09/07/2026
The art world has an age problem. But it’s not the one you think.
The problem isn’t that women get older. The problem is that the art world spent centuries deciding when a woman’s creative life was supposed to end.
Mary Delany invented an entirely new art form at seventy-two and made nearly a thousand botanical collages until her eyesight gave out. Louise Bourgeois didn’t have her first major retrospective until she was seventy-one — she kept working until she was ninety-eight. Pat Adams started painting at twelve. She is ninety-seven. She is still in her studio. Carmen Herrera sold her first painting at 89, and had her retrospective at 101!
The art world has a very specific idea about when women are relevant. Young enough to be discovered. Young enough to be a muse. Young enough to be interesting. And then there’s a window. And then the window closes.
Except for the women who ignored the window.
I’m forty. I’ve blown up my business twice. I’m making the most interesting work of my creative life right now…not despite being forty, because of it. Because I know what I’m doing in a way I didn’t in my twenties or thirties. Because I’ve stopped making work for the people who decide when the window opens and closes.
The art world has an age problem. The women in this series solved it by refusing to have one.
My studio doesn’t have a window.
DM me to be art!
Keywords: age and creativity · women artists age · art relevance · creative life after 40 · women in art history · feminist art history · Pat Adams · Louise Bourgeois · Mary Delany · creative entrepreneur · age is not a limitation