The celebration of International Women’s Day has become a global event—but, it’s only one day. Yes, just one. So, at Arteza, we’ve decided to celebrate women, in particular female artists, the whole month of March. In honor of that, we’ve rounded up 10 inspirational quotes from acclaimed women artists that will have you reaching for your art supplies and embracing your awakened creativity.

Graciela Carnevale, Wikimedia Commons

“I believe in the possibility of art being disruptive and trying to break boundaries and resist prior tendencies and norms of society.” -Graciela Carnevale

“Painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things that would have fulfilled my horrible life. My painting took the place of all of this. I think work is the best.” -Frida Kahlo 

“An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing.” -Louise Bourgeois 

Mary Cassatt, Wikimedia Commons

“Sometimes it made him [Degas] furious that he could not find a chink in my armor, and there would be months when we just could not see each other, and then something I painted would bring us together again.” -Mary Cassatt

“I’m evolving and growing up with my paintings. It’s the only way, when you paint with emotions and feelings. I’m trying to be true with myself.” -Vanessa Alice Bensimon (Miss Van) 

“There’s no diploma in the world that declares you as an artist—it’s not like becoming a doctor. You can declare yourself an artist and then figure out how to be an artist.” -Kara Walker

Leonora Carrington with “Lepidoptera,” Getty Images

“There are things that are not sayable. That’s why we have art.” -Leonora Carrington 

“My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings.” -Yayoi Kusama

“I guess maybe my art can be said to be a protest. I see things a certain way, and as an artist I’m privileged in that arena to protest or say publicly what I’m thinking about. Maybe the strongest work I’ve done is because it was done with indignation. Considering myself as a feminist, I don’t want my work to be a reaction to what male art might be or what art with a capital A would be. I just want it to be art. In a convoluted way, I am protesting—protesting the usual way art is looked at, being shoved into a period or category.” -Nancy Spero

American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, Getty Images

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” -Georgia O’Keeffe