Memory

My avatar is a picture of the sculpture called "Memory". The popular interpretation is that the sculptor, Daniel Chester French, was portraying a vain woman, remembering how beautiful she used to be and clinging to her fading youth. When I came face to face with this sculpture two summers ago, I was struck by French's hypocrisy. He criticizes her for caring about beauty while using a medium focused solely on aesthetics. I wanted to know more about the woman who modeled for the sculpture, to give her a voice rather than just see her image. So I began researching, and found out that the model's name was Audrey Munson, and she had a much richer history than I had initially anticipated. Munson was the muse and model for hundreds of works of art created in the early 1900's, many of which are still displayed around New York today. She was also, as I learned, the first woman to ever appear nude in a movie and a newspaper columnist. After a few decades of glamour, she committed to a mental insitution at age 39, where she lived until her death in 1996. I was chilled to learn she died only two years before I was born. Her life and her story haunt me, so "Memory" was the first thing that came to find when asked to pick an avatar. We may be from different eras, but the fight for women to be recognized for more than their bodies has linked us across generations. What was at stake for her is what is at stake for me. Everyone's story deserves to be told. I can't speak for her, but I can do my best to give her a story beyond what a marble sculpture can show.