heart. Perched on a shelf, a tiny old bottle with a single pansy catches the eye, waiting to please. Good smells of something cooking whets appetites. Postcards, "sayings", and children's school work on refrigerators reassures that family life is pretty much the same in every home. All these things speak of who these women are, what they believe, and what they want to give.
Cooking is the obvious way women express themselves in their homemaking. But it goes so much further than that. There's more than just titilating the tastebuds. There is substance; recipes that are time-honored for generations of family life, or ones newly discovered. It is a combination of china and dishes, carefully selected and arranged to stimulate visual appetite as well as please the palate.
Favorite paintings, prints, or pictures are displayed for mood as well as appreciation. A splashy bright poster hangs over a couch, inviting conversation. A yellowed photo of a small child from a different time brings reflection in a quiet corner. A windchime tinkles next to an open window, bringing back perhaps, a warm memory. A feeling of well-being may linger after watching laundry flapping on the line outside.
All these touches are as carefully placed as any paintbrush to a canvas or any bow to a string. And through this act of creation, like all artists, women find strength as well as give it. The art of homemaking not only makes our culture rich, but has probably to some degree developed a taste and standard for art in all of us. We have all passed through these personal galleries. Now I recognize the women behind them as artists.