Louise

There's a photo in my memory that I can't find online. It's Louise Nevelson with her trademark dark eye makeup and woolly bear caterpillar fake eyelashes, a scarf covering her hair, a dramatic black caftan, and a sculptural pendant. It must be from the Sixties, maybe from Look or Life magazine. Part Twiggy. Part Georgia O'Keeffe. Part Halloween shrunken head. Richard Avedon? Cecil Beaton?

Maybe it was Arnold Newman's selvage photo on the Nevelson commemorative stamps in 2000.


I did find photos of Louise Nevelson, just not the one that is hiding behind the creaky attic door of my web-filled brain. I bet no one ever called her Nevy Lou.

I have tied a scarf around my hair, and donned a caftan. I have gone into the Art Closet of Doom, and pulled out big boxes of Rx bottles, tp tubes, Altoids tins, every size of cardboard box, spools, corks, and all the lids from dried-up felt pens. My students are unwittingly using up all the recyclables that have overflowed the Closet. It is time for a purge. I'm even cleaning out my personal collection of eyeglasses!