- When her husband was drafted in 1942, Grace Hartigan decided to study mechanical drafting and worked as a draftsman in an airplane factory.
- For the first 2-3 years of having her artwork in galleries, she exhibited her work under the name George Hartigan as she knew that showing her artwork under a man’s name would gain more attention.
- She often painted things she considered ‘vulgar’ that were also normal parts of American life, like overdressed shop windows, in an effort to normalize them in her own eyes. She also wore men’s clothes, had a foul mouth, and was considered a workaholic with no rules to her work.
Story idea: an encounter between Grace and a male patron at the gallery where her earliest work is still being exhibited under the name ‘George’. The patron praises the work extensively, up until Grace, in a moment of naivete, explains that she is ‘George.’