This is the painter Alice Neel (1900-1984). Doesn't she look sweet? Not what I was expecting from the artist of such intense, unflinching portraiture. I've never been particularly drawn to her work, but after reading more about her in Eleanor Munro's book, Originals, I've become very interested in her.
"I had what it takes to make a good artist: sensitivity and tremendous willpower. Hypersensitivity–because in order to be an artist you have to react intensely. And then you must have the will. What is it, really–character, belief? The power to stick with what you believe? I had a very strong, adamant self. That is proved by the art I produced. Now, I don't know how you arrive at that. But in my case I believe it came about because other people had such a strong effect on me. I was a hypersensitive child. If a fly lit on me, I'd have a convulsion. A real convulsion. There was a stuffed cat I live in terror of. For all I know, my human images originate in terror. It may be I need to exorcise something.
Other people loomed too large. Everybody could knock me off base, so that it was hard for me to be myself. I'd made such an effort to be what they wanted, a pretty little girl, that I wouldn't be myself at all.
I never knew what I wanted in the small things. My mother would say, 'Coffee or hot chocolate?' and I wouldn't know, but not only would I not know, I'd go into a fever of trying to decide. My whole life was a matter of never knowing what I wanted. Why? Because I didn't give a damn for any of it. But later on, on white canvas, I was free. It was my world. It was mine." -Alice Neel
Here's Alice Neel's only self-portrait, at age 80!
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