A Woman on Paper
I’m currently reading A Woman On Paper
My very good friend and talented artist, Julie, recommended this book when I told her I was struggling through the rather dense biography of Matisse, Matisse The Master
I’m not far into the book but I could relate to the following event:
In the summer of 1915 O’Keeffe had to decide if she would return to New York and continue to take classes at the Art Student League or to take a teaching position that she was offered in South Carolina. In a letter to Anita she wrote about her decision to take the teaching position:
It will be nearer freedom to me than New York you see - I have to make a living - I don’t know that I will ever be able to do it just expressing myself as I want to - so it seems to me that the best course is the one that leaves my mind the freest.. to work as I please and at the same time make me some money.
…
If I can’t work by myself for a year with no stimulus other than what I can get from books - distant friends-and from my own fun in living - I’m not worth much…
O’Keeffe obviously did go on and make a living "just expressing" herself but I can very much relate to her thought process here and I’ve posted about it several times in the past when I talk about working as a software engineer to pay the bills.
One thing I think about when reading this book, and other artist biographies where much information about the artist is gleaned from private letters, is that noone writes letters anymore. Where will our history come from?
Email? Blogs? Is it the same thing?
Posted by Lisa in: Book Reviews and Comments
Sequana said,
August 26, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
That’s an interesting question. My first thought is that e-mail and blogs are even better as history because they are more free in the writing, quicker to compose, and I always find I open up more to people in those. However, none of it will be saved unless we all consciously do it; I know I’m really bad at that. I save mail that I want to keep in a folder, but on a hard drive! That’s not gonna be much help to the historians, is it? On the other hand, a lot of people didn’t save their letters either, so it might all work out.
jafabrit said,
August 27, 2007 @ 6:29 am
I still write letters, but I also keep a record of my blog, and also keep a family type journal. It is fascinating to read the letters of others, especially in a field we are interested in. They are a reminder that the struggles we face today as artists are not much different than from the past.
cynthia said,
August 27, 2007 @ 7:14 am
Looks like an interesting book, Lisa - I might have to fit that one into my reading list.
For a minute, I thought you were going to say that you’re going to start teaching, despite what I read in your previous posts….
I keep a journal for myself, but rarely do I ever write real letters anymore.
Olga said,
August 27, 2007 @ 7:16 am
Thank you for the introduction to A Woman on Paper. I immediately added it to my wish list.
It is interesting to speculate about the durability of emails and blogs. As someone who likes to roll up the rug behind me I have found that hardly anyone else that I’ve encountered in the blogging world does this. Most folks have archives, all conveniently labelled for easy access. When you think about all the letters that must have been lost and thrown away in the past, historians in the future might well have more archival material than before - if the electricity does not run out first. And as long as they keep archival computers to read it on.
Alyson B. Stanfield said,
August 27, 2007 @ 8:08 am
I’ve written about this for years (about artists no longer writing). Much of the research for my master’s thesis came from artist (and patron) letters in the Archives of American Art. What a joy it was to read those and to see the illustrations on them.
Incidentally, some of the best artist letters are those illustrated by Charles Russell. Look them up sometime.
rayna said,
August 27, 2007 @ 10:22 am
I use my printer to hold onto the messages that are dear to me. But I agree, they are not the same as handwritten letters.
Diane Clancy said,
August 27, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
I think it is some of each. Clearly we may not have as many hand written letters - particularly illustrated ones. So something will be lost.
But so many people are expressing themselves through emails and blogs that I think we will have a different kind of richness. And many more people are taking the time to express themselves about their thoughts and feelings … and are calling ourselves artists. Also there is much self-examination and processing that used to be unusual.
Overall, things are changing and I think we are losing and gaining.
~ Diane Clancy
http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog
eva said,
August 31, 2007 @ 12:21 pm
I read that book a few years ago and loved it.
There are many circumstances and questions, conversations and other events around her life that always make me refer back to my own.
A fellow once told me that O’Keeffe would have moved to NYC no matter what, such was her drive, with or withour Steiglitz. I was never so sure about that.
I think we are missing a lot by email as opposed to letters. I have several big boxes of old letters since the 70s and now, contributions past 2000 are thinning out, due to email.
But blogs are another story! I think we gained with those. I am reading the ones by artists far more than I ever read art critics in print. I am happy to read my peers, something I had very little of before blogs. I keep a diary too and in a way, the blog doesn’t deter from it, but adds to and vice versa.
pamdora said,
September 3, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
When I was in NY a few years ago, I saw a VanGogh drawing exhibit. What was fascinating was that when VanGogh was traveling and painting away from Paris, he would do pencil sketches of his paintings and mail them to friends. What cracked me up about the whole thing was, to me it seems like a primitative version of a blog — sending pale replicas of current work out into the world to let others know what he was doing and maybe hoping for some kind of response.