Judy Chicago is a Chicago, Illinois born and raised women's rights activist, feminist artist, and writer.Initially name Judy Cohen, Judy changed her name to Judy Chicago because she felt a connection to the city, as well as breaking traditional standards of taking her father's last name. I found Judy Chicago's work so compelling and worth sharing because of her role in the art world of trying to break stigma's surrounding femininity. She was raised in a family that encouraged her feminism, which is the main topic surrounding her work. I was first introduced to her work in high school when I studied her art piece titled "The Dinner Party". This piece represents 999 women in history, with a place set at 39 seats. The place set contains a ceramic plate that embodies a female vulva. This piece was created in 1979, when feminism wasn't as well known as it is today. This piece also toured the world, and is now permanently stored in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. I hope to see it one day. Her art, along with many other great feminists, inspired a movement to accept a woman's body, as well as a woman's rights in the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042000419.html
This website has an article written by a viewer of The Dinner Party piece done by Judy Chicago. Not only does the article describe the art piece, but it provides an insight as well as opinion and thoughts of it. It goes on to describe femininity in context to the writers life. She goes into a detailed story with her own experiences with becoming a feminist, and the reactions of others.
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-chicago-judy.htm
This website gives a biography of Judy Chicago, as well as a description of this specific piece, The Dinner Party, which is one her most well known works. The website also goes into the art style Chicago takes, and how that came to be.
http://www.throughtheflower.org/projects/birth_project
This website gives a deeper look into Judy Chicago's other works of art. It focuses on The Birth Project, which is a collection of images inspired by birth. Chicago travelled around the world to work with 150 other artists that all contributed to this piece of art.