Heroes

Who are your heroes? This is the picture I have over my desk - a litho of Picasso's portrait of Francoise. She was famously the only woman ever to leave Picasso - stifled by his ego, genius and infidelity. Francoise is one of mine - for her strength, brilliance and creativity. She's also the mother of the beautiful and talented designer Paloma Picasso. I saw the drawing in New York years ago and loved it. The lives and work of other women artists can be a great inspiration - when I discovered Elsa Peretti, Lee Miller, Beatrice Wood, Colette, Francoise Sagan, Georgia O'Keefe and others in my teens, they gave me a sense that anything was possible. I mentioned Julia Cameron yesterday - she's a terrific debunker of the myths about artists (that they are male, mad, drunk). Reading her work I realised that artists and writers can be balanced and creative. Look around you at women who are artists and parents - there are success stories everywhere.