Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl by Wendy Jones and Grayson Perry Review
A raw, brutally honest insight into the psychology of the award winning, cross-dressing artist
Wendy Jones says it best in the preface: "he was open, sometimes shockingly, sometimes hilariously, so." The subject of the book, Grayson Perry, is a contemporary artist known for his ceramics, tapestries and perhaps most notably, his cross-dressing. His artwork focuses on exploring sex, gender, identity, childhood and social status and how those factors have impacted and affected the man.
Portrait of the Artist of a Young Girl is a memoir written by his friend Wendy Jones, whom he met at a therapy centre; a fitting inception of the friendship, foreshadowing the many
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The book begins with an introduction to his broken family and his form of necessary escapism as a child - his teddy bear. Alan Measles, the stuffed-animal turned dictator of his imaginary world, is a motif in his adult artwork and played a part in helping the artist explore his prisoner-of-war bondage fantasies, which he would start having at the tender age of seven. This shocking image is so quickly followed with a humorous story about being caught by a neighbour that there is barely time to process what extreme acts this seven-year-old was performing. Every lewd, criminal or dangerous event is presented matter-of-factly. He wants to shock without being …show more content…
The first 'sign' of transvestitism isn't immediately clear in the book or in his life. Perry talks about many small instances which eventually lead to his discovery that he found sexual pleasure in dressing like a girl and, aided by an article in the News of the World, that he wasn't alone. With his transvestitism comes a sexual desire for bondage, humiliation, latex, and so on.
What it doesn't come with, to the surprise of those around him, is homosexuality.
The constant challenges to the assumptions that are made about those who cross-dress are reflective of Perry's message in his book and his attitude towards life. There are chapters on his love of his dad's shed, model planes and the army. These serve as reminders, for the prejudiced, that Perry is not a stereotype. This is one of the main messages in the book, and it's delivered exceptionally well.
The final chapters follow Perry's sixth form, through the university years and the time shortly after. There's a sudden increase in speed, as he relates his first years as an independent man who is finally free to explore his identity and experiment with the many novelties that come with young adulthood. The book ends with an explanation of how he fell into pottery, saying "I can be as outrageous as I like here because the vice squad is never going to raid a pottery
Perry Smith did not live the happy childhood that he deserved, abandoned by his family at a young age he was forced to live at a terrible orphanage. “The one where Black Widows were always at me. Hitting me. Because of wetting the bed...They hated me, too.” (Capote 132). In this specific orphanage, Perry was beaten by the nuns that own the place. The short sentences within this quote truly emphasize the dramatic and horrible conditions that Perry had to live with in the orphanage. Sympathy is created ...
She’s just so weak. If she would stand up for herself, no one would bother her. It’s her own fault that people pick on her, she needs to toughen up. “Shape of a Girl” by Joan MacLeod, introduces us to a group of girls trying to “fit in” in their own culture, “school.” This story goes into detail about what girls will do to feel accepted and powerful, and the way they deal with everyday occurrences in their “world.” Most of the story is through the eyes of one particular character, we learn about her inner struggles and how she deals with her own morals. This story uses verisimilitude, and irony to help us understand the strife of children just wanting to fit in and feel normal in schools today.
After he uncovers Teddy’s paper world, the uncle reacts in a manner of ignorance and derision, mocking him for his decision to occupy himself with paper dolls. The uncle dubs Teddy as a “great big lummox … playing with paper dolls”, insulting Teddy for his hobbies with a tone of amusement and hysteria. In spite of Teddy’s agitation, the uncle prefers to make a mockery out of Teddy rather than accepting his unique hobbies, suggesting the uncle’s belief that Teddy’s activities are unfitting of someone of his age. In addition, Teddy’s uncle further aggravates Teddy by continuously ridiculing him, leading him to eventually destroy his treasured paper world. Despite Teddy’s attempts at validating the reality of his paper dolls, the uncle “burst into laughter, his cheeks the colour of a tomato.” Teddy’s uncle persistence in mocking Teddy implies his disapproval of Teddy’s world, believing that his world is ludicrous and absurd for someone of his age to be occupied with. The sustained laughter of Teddy’s uncle is explicit and deliberate, intended to warn Teddy against his immature hobby, an evident symbol of society’s expectation of
Perry Smith was a short man with a large torso. At first glance, “he seemed a more normal-sized man, a powerful man, with the shoulders, the arms, the thick, crouching torso of a weight lifter. [However] when he stood up he was no taller than a twelve-year old child” (15). What Smith lacked in stature, he made up in knowledge. Perry was “a dictionary buff, a devotee of obscure words” (22). As an adolescent, he craved literature and loved to gain insight of the imaginary worlds he escaped into, for Perry’s reality was nothing less than a living nightmare. “His mother [was] an alcoholic [and] had strangled to death on her own vomit” (110). Smith had two sisters and an older brother. His sister Fern had committed suicide by jumping out of a window and his brother Jimmy followed Fern’s suit and committed suicide the day after his wife had killed herself. Perry’s sister, Barbara, was the only normal one and had made a good life for herself. These traumatic events left Perry mentally unstable and ultimately landed him in jail, where he came into acquaintance with Dick Hickock, who was in jail for passing bad checks. Dick and Perry became friends and this new friendship changed the course of their lives forever. Hickock immediately made note of Perry’s odd personality and stated that there was “something wrong with Little Perry. Perry could be such a kid, always wetting his bed and crying in his sleep. And often [Dick] had seen him sit for hours just sucking his thumb. In some ways old Perry was spooky as hell. Take, for instance, that temper of his of his. He could slide into a fury quicker than ten drunk Indians. And yet you wouldn’t know it. He might be ready to kill you, but you’d never know it, not to look at it or listen to it” (108). Perry’s short fuse and dysfunctional background were the two pieces to Perry’s corrupt life puzzle that soured and tainted the final “picture”.
He grew up in a different environment with a broken family with no apparent dreams. As a young boy his parents separated and he was forced to go with his mother. He later ran away to be with his father who turned him down and ended up being abandoned by his family completely. He then came to stay at a catholic orphanage, where he was abused by nuns and caregivers. His father finally decided to take him into his care and together they got away and traveled, ending his education before passing the third grade which bothered him as he became older. Perry joined the marines and army, then came back to relocate his father. Him and his father had a breakthrough over starvation, leaving Perry with no one else to turn to and therefore getting involved in committing crimes. Once he got caught and jailed, his mother had died and his brother and sister had both committed suicide. By all his experiences we can say Perry definitely lived a different life and his family portrayal was very different from the Clutters. After so much abandonment and abuse, we can understand why he almost feels nothing and how growing up has affected him. The American Dream for Perry might not have been a “perfect family” but may have been to find something with order, and control. The dream Perry’s family would be focused on is reaching a decent life as their past has been
After hearing a brief description of the story you might think that there aren’t many good things about they story. However, this is false, there are many good things in this book that makes it a good read. First being that it is a very intriguing book. This is good for teenage readers because often times they don’t willingly want to read, and this story will force the teenage or any reader to continue the book and continue reading the series. Secondly, this is a “good” book because it has a good balance of violence. This is a good thing because it provides readers with an exciting read. We hear and even see violence in our everyday life and I believe that it is something teenagers should be exposed to. This book gives children an insig...
According to the Bible, God created man pure and innocent, oblivious to good and evil. The serpent of evil lured them to the tree of knowledge, however, and its fruit proved too much of a temptation. With a bite, their "eyes... were opened," and the course of their lives, and the lives of mankind, were changed (Gen. 6-7, 22). Whether or not one accepts the Christian concept of creation, countless works of art are patterned on this account of the "fall from innocence." The novel Grendel by John Gardner shows us a side of the "beast" the epic Beowulf never considered - the child-like innocence before the brutality. The song "Country Girl" by Neil Young is a subtle commentary on the effect the sexual revolution had upon one woman. In addition, The Portrait of a Lady, a film by Jane Campion, an adaptation of Henry James's novel, shows the downward spiral of a headstrong American girl in the late 1800's. These three distinct pieces cut a swath through the art world, representing an established author, a modern musician, and a feminist filmmaker, yet central to their relevance is one theme: the fall from innocence.
Inside Toyland, written by Christine L. Williams, is a look into toy stores and the race, class, and gender issues. Williams worked about six weeks at two toy stores, Diamond Toys and Toy Warehouse, long enough to be able to detect patterns in store operations and the interactions between the workers and the costumers. She wanted to attempt to describe and analyze the rules that govern giant toy stores. Her main goal was to understand how shopping was socially organized and how it might be transformed to enhance the lives of workers. During the twentieth century, toy stores became bigger and helped suburbanization and deregulation. Specialty toy stores existed but sold mainly to adults, not to children. Men used to be the workers at toy stores until it changed and became feminized, racially mixed, part time, and temporary. As box stores came and conquered the land, toy stores started catering to children and offering larger selections at low prices. The box stores became powerful in the flip-flop of the power going from manufacturers to the retailers. Now, the retail giants determine what they will sell and at what price they will sell it.
In Rossetti’s poem “In an Artist’s Studio”, she illustrates a man in the art studio surrounded around his canvases. On each of his canvases, he has painted the same woman in different positions, as depicted in, “One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans” (Rossetti 104). This man continuously paints the same women, each time depicting her differently as demonstrated, “A saint, and angel…” (Rossetti 104). Similarly, in McKay’s poem he illustrates for the readers, a dark skinned, half clothed woman dancing. Both of these poems focus on how men view women, and how men idealize women for their beauty, or some other desirable part of them. Both of these poets express that men do not appreciate the wholeness and complexity of both of these women. McKay’s idealized woman is also a woman of colour, which may lead into a discussion of race gender, and sexuality. In Rossetti’s poem, the artist “feeds upon” (Rossetti 104) the object of his affection, “not as she is, but as she fills his dreams” (Rossetti 104). Also, McKay’s narrator idealizes her physical beauty and describes how everyone “devoured” her beauty, even though “her self was not in that strange place” (McKay 18). The main difference is that McKay’s narrator sees his desired woman as having “grown lovelier for passing through a storm” (McKay 18), whereas Rossetti’s artist uses his art to wash away the pain-and by extension, the
In the graphic novel, "Stitches: A Memoir” written by David Small, the author shares his memories, presenting a hostile home environment and the unique characteristics of his family. David’s family was composed of his mother, Betty, a housewife, Ed, the father-doctor, and David’s older brother, Ted. Towards the end of the book the readers are introduced to David’s psychologist, characterized in the book by a rabbit. The memoir is a true statement of David’s life in a house where there was no effective communication, the lack of love from his mother and how it affect his childhood.
The first bit of information shared at the beginning of the essay is a quote from Reynolds writings claiming that he wants to heighten the dignity of the art of painting. He considers it to be on the same dignified par as literature and poetry. Gill Perry claims that Joshua Reynolds dignifies painting in a variety of ways. The most prominent aspect of Joshua Reynolds female portraiture is the way that he disguises women as significant figures. This adds a lot of dignity and sophistication to his work because it adds layers of meaning to be interpreted by a viewer. He wanted to break the common interpretations of portraiture. Portraiture was considered to be much about likeness. This meaning that it simply looks like the person or makes a simple statement about the person. These concepts leave much to be
Oates creates a vision for the reader of a powerless child in need of mental help and reacting violently to a tragedy. The emotional distress Aaron struggles through his entire life demonstrates how severely his life is im...
Her aspirations fueled her rebellion in relinquishing the identities of the era. For Edna, the emblems of suppression, her stereotypical life of a woman who cooks, cleans, and obeys her husband, implemented her “progression toward an artistic vocation” (Stone). Edna rarely painted, but with her “new desire to become autonomous” (Ramos), she picked up her hobby again. With the help of a famous artist in New Orleans, her pastime soon became her source of income. This excited Edna and she painted everyone she knew. Her husband, however, immediately disregarded her profession, saying, “It seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier days which would be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family” (55). In saying this, her husband had reinforced the identities in which Edna has been trying to escape, being a wife and a mother. In any case, “she goes forward to a new conception of her self, a definition of herself as an artist” (Stone). And since Edna had her own source of income, she saved up her money and found an apartment that she fancied, and while her husband left for a business trip, she moved into that apartment. With her new cot came a sense of independence and enabled her to feel as though she had accomplished something that only men in her era ever had (Bogard). And instead of living in the house in which her husband had
James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man presents an account of the formative years of aspiring author Stephen Dedalus. "The very title of the novel suggests that Joyce's focus throughout will be those aspects of the young man's life that are key to his artistic development" (Drew 276). Each event in Stephen's life -- from the opening story of the moocow to his experiences with religion and the university -- contributes to his growth as an artist. Central to the experiences of Stephen's life are, of course, the people with whom he interacts, and of primary importance among these people are women, who, as his story progresses, prove to be a driving force behind Stephen's art.
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the author James Joyce uses the development of Stephen from a sensitive child to a rebellious young man to develop the plot of the novel. In this novel, Joyce suggests that through Stephen's experiences with religion, sexuality and education, Stephen not only becomes more mature but these experiences also inspire him to redefine his world and his understanding of his true feelings about art.