Women and art

In the current crafty DIY revolution I see loads of art of this ilk:





Lots of very delicate, whimsical creatures with big eyes, often looking sad.

Or otherwise lots of cute animals (often bunnies) looking rather cute and sad:



It's not that I dislike them (on the contrary! But I would really like to see some strong happy women doing happy things. Women that are not childlike or melancholy. I spend enough time being melancholy as it is to not want to look at it on my walls....

I really like social realism and communist china propaganda for this reason, as it shows strong/industrious/happy women. Yes, I realise they are not necessarily authentic pictures of women (not all were happy under poverty and enforced labour) and no one looks radiant doing hard labour, but at least they look like women!





So I am inspired to do some art of women. I have a vague idea involving fabric patchwork or mosaic.