Mark's Pages

May 21, 2004:

Elation.

That I achieved something important to me, after years of struggle. That I produced something, after much failure, I feel unambivalently proud of. That I possess the means, including the confidence, to do it again.

That afternoon Degas neglected his own work, talking and listening to [Valadon]. He was amazed that a girl from her class, a model, could work with such dedication and flair, and asked her how she could afford artists' materials. By the time she left, dazed with joy, Degas had bought his first Valadon, a drawing in red chalk of a girl getting out of the bath titled 'La Toilette' but undated. He hung it in his small dining-room. "You are one of us," Degas told her.

"That day I had wings," she said.