I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Still, I cannot imagine spending a lifetime dedicated to a craft, honing it, immersing myself in the work of it, only to have it celebrated as either a gendered exception or as an accomplishment somehow credited to abusive ex.

Many artists are part of communities. Some artists receive recognition, some do not, but we’re often so eager to insist that those we recognized first somehow influenced everyone else, and seldom was it the other way around, or an exchange.

It’s such a common narrative, as if we appoint these figures to be the main characters of artistic history and the entire narrative of that movement must revolve around them somehow.