From proposed chapter titled “Heading Into My Old Lady Years with Alice Neel,” I offer a short excerpt. Neel said “Art is two things: a search for a road and a search for freedom. It is hard to get freedom. You know all these things in life keep crawling over you all the time, so it’s hard to feel free.”
I find this quote relevant in a world mired in war, and so many challenges from poverty to climate change. One way I find freedom is to look at art, especially portraiture. Observing portraits by artists like 20th century female, painter Alice Neel, I sense the presence of myself. Human fragility, alienation, joy; a broad swathe of the human experience.
Image credit: Alice Neel, “Nancy and Olivia,” 1967