The Writer As Explorer

Facts:

1. Arbus’s parents were not very involved with raising their children; they were overseen by maids and a governess. (Her family was very wealthy, even during the Great Depression.)
2. Diane Arbus and her husband divorced in 1969, and he pursued his career in acting, becoming Dr. Sidney Freedman on M*A*S*H.
3. Diane Arbus struggled greatly with depressive episodes throughout her life, as her mother did.

Story Concept:

• After divorcing, Diane Arbus decides to reclaim her own identity through her love of photography. She starts to take pictures of those embracing life fully by being themselves. She becomes in awe of the sword swallower at the carnival, but they each have doubts about pursuing a relationship.
• Would be interesting from both of their perspectives.

Lee Krasner, The Springs, 1964; Oil on canvas, 43 x 66 x 1 1/2 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; 2014 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Lee Krasner

Facts

1. Married to Jackson Pollock
2. She almost didn’t graduate high school because of her art class grade. The teacher gave her a 65 just to be able to pass and graduate.
3. She produced art for 50 years.

Story:

I make art that people believe has meaning. Maybe life will be more beautiful this way.

An existential take on this world and how it conflicts that.

People adding meaning to things that do not have meaning relate directly to them because they think of it.

Artist playing a trick on the world.

Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist around 1918-1986 who was one of the first female artists to break into the modernism trend in art. She centered her artwork around flowers, which were often viewed by the public as “provocative” due to the fact that some of the flowers seemed to simbolize a woman’s sex organ. O’Keeffe was married to a man named Alfred Stieglits but their marriage was filled with many affairs from both parties and a lack of confrontation. O’keeffe had affairs with both men and women since she was bisexual- one of her affairs even being Frida Kahlo, a famous Mexican painter. 

My idea for a short story about Georgia O’Keeffe:

O’Keeffe struggles with being bisexual during a time when it was not socially acceptable to be bisexual. She not only has to worry about that, but struggles to confront her husband to talk about their relationship, as it has always been about avoidance

Facts:

1. One of the earliest photographers.
2. Photographed Charles Darwin during her career.
3. People said her work was bad. They said it is “original, but at the expense of all other photographic qualities.”

Story:

She looks as if her children have been taken away from her, although nothing has changed. Could be a death that is supposed to affect her but it doesn’t.

Marisol

Facts:

1. Her mom committed suicide when she was 11. An interpretation of the picture could be her fear manifesting into her art. She fears that she will lose her dad like she did with her mom, so she has to act/get ready for her dad to die by creating this box for him. Her mom could have a box as well that we just might not see.
2. She had a very aggressive childhood. Right after her mom died, her dad shipped her off to boarding school to essentially never speak or have the same relationship with his daughter ever again.
3. She was friends with Andy Warhol, and the picture is of one of their collaboration works.

Story:

“I create him as if there is still life in there.” Could be dead, him tied up in the box, or could have it because that is how she copes. Her mom could have a box as well, but we just don’t see it.

Shirin Neshat

Facts & Information –

• An Iranian visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography
• Since Iran has undermined basic human rights, she focuses a lot of her work has gravitated toward making art that is concerned with tyranny, dictatorship, oppression and political injustice, particularly since the Islamic Revolution

Story Idea(s) –

• Perspective from one of Shirin’s models who has to hide their association with her work in order to stay safe from public out lash

Elisabetta Sirani 

Facts & Information – 

• Baroque painter and printmaker and was one of Bologna’s most innovative and influential artists
• She was a pioneering female artist in early modern Bologna, and established an academy for other women artists
• She died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27 – some believed her maidservant poisoned her, but nothing was ever determined.  She had a large, lavish funeral that the entire city celebrated and honored

Story Idea(s) –

• Someone came after her/threatened her because of her work with trying to each women to make art – therefore causing her odd, early death 
• From the perspective of one of Elisabetta’s students, hearing of the death of her mentor, the funeral, and the backlash from the community afterwards 

Marie-Denise Villers

Facts & Information –

• Her husband was wildly supportive of Marie’s profession as an artist after they got married, during a time where women typically were forced to stop
• Her life between the time of her last dated painting (1814) and her death in 1821 remains unknown

Story Idea(s) –

• There’s an altercation between her, her husband, and his brother who doesn’t support Marie in her art profession 

During the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which burned through thousands of buildings in the city—including the jewelry store where Cassatt’s paintings had been put on display. She was unharmed, but her artworks were destroyed.

Though Cassatt never married or had a family of her own she was well known for her tender, yet unsentimental portraits of mothers and their children.

Cassatt was the only American artist officially associated with the Impressionists in Paris

Story: A woman gets literally sucked into her book and goes on a crazy adventure.

It is believed Kollwitz suffered anxiety during her childhood due to the death of her siblings, including the early death of her younger brother, Benjamin.[16] More recent research suggests that Kollwitz may have suffered from a childhood neurological disorder dysmetropsia.

In the years after World War I, her reaction to the war found a continuous outlet. In 1922–23 she produced the cycle War in woodcut form, including the works The Sacrifice, The Volunteers, The Parents, The Widow I, The Widow II, The Mothers, and The People

Kollwitz made a total of 275 prints, in etching, woodcut and lithography. Virtually the only portraits she made during her life were images of herself, of which there are at least fifty. These self-portraits constitute a lifelong honest self-appraisal; “they are psychological milestones”.

Story: A woman’s son goes missing during the war so she goes to the battleground to find him.

Amy won the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in 2016 along with a $25,000 award with her painting Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance). She was the first African American to win the competition.

She was chosen by First Lady Michelle Obama to paint her official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.

Sherald painted a portrait of Breoanna Taylor that was published in Vanity Fair

Story Idea: Siblings go to the beach in order to face generational traumas and fears.

“Self Portrait” by Alice Neel

• Alice Neel
  • Born January 28, 1900, Gladwyne, PA; Died October 13, 1984, New York
  • Neel lived for 25 years in East Harlem
  • In 1980, Neel completed her first self-portrait at the age of 80

Story– On a routine visit to have her pacemaker checked, X-rays indicate that she has advanced colon cancer which had already spread to her liver. She undergoes surgery and despite her poor health, she returned to New York and Spring Lake, and continues her busy schedule. There, she reminisces about her career and life

”Trees” by Joan Mitchell

• Joan Mitchell
  • Born February 12, 1925, Chicago, IL; Died October 30, 1992, American Hospital of Paris, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
  • In 1959, Mitchell took up residence in the French commune of Vétheuil, where Claude Monet had once worked.
  • Mitchell, who was far-sighted, often had to stand back to see her paintings in the greatest detail

Story– Like many other abstract impressionism painters of her time, being a woman impacted how many viewed her works. Her response to the feminist movement of her time changes over the years and she eventually supports budding women artists.

• Sister Gertrude Morgan
  • Born 1900, LaFayette, Alabama, Died 1980, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Spent nearly twenty years as a Holiness-Pentecostal missionary and street preacher
  • 1966, Morgan claimed God instructed her to draw pictures of the world to come— the New Jerusalem
  • She would at times sign her artwork with signatures such as: Bride of Jesus, Bride of Christ, Lamb Bride, Nurse to Doctor Jesus, Missionary Morgan, and Your Boss’s Wife

Story– A woman who’s whole life hinges on her faith, to the degree of fanatical devotion; Sister Gertrude Morgan claims to have been the bride of Christ and wore all white, and created an all-white prayer room. Examining what her mental health may have been like could be an interesting avenue

• In 1968, when the Whitney Museum of American Art neglected to include any African American artists in its exhibition of 1930s sculpture, Ringgold helped organize demonstrations
• A huge fan of the Japanese number puzzle Sudoku, Ringgold created a visual art variation of the game in the form of an app called Quiltuduko
• Ringgold is also an award-winning author. She has written and illustrated numerous children’s books, including Tar Beach (1991) and Harlem Renaissance Party (2015), as well as an autobiography titled We Flew over the Bridge (1995)

This is the first time she has truly felt alive. Tonight on the dance floor at The Velvet Devil she would make a name for herself. She would be seen.

• She is perhaps best known for her portrait of John F. Kennedy, commissioned by the Truman Library. The president sat for her several times, and she created hundreds of sketches and at least two dozen canvases as she attempted to capture his character and energy
• Not a fan of the term “woman artist,” de Kooning preferred to just be referred to as an artist
• Elaine de Kooning had the reputation of being able to paint a full-length portrait in less than two hours

A woman trying to figure out how she truly identifies and what her work means to her. Shifting through all possibilities trying to find her true self and calling.

• Achieved prominence through her early 1990s photographic project The Kitchen Table Series 
• While in her early twenties Weems was politically active in the labor movement and as a union organizer
• Her recent work Slow Fade to Black (2010) explores the lost image and memory of African American female entertainers, including singers, dancers, and actresses, in the twentieth century by playing on the idea of cinematic fade
• She has also used fabric, text, audio, and digital images in her work

A woman whose goal is to advocate for her community. She does not know the struggles that she will face in doing so and the consequences she will face.

1. Judith Beheading Holofernes (11618) depicts Judith, a beautiful widow, is able to enter the tent of Holofernes because of his desire for her. Holofernes was an Assyrian general who was about to destroy Judith’s home, the city of Bethulia. Overcome with drink, he passes out and is decapitated by Judith.
2. Artemisia was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno (Academy of Fine Arts) in Florence.
3. She has a place at The Dinner Party panting by Judy Chicago and one of Artemisia’s most well-known friends from the Accademia del Disegno in Florence is the astronomer, physicist, and engineer Galileo.

Short Story: Artemesia worries for her friend Judith and her relationship with the general, Holofernes. Their relationship is secret and Artemesia was the only one Judith trusted to keep quiet about it. However, when things begin to go south with Holofernes and their country, Judith comes to Artemesia with an idea of how to handle Holofernes.

1. The Cradle (1872) is an intimate portrait of the artist’s sister Edma with her new-born daughter Blanche. Morisot made several attempt to sell the painting, but to no avail. It subsequently remained with her relatives until its acquisition by the Louvre in 1930.
2. Critics tended to review Morisot’s works more positively than her Impressionist peers. One critic wrote, “The truth is there is only one Impressionist in the group and it is Berthe Morisot. She has already been acclaimed and should continue to be so.”
3. Edouard Manet painted 11 portraits of Morisot, some of which show curious details, blurring the contours of their relationship. At once colleague, muse, and sweetheart (for some), the depth of their relationship will remain a mystery, an enigma filled with ambiguities, even for the most obstinate biographers.

Short Story: In her earlier years, Berthe often grew jealous of her sister Edma’s ability to paint. She begins sneaking into her sister’s room at night to alter her paintings in the ways she wants. After Edma marries and can no longer continue to paint, Berthe paints under her name, giving Edma lots of unwanted attention for works she did not create.

• As a child, Lorna Simpson’s parents were advocates for the arts and frequently took her to museums, plays, and performances. During the summers spent at her grandma’s house, she would take classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Reportedly, this appreciation was innate and her parents ‘did not think they had an artist in the making.’
• She has listed Adrian Piper, Ishmael Reed, Ntozake Shange, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker as some of her artistic influences. Her artwork, while mainly composed of photographs, occasionally combines photos with words and/or poetry passages which explore marginalized identities. 
• Her home base is in Brooklyn and she has a daughter named Zora Casebere, who is also an artist. 

Story: I think the story I would like to convey would be centered around the influence of the Black feminist movement on Lorna Simpson’s work.

1. The Dinner Party (1979) was a product of Second Wave Feminism, a movement that has since been widely criticized for overlooking racial politics and unique issues facing women of color. The Dinner Party received kickback for its lack of diversity and inclusivity.
2. My gender kept slipping into my work,’ says Chicago. ‘I either had to try to construct an alternative face for myself and other women, or continue to not be taken seriously. ‘ The patriarchy was urging Chicago to make a choice: be a woman, or be an artist.
3. The final installation of The Dinner Party features a triangular dining table, 39 place settings representing extraordinary historical women, and an additional 999 named on the Heritage Floor.

Short Story: Judy is invited to attend a dinner party via a brief letter that’s lacking in detail. Her fellow guests consist of 30 women she’s never met before, and while there are 31 guests, there are only 30 seats. Were there one too many guests or did someone show up unexpectedly? Why was everyone invited here in the first place?

• Jacqueline Marval is a pseudonym, her real name was Marie Josephine Vallet. “Marval” is a composite of her first and last names, MARie VALlet.
• She was first married to a travelling salesman, but they separated after the death of their son. She then moved to Paris and entered a relationship with painter Francois Girot. He introduced her to Jules Flandrin, another painter, who she left him for. She and Flandrin were partners for 20 years.
• She became friends with Kees Van Dongen after protesting the removal of his painting The Spanish Shawl from the Salon d’Automne. She set up her studio near his, and later she and Flandrin moved to an apartment next door to his. She attended his “famous costume ball.”

Story: Flandrin misinterprets Marval’s friendship with Van Dongen to be romantic and becomes jealous. However, he is so in love with Marval that he can’t bear the thought of losing her, so he feigns ignorance, even agreeing to move to an apartment near Van Dongen’s. Meanwhile, Marval (completely innocent) begins to notice him becoming distant from her and thinks that he may be being unfaithful to her.

• She led two separate artistic lives: her public art, which she made a living from, was mostly landscapes and other natural forms, while her more secretive “life’s work” consisted of abstract, symbolic and spiritual paintings. She had at one point tried to have this work shown publicly but was rejected. She later requested that these paintings be kept hidden until at least 20 years after her death, saying that the world was not ready for it.
• She was a principal member of a small spiritualist group called “The Five,” which consisted of five women who held seances and created a new system of mystical thought, based on messages they had received from higher spirits they called The High Masters. Her spiritual beliefs were the basis of her “life’s work,” i.e. her secret paintings. She felt that she was being directed by the High Masters to make these paintings for their “Temple,” something she did not understand the meaning of.
• In 1908, she showed her work to occultist Rudolph Steiner, but he left unimpressed, which upset her so much that she supposedly did not paint again for four years.

Story: After a falling out with her coven sisters who opposed her claims of a special connection with the High Masters, Hilma sought validation from Rudolph Steiner, a well-known occultist who she had respected for a long time. Unfortunately, he didn’t find her art impressive or her claims convincing, which resulted in her falling into a depression, ceasing to paint and beginning to doubt her beliefs.

• She was expelled from two schools for rebellious behavior as a child, and was sent to Florence by her parents, where she attended Penrose Academy of Art. She first encountered surrealist art in Paris at age 10.
• Her partner, Max Ernst, had to flee the Nazis after getting arrested once for being a “hostile alien” and once for his “degenerate” artwork. After he left she had a psychotic break and threatened to murder Hitler, for which she was admitted into a Spanish asylum where she was horribly abused. She was eventually discharged into the care of a “keeper” and told her parents had ordered her to be shipped to a sanatorium in South Africa. On the way there, they stopped in Portugal, where she escaped to the Mexican Embassy. There she met up with Renato Leduc, a Mexican ambassador (and bullfighting buddy of Pablo Picasso), who had agreed to marry her so that she would receive the immunity of a diplomat’s wife. Meanwhile, Ernst had married the woman who helped him free the Nazis, Peggy Guggenheim.
• She was involved in the Mexican women’s liberation movement in the 1970’s.

Story: After escaping to New York with Leduc, her new husband who she had just met, Lenora continues to struggle with extant mental health issues and trauma from her time in the asylum, as well as a desire to reunite with Ernst, who she has no way of contacting. While she is trying to work through all of this and return to making art, Leduc seems to expect her to fulfill the role of a wife, which was not the agreement she had thought she was entering.

Tracy Chevalier’s novel Girl with a Pearl Earring follows Griet, a teenage girl living in 17th century Holland. The novel explores themes of classism and sexism through the eyes of someone who is, for the first time, coming into her role as a lower class woman in this society. What I want to focus on, though, is another woman in this story who is paid far less attention or sympathy. Vermeer’s wife, Catharina, almost plays the role of an antagonist in this story, as from Griet’s perspective, that’s what she is. She stands in the way of Griet’s growing relationship with Vermeer — she is something that they have to sneak around and avoid. She is jealous of the attention that Vermeer gives to Griet and, instead of directing this anger towards her husband, she directs it toward the sixteen year old girl. She stereotypes maids as thieves (of jewelry and of husbands), and is portrayed as a self-obsessed, and at times hysterical woman.

If we look at things from Catharina’s perspective, though, her behavior becomes, if not entirely justified, certainly understandable. Through the entire narrative it is made abundantly clear that Vermeer does not pay his wife any attention. He is unconcerned with domestic affairs (her realm of existence), spending the majority of his time either in his studio or out of the house. His life revolves around his work, everything else is tangential to him. This makes it that much more hurtful that he would seemingly rather paint anyone but his wife. This is Catharina’s deepest desire, to be loved and paid attention by her husband, and at every turn he coldly refuses to give her this most basic of things. He never paints her, but he takes her yellow mantle, her white collar, and her jewelry off of her, even against her will. One of the  best examples of this, to me, is the following passage on pages 106-107:

“Come with me to the studio for a moment,” he said. He was looking at her in a way I had begun to recognize — a painter’s way. 

“Me?” Catharina smiled at her husband. Invitations to his studio were rare. She set down her powder-brush with a flourish and began to remove the wide collar, now covered with dust.

He reached out and grasped her hand. “Leave that.”

This was almost as surprising as his suggestion to move me to the attic. As he led Catharina upstairs, Tanneke and I exchanged looks.

 The next day the baker’s daughter began to wear the wide white collar while modeling for the painting.”

Vermeer is particularly cruel in this scene. I find it difficult to believe that he is unaware of the effect his actions have on the people around him — rather, I think he is apathetic. Even in death he drives the nail in further by leaving Catharina’s earrings to Griet, things that were never his to take, and which he was clearly aware held particular importance to Catharina. This was his final act of cruelty towards her. 

Revisiting the first chapter of Girl With A Pearl Earring, several things stood out to me. When Vermeer and Catharina enter the kitchen with Griet’s mother, Vermeer takes interest in the way Griet had laid out the chopped vegetables, neatly arranging them so that the colors do not “fight”. Taking place in 1664, color theory had not yet been studied, and would not be until the 18th century. This small quirk of Griet’s is a hint at the innate artistic ability that is built upon in the later chapters of the novel. Additionally, the conflict between the classes, the way the Vermeer children attempt to dominate Griet, and the way Griet refuses to be bullied and slaps Cornelia, is a very compelling conflict.

Chevalier portrays Griet as a people pleaser. She seeks to meet the standards of her parents, she does what she is told and nothing more, and carries tensity at all times. First burdened by her household expectations and duties and then again in an unfamiliar environment. Her emotions are comparable with those of college students with stressful home lives. The both of them seek to find a place of peace. Griet is unable to find peace in the midst of her responsibilities.
In addition to practical responsibilities, she is responsible for the emotions of her family. Exemplified by her indebtedness to her family, she is inherently obligated to provide for her family under her father’s conditions. As the eldest and as a member of a society in which women are expected to do as they are told. As a household provider, she is sometimes overlooked as a daughter. As a result, she craves the attention of Johannes and embellishes it. “I did not know how we would treat me in his own house, whether or not he would pay attention to the vegetables I chopped in his kitchen. No gentleman had ever taken such an interest in me before.” I find these lines compelling because they display both Greit’s desire to be noticed and her loose definition male interest. I am interested to see how she progresses as I continue reading.

The story starts out with a lower class family where their trade is artistic work. The father is blinded by an accident and the son is off on his apprenticeship, trying to learn to support his family. The story centers around Greit, who is a daughter in the family mentioned above. She is sent off to work as a maid for a famous painter. She must do as she is told and she must provide for her family.

In this book, we see a lot of patriarchal beliefs. It is a positive view, only knowing how far we have come from this. While there is still room to grow, we do not have the sore placement that we used to have in society. When it is spoken about being a maid, there is some sort of condescending nature behind it. The people in the town do not say anything to Greit because they know ‘her place’. When Greit interacts with the other women, they act as if she is a nuisance while being there, as if she is not doing all of the work they would’ve had to do.

We could later point out that the women are acting this way because maybe they feel threatened because they know of the lust that their husbands hold. Although this could be a valid idea, it would be a patriarchal take as well. Women fighting over men. Women being “catty.” Women being evil. These are all ideas that women have tried to get away from in recent years because it truly isn’t the case, but it is a conversation needed at points.

Girl With A Pearl Earring delves into seventeenth century life by showing it through Griet’s eyes, though it is from the perspective of her looking back on everything. From the beginning, her cleverness and ability to see the world gains her work in a higher household than her own. This opportunity is good for her family, who needs her to make some extra money. She describes how her father could no longer do his trade due to the fact that he has been blinded. And yet, even though he can no longer make tiles, his love for the craft does not fade with his eyesight.

Griet has a special admiration for her father’s craft; he gives her his best tile to take with her to her new job, and she does her best to keep it safe. The tile depicts both her and her brother, and holds such significance because both her and her brother are moving onto new things in the name of their family. This small piece of her family reminds her of what she is leaving, but also reminds her of her father’s artistic eye, which she seems to have inherited, even though she does not seem fully aware of it.

When she does start her work as a maid, she cannot help but become infatuated with Vermeer’s work and the space that he occupies. Griet takes the extra time to learn the distance between objects so that she can clean without changing anything too drastically for the painter. This attention to detail is mainly what got her the job, but as she continues working and doing things for him, Vermeer slowly begins to see that she has some understanding of art, in a way that he seems to not have witnessed in another person “close” to him. This causes her to interact with him more and more, even though it may not be a good idea for her to do so. As Griet does this, she begins to understand the world through an artist’s eyes more clearly, and therefore on a more personal level.

The painting of Girl With A Pearl Earring conveys this very personal connection. Nothing can be seen in the background, and the lighting within the painting makes the young woman stand out, along with the simple beauty of her outfit. Unlike many of Vermeer’s other paintings, the subject is looking directly at the viewer (and the artist), making the interaction with the painting feel more intimate. As the story continues, I feel that this connection becomes more apparent in Griet’s and Vermeer’s interactions with each other, and it cannot end well.

There were a lot of things that stood out to me while I read through A Girl with a Pearl Earring, though there were certain things that stayed consistently with me throughout the entire piece.  This main focus was the overarching relationship between Griet’s two masters, the Vermeers, who she works for – three, if you included Maria Thins, Catharina’s mother.  While I might reference this complexity, my post will mainly focus on the dynamic between Catharina and her husband, Johannes (though we don’t learn the name of until much later, which does irritate me a bit).

The main focus of this married couple, of course, is that they are Griet’s masters for who she works for.  However, they have their own dynamic beyond that.  We learn fairly quickly that Johannes Vermeer is almost secretive in nature, staying mostly in his studio or away for Guild work.  It isn’t until about half way that he becomes a more central figure as he and Griet work closer together, both in his studio and outside of it (in regards of sending her to the apothecary for painting supplies).  However, we also learn that Catharina is not a huge fan of this – to the point where even her mother tells Griet not to say anything.  Catharina is rarely allowed in her husband’s studio, nor is she involved in his work (not unless he needs her jewelry box or something similar).

It’s this kind of interaction that really highlights the tension between Mr. and Mrs. Verneer.  Catharina focuses so heavily on being excluded and replaced because of her husband’s paintings, and lashes out in a nature I would call jealous.  Johannes, on the other hand, seems content with the silence of his work, both because he does not wish to paint her due to her restlessness and due to needed a break from his children.

Things get really complicated, however, when Griet gets involved in Johannes’s work by helping him mix paints and set out colors.  Maria Thins is the first to learn about this, while Catharina doesn’t know about Griet’s involvement until much later in the book.  I feel that Catharina’s jealousy continues even further, though she might secretly hope it means her husband paints faster.  All of it is incredibly complicated on so many different levels, and this is without including the depth of Maria Thins’s relationship between the two master Verneers.

Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier tells the story of a young girl named Griet who is hired to work as a maid for a famous painter. Griet is a headstrong and clever girl who is deeply loyal to her family, especially her Father, who was injured in a kiln accident. When Griet first meets her Master and Mistress, she takes an instant interest in him.
Throughout the story, we see a common theme of art and obsession. The master is obsessed with making great pieces of art. He often takes months to create one piece, often going back and changing things or putting in small details, somehow bringing the art to life. He spends most of his time locked in his studio, where no one is allowed to enter, not even his wife. That is until Griet is hired to clean it. Griet’s interest in her Master becomes a fascination for both his art and him. When she first sees that painting he had been working on, she instantly falls in love with it, wishing she could someday be in one. As the story goes on and her connection with her master becomes more intimate we see her learning to see as an artist does. We find out early on in the story that Griet has an eye for color and detail. We see this by the way she color coordinates the vegetables for the soup and by how carefully she cleans his studio. She makes sure to be precise when picking objects up and then putting them back in the exact same spot.

This novel is a great coming-of-age story and I’m interested to see Griet’s progression into becoming a woman.
Though Griet is  strong and knows better than to give in to the temptation of men (like Pieter the son or the Guard who wouldn’t give her information about her family). As the story continues, I know we will see how fascination can quickly change into something deeper between her and her Master.

In the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, we are taken through 17th-century Holland through the eyes of the main character, Griet, a sixteen-year-old girl in the lower class. Through her eyes, we, as readers, see a remarkable story that summarizes inequalities of classism in the 1600s. 

Our opening scene is of Griet cutting up vegetables for stew when she is interrupted by the sound of company coming into the home. In a moment that felt like both an hour and a measly second, Griet is hired to be a maid in a Catholic home to be the maid of a peculiar artist, Johannes Vermeer. Griet’s father had lost his sight when working, and with her father unable to work anymore, her mother is the only one who can bring in money. Unfortunately, because there were not many high-paying jobs for women, her mother needed to recruit Griet to bring in more income. Therefore, her father requested an old painter friend to hire his daughter as a maid. With Griet, after her family explains what happened after the experience, she is disheartened that she will have to leave her family and only see them on Sundays; yet, she feels a sense of duty to her family that she cannot refuse this job. At sixteen, she has to leave her family and become a maid for a wealthier family than hers. It is understandable why Griet goes, yet all the audience can do is shake their heads and watch in concern as a child becomes a maid. 

The audience learns that life as a maid in the 1600s is not a welcoming experience. We learn from Griet that maids are known for stealing, which means she cannot pick up an item with any hint of interest in her eyes, even if she is cleaning it. The wife of Vermeer immediately forms a distaste for Griet, as maids are also portrayed as sneaky and mischievous. In the story, maids are known for anything other than doing their job. Yet we find out that rather than Griet being the lazy stealer that everyone chalks her up to be, she is the only maid to do her job for the first time in the home. Even the maid that lived there over a decade has barely done her job, leaving the work to Griet. We finally understand the “whys” to the questions we had been asking with two quotes from the book: 

• “Theirs is not our world.”
• “He is powerful… and you [Griet] are but a maid.”

Reading Girl with a Pearl Earring, the reader quickly becomes acquainted with Griet’s fascinating personality and way of thinking. Right off the bat, Griet is presented as a relatively mature individual, clever and perceptive of the world around her. She knows when she is being tested by others and chooses her words carefully (especially around Tanneke) in order to achieve results advantageous to her. She estimates the abilities of those around her and also often makes correct assessments in others ways of thinking (i.e. realizing that Catharina knew as much about ordering her around as Griet did of being a maid AND realizing that Cornelia’s going to be a nuisance).

Additionally, Griet’s attention to detail is astonishing. She is able to discern irregularities in Vermeer’s artistic choices as well as what ‘makes a painting a good painting’. She is adaptable with her cleaning and other tasks, and analytical with her spatial calculations regarding object positions in the studio. Interpersonal and analytical skills along with prior expertise in areas of art combined makes one wonder how she would fair in an academic setting. She’s clearly intelligent and knows how to talk the talk, therefore it would be logical to assume that she could very well be a genius untapped.

This week we took a deep dive into the novel Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracey Chevalier. We are put into the shoes of a teenage girl named Griet whose life is impacted and changed forever. The way Chevalier describes Griet in the beginning of the book gives the reader the impression that she comes from a lower class family struggling to make ends meet. Hence why Griet is basically forced to take on the role of a maid for a new family. It isn’t until later that we discover what that entails along with her. While reading this novel I often thought if this experience was worth it. I found myself inserting myself into Griet’s shoes wondering if I could handle all that she did. Even though her family wasn’t necessarily far away I wondered if I could handle those circumstances. Also the example of losing a sibling at such a young age and not being able to be with them during their final moments or say goodbye is something that I thought about for myself as well. The feeling that this gave my for Griet was unwavering if that can be summed into an emotion. She is someone who has experienced intense amounts of loss and struggles, but still keeps herself together. I would like to think that she understands it but also at the same time doesn’t because of her lack of experience in life. As I continue to dive into this book I see a young girl developing into a woman and understanding the world around her from her experiences that have taken place from all of this change.

Alongside there are very obvious and often abused gender differences, there are clear status differences presented as well. Much of the conflict of the story revolves around varies social classes. The premise of the story begins with Griet’s family needing to make extra money to compensate for her father’s blindness. He’s unable to paint and thus, unable to work to provide for the family. Griet, being the oldest daughter of the family, is chosen to work as a maid for the Vermeer family. While Griet initially persists, she realizes she does not have a choice. The lack of communication about this decision just reinforces the social imbalance of society. There was never any doubt Griet would take this job.

We get good insight into Griet’s character fairly early on. A quote I think describes her character well is when she reminisces on a day out with her brother and sister. “I always stopped the game, too inclined to see things as they were to be able to think up things that were not” (12). Griet isn’t oblivious nor is she fanciful. She has a good head on her shoulders and this is proven throughout the story, or at least the first secretion. She knows exactly what to say and who to say it to to make good impressions. She appears respectful and proper, never once letting others know what’s going on inside her head. However, Griet’s politeness and good sense is often taken advantage of by the men in the story. The clear social cut allows the men to act out and think they have a right to Griet’s body, especially van Ruijven.

Men throughout the story abuse their power over young Griet. She can’t even learn about her family’s well-being without a solider making a pass at her. There is this inborn notion that if the woman is of a lower class, she has to bend to the man’s wishes. This theme is prominent throughout the story, especially near the end of the first section. Griet was brought to the Vermeer house to keep things tidy and in line, yet that seems to be almost the opposite of what’s truly happening.

“The Truth About What Happened” is a very short story, told from the perspective of an FBI special agent who has just come out of his deposition for an unspecified case. From the very beginning it is clear that he has something to hide, as one of the first things he does is to go into his method of avoiding saying anything he shouldn’t: counting to three. He also addresses the reader in this paragraph, saying of his method: “Try it. One day it will save your ass.” Thus, from the first paragraph, he establishes himself as an unreliable narrator. He is a man who has something to hide, and he is aware of the reader as an existing character in his world. 

After the first deposition, he is asked to give a second statement, off the record, for the private use of his interviewers. There is only one instance throughout the entire story where his method is explicitly put to use: he counts to three before he tells the interviewers his name. It is safe to assume that he uses the trick before every response, but it is only called attention to in this context. The majority of the story is a dialogue between “Albert” and the interviewer, Slaughter. Albert tells Slaughter a story wherein he pursues potentially problematic information about a possible recruit to the FBI, Sherman Bryon, but in the end, it turns out that there was no dirty secret after all. The story is rather anticlimactic and seems to suggest no wrongdoing on anyone’s part. It is convincing to Slaughter, and Albert leaves his second deposition once again feeling pretty good about it, having said nothing he didn’t want to say, and having told “some of the truth.” He then, in the final paragraph, states: “We won it for them in the end. Then they turned on us. But old Sherman Bryon was dead by then, so it didn’t matter.” He reveals an interesting piece of information here: that Sherman Bryon’s death made a case against Albert and his people insignificant. No more information is available.

It is tempting to attempt to piece together what little information we are given, but it would be fruitless. The narrator has carefully chosen what to tell us – we have less of a chance of figuring out the real truth than the investigators.

The first chapter of Audubon’s Watch consists of a letter written by John James Audubon, to his daughters Lucy and Rose. He begins with the claim that “they” believe his mind is in ruins, and his mind dulled. He is bedridden, but demands the windows stay open to allow him to hear the rivermen as they pass. He laments that he cannot have found all the birds; he wants to join the rivermen, return to his travels.

What struck me most from this writing is obsession and regret; John James holds an obsession for finding all the birds of North America, to the point of leaving his young family behind for long stretches of time. As he lay in what we can assume to be his deathbed, he relays his regret– not that he did not spend enough time with his family– but that he could not have found all the birds. He doesn’t dislike his family– he recounts fond memories and his love for them, but his lifes’ work overshadows his domestic life. 

In a world that is often filled with a fear of becoming your parents, “Soir Bleu” by Robert Olen Butler takes it to the next level as we watch a neurotic artist, Vachon, slowly turn into his father, a man who was less than kind to the ones he loved. 

When Vachon is watching his girlfriend/muse leave a restaurant they were at with a soldier, the reader can feel a cold distance coming from the main character. Suddenly, we meet a sad clown figure, Pierrot, which the audience soon finds out is the embodiment of Vachon’s underlying anger issues. Pierrot never talks, does not express much emotion, and is only there to listen to Vachon as he confesses his repressed memories to the sad-looking clown. 

Vachon talks about his father and him going to a show when he was a child to see Pierrot, the clown, create a story where he murders his cheating wife by tickling her to death. This one-man show inspires Vachon’s father to strangle his wife and disappear after committing the crime, leaving little Vachon with swirling emotions of rage, confusion, and darkness. 

After Vachon tells the clown his story, the clown looks at him as if saying, “go, go to your girlfriend.” In no time, the audience and Vachon find Solange cheating on him with the soldier. In a fit of rage, Vachon strangles Solange with his bare hands while Pierrot watches by the doorframe.

With this surprising twist in the plot, we find out the scars of Vachon’s past that have haunted him to this day. He tried to keep the past from boiling up in fear of his father’s anger coming out, and yet he did not only have a fit of rage like him but became him. The reader sees this at the end of the story as Vachon says, “Father, what have we done?” Pierrot is smiling upon the death of Solange as if proud of inspiring not one but two deaths that had to do with cheating lovers. While the audience is shocked at the ending, there is a moment we feel the fear that Vachon feels as if he has finally fulfilled his self-fulfilling prophecy that he tried so hard to escape. This story is both fascinating psychologically and mortifying.

This story was strange from the very beginning, which made it much more intriguing, and as a reader, I wanted to keep reading. Early on we find that the story is from the perspective of Monsieur Vachon, who is an artist attempting to sell a painting to a man named Colonel Leclerc using his female associate, Solange. He is very possessive of her, and is not comfortable with letting her interact with Leclerc due to his clear attraction to her:

“I could not bear to see her play at being the woman she once was. I’d rescued that woman from the Place Pigalle and made her my model. I’d redeemed her nakedness with my art. But Leclerc would rather buy her than one of my paintings”(Butler 41).

This egotistical and possessive mindset in regards to Solange is great foreshadowing for the events that happen later on in the story, though it is not the main thing that stands out from the beginning of this story. There is, after all, a clown present that no one interacts with except for Vachon. The interaction that he has with the clown, Pierrot, is mostly one sided; Pierrot never really talks, but when he does it is raspy and gravelly – practically nonexistent. Through this interaction, it is revealed that Vachon’s father murdered his wife after seeing a performance done by a particular clown; Vachon remembers that he saw his father for the last time that night at the theater.

The sudden remembrance of this memory sends Vachon into a downward spiral, and he goes upstairs to find Solange with Leclerc. And though he is mad at Leclerc, all of his emotions are directed at Solange, specifically after Leclerc says “She has seduced me” (Butler 49). Soon after, Vachon murders Solange in the same way that his mother was.

Vachon does not take his anger out on Leclerc because of his past trauma; he immediately takes to heart the idea of it being Solange’s fault because of his possessiveness of her, and the paranoia that accompanies it. It was established early on that he did not like her interacting with Leclerc, and thought of her as his muse only; her betrayal sets him even more over the edge. That being said, the reveal at the end of this story connects all of these things: the clown is actually Vachon’s father. His “hidden” presence in this story and the interactions that he has with Vachon suggests the continuation of generational trauma and violence. Vachon has a realization of this at the very end, in which he fully takes in what has happened, saying “Father… What have we done” (Butler 50).

I read “The Truth About What Happened.” I found it interesting. The mystery element was good, and the twist at the end was amusing.