 Cover illustration by Nina Mariette |
Painting Myself In
Nina Mariette |
|
Cover illustration by Nina Mariette |
Painting Myself In
Nina Mariette |
Painting Myself In, p.58 Although her story is fascinating, it is the paintings that are the real focus of this unique book. Confronting, compelling and thought-provoking, they confirm that Nina Mariette is an artist in her own right.
I think what I am learning with my painting is that all the bruised and battered bits are part of me, too, as much as I don't want to acknowledge or own them, and that I have to try and put them with the light may be.
Being in constant physical pain and being an abuse survivor have many parallels, especially in the way you are treated. You are pretty much invisible for a start; what you are or have doesn't show, you have 'something' that won't clear up or go away or get better.
Painting Myself In, p.78
Painting Myself In is an autobiography with a difference. It is interspersed with forty colour plates of Nina Mariette's paintings documenting her story. Nina Mariette was a victim of childhood abuse, and has been struggling to cope with it ever since. In 1988, at the age of forty, and after years of drug & alcohol addiction, therapy, and regular spells in psychiatric hospitals, Nina discovered a new way to express the pain and anger she felt.
Nina tells how painting has changed her life, and helped her to cope with the past in a way that her therapy and addictions never had - by confronting her feelings and experiences instead of blocking them out.
non-fiction paperback 40 colour plates
Territories:Australia
All rights: University of Otago Press