Skip to main content

When Others Steal Your Work - The Margaret Keane story "Big Eyes"


"If you want me out of your life, you'll have to paint me 100 more waifs--100 more Keanes".


How does it happen? How can someone take over your art, your heart's-work, and pass it off as their own and you just let it happen? If you've ever wondered how people get themselves stuck in situations that don't serve them, and often harm them, you need to watch the movie "Big Eyes" on Netflix.


The film is based on the true story of Margaret Keane, artist of the "big eyes" waif portraits. For 10 years, her husband claimed he was the artist who created her work, and though he couldn't paint, he was a genius salesman and was able to make quite a bit of money and gain a lot of fame through his sales skills. Walter never painted a thing. His wife produced all the paintings for him to sell, often working herself to sleep in a small studio in their house. Even Margaret's daughter was lied to.


The film succeeds, for me, in the way it shows the viewer step-by-step, how a person can be conned, abused, tricked, coerced, and finally become so immersed in a lie, they can't find their way out. The movie shows us something else, how isolation, suppression and a patriarchal society can lead to the mistreatment of women. It was the vulnerability of her being a single mom in the 1950 and 60's that lead to her being taken advantage of, and when she tried to seek religious counsel, she was advised to recognize her husband as the decision maker and man of the house.

Beyond these serious social issues, the film is very entertaining. The conn skills of Walter are incredible, right down to the end, where he still maintains he was the artist. So, as a character study, it's brilliant, as a true story, it's eye-opening.

Protect your work. Protect yourself. Truth will never steer you wrong.


As a young girl, I had two of the above paintings hanging in my bedroom--the harlequins with the multi-coloured dresses and the mandolins. Thank you, Margaret Keane.






Labels:

Comments

  1. Art lover4 October 2019 at 05:40

    I own a Keane painting. Don't know value. Our main libray has a Reference book of many paintings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Art lover4 October 2019 at 05:40

    I own a Keane painting. Don't know value. Our main libray has a Reference book of many paintings.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Steps in the Scrivener Waltz

1-2-3, 1-2-OMG! I finally did it. I purchased Scrivener. Now I have to hold onto my self-worth as I try to wrap my brain around the interface. I keep telling myself, so many experts can't be wrong , right? Surely, when I've mastered this program, I'll come out on top. On top meaning I will have a tool that will give me more functionality, save me more time, and overall, make me a more organized and efficient writer. Currently, I'm doing pretty good with a combination of MS Word and Excel, so this baby better be awesome to convince me to convert for long term.  So I start to learn it like I learn all things - jumping in with both feet. Click, click, click, click.... cli... That didn't work. So basically, I've purchased the Scrivener software that experts are saying is functionally amazing, but its user interface is so non-intuitive, I can't figure it out, and I used be an Internet Business Consultant. Surely my skills aren't that rusty...
18 comments
Read more

How to Use MS OneNote to Organize Writing Research and Novel Outlines for Writers

Let’s Get Organized  Writers take a gazillion notes.   I don’t have to tell you this, because you know all about it. You also know how difficult it is to organize notes, search through paper notes, and sometimes even find all the notes you've written.  In this day and age, going digital is the best way to keep track of your notes. If organized properly, digital notes are sortable, searchable, editable, accessible from anywhere, and light as a feather to carry around. In this blog, I'm going to show you how to be note-efficient. ____________________________________________________ The following is an excerpt from "Technology #WritingTips for Writers". First 100 subscribers at http://www.cherylcowtan.com get a free copy at book launch. _____________________________________________________ The first step in getting note-efficient is finding the right software. For writers, finding a software that will meet all of our needs is like trying to pic...
1 comment
Read more

How to Edit Overused Words in Your Novel Manuscript

Wordle for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Wordle is probably the easiest tool for finding overused words in your novel, because you just paste your entire manuscript into Wordle and wait for the results. Wordle creates an image of the most often used words in the text, increasing the font size of a word based on how many times it was used. The Pride and Prejudice Wordle is interesting as a comment on societal manners at the time it was written by Jane Austen (Mr, Miss, Mrs). Wordle will increase the font of words used more often in your Manuscript. The Wordle above is from my current manuscript The Fergus She . If you notice, the word "Angus" is in the largest font. Angus is hotter than this! The visual  is telling me I used "Angus" more than any other word, which is good beca use he's the hot highlander my protagonist, Rachel, is lusting for. W here is Rachel's name? you might ask. The Fergus She is written in first ...
1 comment
Read more