Painted Over by Sofi Keren

Author:Sofi Keren [Keren, Sofi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642470666
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2019-03-14T04:00:00+00:00

When she told Cara that she was meeting her friends at Chicago Diner, Cara insisted on walking with her.

“I want to know more about you,” she said. So Paige told her she’d always drawn as a kid, about the great art teachers in junior high and high school that encouraged her, and walked her through her style and subject matter evolution. Cara nodded and smiled, asking questions that kept her talking about herself and her work.

“There is a question I like to ask artists when I meet them for the first time,” Cara said. “I know it puts you on the spot, but I’d like know: What has been the most meaningful piece you have created to date? Not necessarily the one that received the most praise, brought in the most money, or is the best known, but the one that is closest to your heart.”

“That is a tough question to answer,” Paige said, thinking over the work she’d created in the past decade and a half.

“The best ones are, I think.”

She didn’t have to think long. “I did this painting my first year at UCLA. It was about the violence of love. I made the phrase ‘tear my heart out’ literal. For the first time, I wasn’t trying to just vaguely reference emotions or events—it was front and center. I took my characters, two girls in the middle of the painting, and they had their hands in each other’s chest, holding their hearts, pulling them out with strings of blood behind them. It was the most visceral thing I’ve painted, even though I didn’t break from the glossy figures and the doll-like eyes that people tend to associate with me. Obviously, I was dealing with some pretty major heartbreak, and at the time I just wanted to get it out onto canvas.”

“I’d love to see it,” Cara said.

“I wish you could. At the time I felt like I wanted to get it all out of me, and then get rid of it. I didn’t keep any of the sketches or even take photos of the final piece. I did a summer abroad in Florence and the last week there I hung it in a group show. It sold, and I don’t even know who bought it. I’ve tried to track it down a couple times, but no one has posted it online, so it’s probably gathering dust in someone’s basement now.”

“That’s awful.”

“Well, it taught me a lesson—always document everything. And maybe it was meant to be ephemeral.”

“I appreciate you sharing that with me. I love to watch people’s faces as they talk about their work, and I can see how deeply you feel about yours. If you bring a fraction of that to this mural, it will be absolutely stunning.”

They were a few doors down from the restaurant now.

“Thank you, Cara,” Paige said. “I really look forward to working with you on this. I’m so glad to have the opportunity.”

“Oh Paige,” Cara laughed. “I think we’ll be the lucky ones.

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