A human being
Saw my light
Rushed in
Got singed
Got scared
Rushed out
Called fire
Or it happened
That he tried
To subdue it
Or it happened
He tried to extinguish it
Never did a friend
Enjoy it
The way it was
So I learned to
Turn it low
Turn it out
When I meet a stranger--
Out of courtesy
I turn on a soft
Pink light
Which is found modest
Even charming
It is a protection
Against wear
And tears
And when I
Am rid of
The Always-to-be-Stranger
I turn on the light
And become my self.
Imagine not having a camera phone to become yourself. Florrine Stettheimer, who hung out with the Symbolist painters and saw the Ballet Russes perform before World War I forced her to return to the US, turned to self-portraiture.
Stettheimer vividly conveyed sexual orientation in at least one of her portraits.
She also designed costumes and sets, some produced for an all black cast of Four Saints In Three Acts. That's Gertrude Stein + Virgil Thomson and it was a hit on Broadway in 1934!
Sketches and models for Orphée of the Quat-z-arts, a never-produced ballet.
Oddly, the Jersey Shore figures prominently in Stettheimer's work. Miss Asbury Park (barely visible in the center) won this beauty pageant.
So sad that nobody took her art very seriously until the retrospective at the Jewish Museum.
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