Contacts, long-term work, talent and luck - that's what the artistic career of women of my generation is made of.

It was not obvious for women of my generation to pursue an artistic career. Educational opportunities were more limited than today. And although my generation was mostly lucky to have parents who encouraged their daughters to study a profession, that profession was something completely different from a career in art.

I recently met two wonderful women in a residency intended for artists and researchers, the Brazilian visual artist Mariangela Ratto and the Austrian writer Sabine Scholl. We talked about their path to becoming an artist and their thoughts on making art.