PIRACY IS A CRIME
Sneaking into the closed-door bookcases which we were not allowed to open, I grew up pouring over my mother’s art history books. Without knowing who these artists were my child self was informed by the masterworks of Modern Art. I delighted in the shapes of Picasso, the colors of Matisse, and the dramatic lines of Bernard Buffett. While my siblings were outdoors I was inside, endlessly turning pages, filled with wonder and desire. I began drawing as soon as my tiny hand could hold a stylus; these books were my first sketchbooks/coloring books/altered books and bear my 4 year-old crayon markings.
At the Academy of Art in San Francisco during the early 90’s, my education was influenced by the Bay Area Figurative Movement. My work itself was inspired by the German Expressionists as well as the Pop Artists who were revolting against pretentious or “High Brow” art. This was the time of Desert Storm and the Rodney King trial when we took to the streets and were arrested under martial law. While San Francisco was a mecca of social activism, I was intensely engaged with the second wave feminist ideal that the personal is the political.
I developed my visceral and raw mixed media method of combining words with imagery in art school. Though I was greatly chastised for it, I determinately continued with these methods that have become my signature style. The narrative in my work arises not only from the social and historical events of my time, but through my unconscious and explodes, unedited, across the canvas. Prolific, I work on many pieces at once, layering, cutting, pasting, painting out, drawing over, putting back together, then cutting up and open again. Visual Journaling, a technique I developed and teach internationally, is how I process my ideas. My journals have been published in over 30 books and magazines on the subject. Visual Journaling, daily writing and weekly figure drawing groups are the core of my practice and everything evolves from there.
PIRATE QUEENS
In 2017 I began work on “Pirate Queens; Piracy is a Feminist Act” for a 2018 exhibit at the Jean Cocteau Theater Gallery Space in Santa Fe NM. This groundbreaking body of work revealed the extraordinary lives of female pirates from all over the world who dared to abandon home and comfort to pursue freedom beyond society’s confines.
Learn more about pirate journals from this PBS video!
Without being fully conscious of it, I had been working on this series in my visual journals since 2005 when I developed the “Pirates Code” Visual Journaling workshop for a group of artists in Gainesville FLA.
Through extensive and ongoing historical research I uncovered over 58 female pirates whose brave stories have been lost at sea. As long as there have been waterways, a vessel, and stars to guide her way, there have been female pirates. Many of these women served in their country’s army or acquired maritime skills through the navy. Some of these women snuck down to the waterfront, disguised themselves as cabin boys, and disappeared out to sea to escape arranged marriages. Captains, privateers, thieves, revolutionaries, heroines, villains, and yes, even actual Queens, changed the course of history. Though their stories have been disavowed for centuries, “Pirate Queens” reclaims women’s historical significance while introducing audiences to a fascinating piece of missing world history.
THE PERILS OF PIRACY
There are no known written accounts from any of the women pirates, so we have no idea what life was like in their own words. To bring their lost stories to life, my Captain’s Logs are the imagined writings, sketches, maps and charts of the “Pirate Queens.”
In 2020, I put my Pirate Queens Series on hold while creating work for “Western Stars,” an exhibit at the South Broadway Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Unfortunately, the gallery shut down due to covid and no one saw the show but these new portraits provided an expanded vision of how I would like to pursue the Pirate Queens’ paintings. While on lockdown, I obsessively created about a dozen Pirate Journals. Also during this corona year I was gifted an online screenwriting course for my birthday with noted screenwriter Marco Calvani through the Key West Art Studios adding yet another element to my Pirate Queens body of work; yes, I am writing a screenplay.
My goals for the Pirate Queens are: finish my screenplay and get Geena Davis to Produce my movie, create a traveling portrait exhibit that introduces audiences to a piece of missing world history, finish my Captains Logs and Pirate journals, publish a history book that includes a Pirate Queens Map, and create displays to be placed in Maritime, treasure, pirate and shipwreck museums around the world that finally provide detailed information about not just the 3 usual suspects of Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Grace O’Malley, but over 58 female pirates!
You can help! Donations of course are greatly appreciated to help support the work! I also need assistance with my research- organizing it, typing it out. Do you know a publisher? Have any connections with galleries/ museums? Do you know Geena Davis? If there is any way you would like to help or get involved or bring “Pirate Queens” to a gallery or museum near you, please contact me! Check out my Pirate Queens Youtube channel!
Connect with me on SOCIAL MEDIA FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM EMAIL ME: meandpete08@gmail.com
INSTRUCTION: In 1992, based on my artistic practice, I developed a process that combines journal writing with artmaking in a book for raw self-dialogue. I have taught all over the US as well as Canada, Mexico, Egypt, Greece, Ecuador, Portugal and n May 2026, Join me in Ireland! I’ve written dozens of workbooks/handbooks and developed online workshops to provide this healing process to a wider audience. Instructor CV provided upon request. Message me about facilitating this transformational practice for your retreat group or center! I love to travel!
