Two women at work during World War II. Photo © Emmanuel Joseph.
In my life, Labor Day is generally a bittersweet day marking the end of summer. Bitter because the lazy afternoons on the beach or by somebody’s pool are pretty much done for a year. Sweet because school is about to start, meaning my days as sole care provider for my daughter are rapidly coming to an end.
Not that I don’t love hanging out with her, but, as anyone with a young kid can tell you, keeping up with them is a full time job in itself, let alone feeding them and preventing them from killing themselves by doing things like skateboarding across the street with their eyes closed or jumping into the deep end when they can’t swim.
I am exhausted, and am looking forward to a September full of more sleep, solo trips to the market and not having to squeeze my own work in between 6 and 8 am or 10 pm till midnight.
But I digress.
In reality, Labor Day is actually a celebration of, well, labor. And I am lucky lucky lucky to find myself surrounded by a bunch of women whose work is truly inspiring. So in honor of this auspicious holiday, please allow me to share some of the amazing things my friends are getting up to these days.
Jill Platner is busy making extraordinary sculpture and jewelry.
Documentary and portrait photographer Ali Smith makes beautiful pictures about real life stuff and turns them into books, like this one about motherhood.
Ellen Harvey makes the kind of art that causes one’s head to spin both by virtue of its beauty and just how god damned hard it must have been to make it in the first place. Her installations are breathtaking and heartbreaking and hilarious all at the same time.
April Barton has been making people’s hair look effortlessly amazing for, like, ever.
Kim France made a smart, cool, relevant, interesting, funny website for women my age.
Jennifer Mankins, April Hughes and Bronagh Staley have blessed Williamsburg with three absolutely perfect stores for hipsters, hippies and their offspring, respectively.
And lastly (for today, at least) Beth Coleman (who could happily shop at all three of the above stores) is busy researching social media, creating art and showing us how we might actually use the ever-more-present virtual world to make the real world a better place to be.
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