Laura: Artists of the Everyday

women's history month

the art of the everyday

Women have long shaped the world with care and vision. Often overlooked in the records of time, they have consistently turned the ordinary into the extraordinary, innovating from the margins of society. As Virginia Woolf wrote, "for most of history, Anonymous was a woman." Valuing amplification over anonymity, eugenie is committed to giving women a platform. We lift their work out of the shadows and celebrate the creative courage that too often goes unseen.

This Women's History Month, we are reflecting on the lineages of inspiration passed down to us by women who made the world their own. Whether in the public eye or the quiet of their private lives, these women made art a living practice that shaped how they moved, wrote, and created. They found power where none was granted, and infused the everyday with their own beauty and force. After all, as Joan Didion famously reminds us, "every day is all there is."

Read below about the women who keep our team grounded, inspired, and aspiring:

nikki giovanni

Nikki Giovanni was a poet, writer, and activist focused on black identity, femininity, family, and cultural pride. In poems like "Ego Tripping" and "Nikki-Rosa," she reframes childhood, womanhood, and heritage as sources of power rather than limitation. Her work shows that claiming joy, memory, and lineage is political. Through her voice, I've come to understand identity as something rooted in history and strengthened by self-definition.

Her writing affirms that community is built in kitchens, classrooms, and neighborhoods, and that artists have a responsibility to engage in civic life. That idea of tenderness intertwined with action has influenced me to see belonging not as passive residence, but as active participation in shaping and caring for the places and people around me.

alysa liu

Alysa Liu, Gold Medal winner in the Milan Olympics, has talked about falling out of love with a sport to which she had given so much, only to make an incredible comeback on her own terms. Through her style, music, and joy, you can feel her deep love for skating and expressing herself on the ice. Similarly, I have also had a personal journey of falling out of love with my own craft and finding a way back on my own terms.

Protecting yourself and pursuing your passion can coexist, and when they do, you can't help but feel awed and grateful.

diane di prima

Diane di Prima was one of the most prolific Beat poets of the twentieth century. Amidst a group of mainly male beatniks like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, di Prima penned a uniquely feminine cry for revolution. My favorite works of hers, Loba and The Revolutionary Letters, capture a raw, unfiltered plea for a world beyond the constraints of patriarchy, militarism, and economic exploitation.

She writes unapologetically, with an expansive voice that prophesies a future where sensuality and embodiment lead the way. Her words stir in me a deep devotion to liberation and the courage to demand a better world.

yayoi kusama

Yayoi Kusama is a visionary artist whose imagination and fearless creativity transformed contemporary art. As a Japanese woman entering the avant-garde scene in New York City in the 1960s, she carved out space for herself in a male-dominated art world, pioneering immersive installations and her now-iconic polka dots and Infinity Mirror Rooms.

Her practice has deeply impacted me. Through her devotion to simple shapes, she reminds us that the simplest forms can hold infinite depth. In the same way, the quiet, persistent power of a woman is often underestimated, yet it carries worlds within it.

denise allen

My mother, Denise Allen, shaped how I move through the world long before I ever took my first steps. As an artist and dancer, she had me in motion even in the womb, with creativity and beauty already at the forefront of my life. I truly believe that without this early, formative influence, I would not be so deeply in love with the beautiful game of football, and I would not see it as the art form it is.

She taught me to be a giver, an entrepreneur, a teacher, and a hustler; to nurture my spiritual side, uplift others, and never quit. For all of this and more, she is my world.

vanessa bell

Vanessa Bell lived at Charleston Farmhouse from 1916 onward, and it became both her home and creative laboratory. She was a painter who blurred the line between fine art and everyday living through her work in painting, interiors, and textiles. She transformed the house into a fully immersive work of art—painting walls, fireplaces, doors, and furniture, and designing textiles throughout the space.

She has shaped the way I think about art as something meant to be lived with. Her painter's eye dissolved the boundary between art and environment. Her belief that beauty should surround us and feel woven into how we move through a space continues to guide how I curate and build collections.

connie converse

Ann Arbor-based folk songwriter from the 1950s, Connie Converse, was completely ahead of her time. Her recently rediscovered music is intimate, sophisticated, clever, delicate, contemplative, and entirely original.

diane keaton

Diane Keaton showed me that a woman could scream and cry without apology—and still be kind, warm, and deeply loving. She made space for messiness and tenderness to coexist. Her characters frequently "had it all" while still showing the pressure a woman faces in the real world. Watching her, I learned that being emotional didn't make a woman weak or unlovable; it made her real.