As an acclaimed artist, Marcia Goldenstein has been awarded many honors. However, for Goldenstein, the biggest reward she has ever received has been the opportunity to touch the lives of students as professor of painting and drawing at the UT School of Art. Hearing from students and keeping in touch with them, even now as professor emerita, has been the most gratifying part of her career.
This was not Goldenstein’s only success in teaching: she was also named the first studio faculty woman to receive tenure. She is lighting the way for other studio women on campus and across the world. She hopes to shed light on other female artists as well in her newest work, Women in Stitches.
The first wave of her Women in Stitches series includes female artists stitched into pieces and framed, while the second wave focuses on female activists. Goldenstein wanted to highlight all the talented female faces that she was never taught about, like Edmonia Lewis and Georgia O’Keefe. Now, as an artist with influence and as professor emerita, she is doing her part to make them known. Each work is very small, but the message is largely impactful.
“It invites the audience not only to get up there and scrutinize them, but also to learn something that they maybe missed in their education as well,” says Goldenstein.
In addition to the exhibit itself, Goldenstein has also created a book that features the entire Women in Stitches series. She wanted a way to commemorate its success, and now she and fellow art lovers can hold her works and display them at home.
Her illustrious career celebrates just how pervasive art can be. In the future, Goldenstein herself will be revered in the same way she reveres all the Women in Stitches.
