How I Stumbled Down the Surrealist Rabbit Hole
Honestly? It started with that crusty Salvador Dali poster in my dentist’s office. While getting my tooth drilled, I kept wondering – were there any women doing this weird dream art stuff? Googled “female surrealist artists” later that night and boom. Mind blown.
Found this beat-up library book titled “Surrealist Women” that smelled like mothballs. Started flipping through pages at my kitchen table, coffee going cold. Leonora Carrington’s giant floating horses jumped out first – like some trippy nightmare from a fairy tale. Then Remedios Varo’s clockwork witches building weird machines. My notebook looked like a mad scientist’s journal after scribbling down names.
The Exhibition That Changed Everything
Heard about a tiny surrealism exhibit downtown. Took the bus last Tuesday rain pouring down. Almost missed Kay Sage’s paintings hiding in the corner behind some noisy Dalis. Those jagged structures under smoky skies? Felt like loneliness you could touch. Stood there for 20 minutes till the guard side-eyed me.
Started building my blog post like this:
- Dug through art forums til 3AM finding obscure interviews
- Printed low-res images of Dorothea Tanning’s fuzzy creatures
- Pestered my art student niece for her thesis notes on Meret Oppenheim
Funny how museum plaques always say “muse” when half these women were creating masterpieces in the same damn studios as the men. My rough draft had so many angry scribbles about that.
What Finally Clicked
It was Claude Cahun’s self-portraits that got me. Black and white photos of this woman dressing as Napoleon decades before Instagram filters existed. Realized these artists weren’t just “female surrealists” – they were damn pioneers inventing new ways to twist reality.
Published the piece this morning with tea-stained fingers. Still finding glitter from cutting up Varo book prints. That’s the magic though – you chase one question about ladies in art history and fall into a whole new universe. Might need to buy a frame for that Carrington print now…
