1 Summer and her new book, Great Gals.
Venus Girl of the Month: Summer Pierre
She's an artist who has many talents—and a new book to help you discover yours
By Siera Cerny
Published: November 4th, 2010 | 3:00pm
In her new book Great Gals: Inspired Ideas for Living a Kick-Ass Life
Great Gals: Inspired Ideas for Living a Kick-Ass Life by Summer Pierre (Perigree Trade)
VZ: Explain a little about Great Gals and how the idea came to your head.
SP: I’ve always been inspired by the lives and example of women artists and figures. About 8 years ago I came up with an idea to make a calendar of these great women—as a way to make use of that inspiration and to celebrate them.
VZ: With your previous book The Artist in the Office, you blogged about starting a zine with the same name. Did something similar happen with Great Gals? What process did you go through in order to make it into a book?
SP: It was a different process with Great Gals than with The Artist in the Office. I had been making these calendars for about six years and wanted to do something further with the material. But one of the things that is so common with doing an inspiration book based on famous examples is that the fame can cloud the more human parts of someone’s life. I loved the stories about famous women that I could relate to—the struggling, doubting, worried parts of their lives. I wanted to make a book that people could feel themselves in and not be outshined or stalled by their ideas of who is “great” and who is not. We’re all “great” in some ways. So that’s where I started—I found all of those little stories and went through my own journals to find lessons and questions that I had taken from the stories of the great women and made questions based on that.
VZ: How did you go about choosing which women to include in the book?
SP: I had 72 portraits to choose from, plus a few additional women I wanted to include. I created some guidelines for myself when I did the calendars that I extended to the book: There had to be a representation of different cultures and backgrounds. I wanted to included historical women like Sojourner Truth alongside current women like Amy Sedaris. Some choices were obvious to me, like Margaret Cho and her incredible example of overcoming "failure"; some came later, like Lucille Ball, who is one of my husband’s all-time favorite heroines. When I read her story of resilience I couldn’t believe how appropriate she was for this book.
VZ: Who is your favorite great gal and why?
SP: This is so hard because all of them mean something dear to me. Harper Lee wrote my favorite book of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird. To me that book is more than just literature—it’s the highest example of what love and life and effort can bring. So she is BIG BIG BIG in my book, but then there’s someone like Joni Mitchell, who—along with being one of the best songwriters of all time—is a gorgeous painter. Her example told me that I didn’t have to choose one medium when I was good at more than one.
VZ: You seem to be a fan of writing lists; whether it is the list of things you do before you die, a list of your favorite names of things, suggesting the readers of Great Gals to write their own lists. Why is that?
SP: I’ve always been a big list maker for everything. I think lists are the best shortcut for processing things. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by tasks or ideas, but when we make a list it immediately becomes organized and clear. It has a beginning and an end--no middle needed. For example, how overwhelmed would you be if I asked you to write an essay on how you spent your summer? But what if I asked you to write a list of five things you loved about this summer? (Here's some of mine: 1. The green of the trees in Central Park; 2. Laughing on the swings with my friends in California; 3. Eating calamari with Jeff Garlin ... etc.) Lists are a quick way to gather important and essential information. As a result, they do something wonderful—make things clear and tell good stories.
VZ: Great Gals is the type of book that will be appreciated by women and girls, old and young. However, there is sort of a big-sister element that continues to come through. Did you have a specific audience in mind while putting it together?
SP: I didn’t have a specific audience in mind other than women in general, but it’s interesting that you note the “big sister” tone. Recently I read a review of the book where the reviewer said she wanted to give it to her daughters and that made me so happy. I think it’s for all ages, but I’d love it if teenage women would find this book. It’s a good and safe place to work out where you are in life and who you want to be, two big questions that start at that age.
VZ: What does being an artist mean to you? How would you define the word "art" (or "artistry"/"artist"?
SP: I think it was Stefan Sagmeister who said (or maybe he was quoting somebody else), “If we think of art as an experience, it's much easier to have that experience.” I like that idea a lot. That way art isn't an isolated incident--it's something to be experienced either by creating it or receiving it.
With that in mind, I would say that being an artist for me is a lens through which I experience the world and make sense of it. Like my legs, I could survive without them—or my art. But it would be so much harder for me to make my way through this beautiful and baffling world.
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Want more Summer? Visit SummerPierre.com of follow her on Twitter.
Think you have what it takes to be the next Venus Girl of the Month? Leave us a comment below, or email intern@venuszine.com and tell us why we should pick you!
See past Venus Girls here:
- Fashion Designer Tatiana Mclane
- Novelist Camille A. Collins
- Photographer Hoda Amel Abdalla
Issue #44
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