BLOOD WATER PAINT

“She has to ask herself—and women have asked themselves this question for centuries—would she rather be suffocated slowly for the rest of her life, or die quickly trying to accomplish something?”

—Blood Water Paint, by Joy McCullough

This debut novel by Joy McCullough is unforgettable. Joy was first a playwright although in the book’s acknowledgments she states that Blood Water Paint is the tenth novel she has written and in fact, this novel began as a play with a world premiere production at Live Girls Theater in 2015.

Blood Water Paint is based on the young adult life of the most famous WOMAN Italian Baroque painter, Artemisia Gentileschi. From the time she could hold a drawing pencil or a paint brush, all Artemisia wanted to do was to paint, to create images on canvas, images that expressed the deep passions within herself and within the women she painted. During her late teens—in 1610 and 1611—a trusted tutor, hired by her father, raped her. Artemisia struggled to decide – “shall I tell or shall I stay silent?”

Artemisia did tell. Even though her father strongly advised her not to, even though she knew no one would believe her. And even though to prove her innocence she would be forced to undergo physical torture that threatened her ability to ever be able to paint again. Every bone in her hands would be broken.

The structure of this novel is unusual and can be described as a literary layering – similar to the layering of paint when an artist creates a visual image—form, story, and even perspective become deeper and richer with each new chapter. The form echoes the subject as the novel continues to surprise the reader with the richness of story, not just one story, but several stories “layered” within Artemisia Gentileschi’s story.

Artemisia herself tells her story in verse. She tells us about her home life, her relationship with her father and her tutor. She tells us about her desires and about her memories, especially about her mother, about losing her too soon and about the stories about strong women her mother told her when she was young. These stories give Artemisia the strength to believe in herself, her work, and her innocence.

Artemisia Gentileschi continues to discover the importance of perspective, both visual and literary – who is telling the story:

Father’s made attempts …
just like the other painters—men—
who think they have the right
to tell the story of a woman …

But one can’t truly tell a story

unless they’ve lived it in their heart.