Is an artist’s work autobiographical?

Looking at Art:

Chagal’s paintings were often based on folk tales recited to him when he was a child. Frida Kahlo painted intimate images inspired by her painful life. Edvard Munch, the creator of the famous, tortured “The Scream”, suffered from illness as a child and mental illness ran in his family. Is all work by artists autobiographical? Perhaps it is not always overtly about their life, but I do recall looking at my own art and recognizing that each stage of development corresponded to stages in my life.

Work in the Studio:

My relatives on my mother’s side, emigrated from Sicily. My husband and I decided to go to the island as an anniversary gift to each other to see if we could find any relatives who still live there. We discovered a distant relation who did not speak any English and since I did not speak Italian, it was a moving encounter with gestures and hugs. I was also delighted to find the church where my grandparents were married in a remote little town. The experience was so moving that I came home and made the following sculpture.

Searching for Grandma in Sicily, Ceramic Wall Sculpture, 17” x 12”x 5”