In the 1960’s Carolee Schneemann was first drawn to her Old Stone House in Springtown, New York. When Schneemann first came across the stone house, she felt an immediate impulse to unite with its unique and individual character- so beautifully isolated among the rural and undeveloped. She was immediately embraced by the calm spirit of the ramshackle house, and as if her intuition didn’t say enough, a company of dreams ensued which further intensified her attraction. This paper, will prove how the persevering spirit of the Old Stone House, has come to mirror Carolee’s own spirit as artist. While Carolee does not consider the Old Stone House a work itself, it is the embedded spirit and process of discovery that is reminiscent of her artistic manifesto.
For Schneeman, the Old Stone House served as a rejection, of the mindless repetition of images associated with pop culture, and the mainstream in the 1960s. It represented an escape and stood instead as an embracement of history and spirit. Carolee proudly tells us of her prescient dreams which were quite influential to her and James Tenney’s decision to purchase the property in upstate New York. “I had an overwhelming need to tell them not to offer the house and then these dreams began, in trying to figure out what kind of destiny we could find with this monumental space…I listened to them” (Conversation) Her first dream told her, “You will see a golden stone.“ Schneemann and Tenney decided to follow this dream due to the fact that one of the I Ching instructions that kept coming up was “I’m not what I seem to be.” The second dream told her to “take a crowbar and pry up the linoleum, and you will see a chestnut floor” The chestnut floors, that were covered up had been completely preserved. The third dream told her to take a hammer, walk to the middle of the living area and smash the ceiling” which was covering a big chestnut beam, Schneemann reveals that the house began to breathe and become full of its incipient beauty once the ceiling caved. Although Schneemann does not consider the house a work of art she calls the house “a work of process- and of so many embedded lives and spirits, and its evidence of the incredible, intensive, difficult labor in which these early houses were built in stages.” (Kaigan) In other words Carolee tells us that the house is a collaboration of history spirit and her response to it all. (Conversation)
This embedded spirit and process of discovery, shows her devotion to searching for the connection between dream, flesh and a higher form of attention in creating her works of art. Carolee takes ordinary life and, integrates art with the goal that we can experience every event in ordinary life with a heightened intensity. This is one of the most important aspects of her work, the fact that she notes the importance of everyday interactions and relationships and successfully draws them into her works. For example her love for her cats manifests in much of her work, proving that the artist is recreating what is physically important to her. Her works strive to provoke natural and elemental sensations of everyday life and to intensify them to a level so that the spectator can experience the awakening of a basic sensation.
Upon examining, Up To and Including Her Limits, a work appropriately and recently purchased by the Museum of Modern Art. One can see that this was a direct result of Schneemannn’s intentions to do away with standardized functions of art and to present her work as a representation of her bodily spirit. The work gathers together documentation of a performance in which Schneemann, is harnessed as she draws on the walls and floors of an enclosure accompanied by TV screens. The wall drawings are clearly not meant to depict anything in particular, but rather to act as a graphic record of her bodily movements. The taping of Up To And Including Her Limits came at a significant moment in her life. Her cat Kitch had just passed away in 1976, and she lost her teaching job at Rutgers. In parts of the video a film projection of Schneemannn playing with Kitch can be seen; and she can also be heard talking about her cat. These small personal tragedies seemed to have pushed Schneemannn to revolt against aesthetics and she does this in the form of a list that she published in order to indicate her intentions with the work; to do away with performance, rehearsals, a central metaphor or theme and conscious intention. (Imagining her Erotics, 163) The color in the video is muted, soft and painterly- representing the idea that she remains a painter although her process changes as she moves from painting to performance and video instillations, or simply as she moves from one place to another in life. Just as the process of uncovering and living in the Old Stone House, deals with self- isolation, and stripping away forms and dimensions, her process as an artist deals with reaching and uncovering her inner spirit through a primal act of drawing.
Finally, as a symbol for independence and individuality, the house stands to tell us that Schneemann is a female who follows her intuition, a word that is extremely important to her, even if she must go against the mainstream current in society. (Conversation) Unlike much other feminist art, Schneemannn's revolves around sexual expression and liberation, instead of highlighting the victimization or repression of women. Behind this idea lies a story told to us by Schneemann. Very recently two men, who purchased the second of the three stone houses built in the 1750s, approached her with a dilemma. They relayed to Schneemannn that “a woman who had thirteen children, killed three of them, sent the others away and then killed herself lived in one of their stone houses.” Though, many would be struck by discomfort, Schneemann was excited and eager about hearing the news of another house mystery, and even more intrigued by the seemingly unstable mother. In fact she confidently stated that the notion of living in the house that previously belonged to a murderer would not bother her because she states “I wouldn’t be scared of a woman who had to do her own thing.” This message, which seems heavily ingrained in her work, clearly carries a deeper meaning by serving as a reflection of her attitude about being a female artist.
Schneemannn had never had a female art teacher, because “woman weren’t permitted to have that kind of influence or authority” and additionally she was told that she was gifted but not to take it too seriously because “its not an okay gift.” However, societal standards did not stop her from persevering because although she didn’t quite know what an artist was “she always knew she had to make some kind of imagery.” (Conversation) As a female artist she explored erotic imagery in a time when no one else did. She believed that “bodies exemplify a historic battleground” and that her experience of her own body did not seem to correspond to cultural depictions of female bodies. She put her own body on the line for over thirty years in art and was actually stimulated, rather than hindered by a patriarchal society that defined the way a female body should be viewed. Schneemann declared that “Using my body as an extension of my painting-constructions challenged and threatened the psychic territorial power lines by which women are forced into.” (Imaging, 55) Although, Schneemann’s work may have been met with harsh treatment from theorists and art historians, she notes that in our present age, society has changed immensely. “Everything has changed…there has been an immense reintegration of women’s contributions that were lost and forgotten. Do you see that?” (Conversation) Due to this recent change, although major museums have been slow to acknowledge Schneemannn, her work may at last be receiving at least a portion of the attention it deserves. After a conversation with the artist herself it is clear that her remarkable confidence has allowed her to face adversity in her life and dismissal from a then entirely-male art establishment. Today, we understand that art is about lines but not the ones painted on canvas. Rather, art blurs the delineation between provocation and exploration, literal and figurative, creative and commerce. For Carolee crossing and redefining these lines has become an extended metaphor for her life as an artist. Carolee’s drive to push society to evolve teaches us that sometimes the only way beyond a Limit is to cross the line.

Works Cited
Imaging Her Erotics: Essays Interviews, Projects. Carolee Schneemann. The MIT Press 2003.
Emily Kaigan interview with Carolee Schneemann, Depth of Place. November, 11, 2009
Conversation with the Artist held at the Mutter Museum, (Apri